Intel Core i5-11260H vs Intel Core i9-11980HK

Intel Core i5-11260H

The Intel Core i5-11260H is a mid range hexa core SoC for gaming laptops and mobile workstations. It is based on the Tiger Lake H45 generation and was announced in mid 2021. It integrates six Willow Cove processor cores (12 threads thanks to HyperThreading). The base clock speed depends on the TDP setting and at 45 Watt is at 2.6 GHz. The single and dual core boost speed can reach up to 4.4 GHz, all cores can reach up to 4 GHz. The CPU offers 12 MB level 3 cache and supports DDR4-3200 memory.

Thanks to the new Tiger Lake architecture, the i5-11260H should be able to reach the level of the high clocked Intel Core i7-10850H (Comet Lake-H, 6 cores, 2.7 - 5.1 GHz, 16 MB L3) in single and multi threaded performance. Compared, to current AMD offerings, the 11260H should perform similar to a Ryzen 5 5600H (6 cores, 2.4 - 3.3. GHz, 16 MB L3 cache) or the 5600HS when the TDP is set to 35W.

The SoC also features a much improved UHD Graphics (16 EUs) iGPU based on the Xe architecture.

Furthermore, Tiger Lake SoCs add PCIe 4 support (20 lanes in the H45 series), AI hardware acceleration, and the partial integration of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 and Wi-Fi 6E in the chip.

The chip is produced in the improved 10nm process (called 10nm SuperFin) at Intel, which should be comparable to the 7nm process at TSMC (e.g. Ryzen 4000 series). The default TDP is rated at 45 W at 2.6 GHz base speed, at 35 Watt the base clock speed decreases to 2.1 GHz (cTDP down).

All articles on Tiger Lake can be found on our Tiger Lake architecture hub.

Intel Core i9-11980HK

The Intel Core i9-11980HK is a high-end octa-core SoC for gaming laptops and mobile workstations. It is based on the Tiger Lake H45 generation and was announced in mid 2021. It integrates eight Willow Cove processor cores (16 threads thanks to HyperThreading). The base clock speed depends on the TDP setting and at 45 Watt is at 2.6 GHz. The single core boost speed can reach up to 5 GHz (ITBM 3.0, also two cores), all cores can reach up to 4.5 GHz. The CPU offers 24 MB level 3 cache and supports DDR4-3200 memory. Thanks to the free multiplicator, the CPU can also be easily overclocked (but may not have much headroom).

The SoC also features the improved Xe graphics adapter called UHD Graphics with all 32 EUs active.

Furthermore, Tiger Lake SoCs add PCIe 4 support (20 lanes in the H45 series), AI hardware acceleration, and the partial integration of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 and Wi-Fi 6E in the chip.

Professional management features like Intel vPro, SIPP or TXT are not supported by the 11980HK unlike the similar i9-11950H and Xeon W-11955M (with ECC support).

All articles on Tiger Lake can be found on our Tiger Lake architecture hub.

Performance

The average 11980HK in our database matches the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H in multi-thread performance, rendering the i9 a fairly powerful (if a little underwhelming) CPU, as of late 2022.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 62 W, the MSI WE76 11UM-456 is among the fastest laptops built around the 11980HK that we know of. It can be about 30% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Power consumption

The Core i9 series chip has a default TDP (also known as the long-term power limit) of 45 W to 65 W, the expectation being that laptop makers will go for a higher value in exchange for higher performance.

The i9-11980HK is built with Intel's 3rd generation 10 nm process marketed as SuperFin for average, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.