Intel Core i5-12600H vs Intel Core i7-13700HX

Intel Core i5-12600H

The Intel Core i5-12600H is a high-end mobile CPU for laptops based on the Alder Lake architecture. It was announced in early 2022 and offers 4 of the 6 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and all 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 16 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 2.7 to 4.5 GHz on the performance cluster and 2 to 3.3 GHz on the efficient cluster. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 18 MB L3 cache. Compared to the 12650H, the 12600H offers less P-cores but more E-cores, a faster iGPU and "Enterprise" vPro features (for remote management).

Performance

Thanks to the 12 cores, the multi-threaded performance should be clearly faster than the older Tiger Lake-H CPUs with similar clock speeds (especially like the Core i5-11500H with only 6 cores). Due to the architectural improvements, single-core performance is also better than similar or higher clocked Tiger Lake CPUs.

Features

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200, LPDDR5-5200, and LPDDR4x-4267. The Thread Director (in hardware) can support the operating system to decide which thread to use on the performance or efficient cores for the best performance. For AI tasks, the CPU also integrates GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). Quick Sync in version 8 is the same as in the Rocket Lake CPUs and supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 decode, JPEG, VP8 decode, VP9, HEVC, and AV1 decode in hardware. The CPU only supports PCIe 4.0 (x8 for a GPU and two x4 for SSDs).

The integrated graphics card is based on the Xe-architecture and offers 80 of the 96 EUs (Execution Units) operating at up to 1.4 GHz.

The CPU is rated at 45 W base power (95 W PL2) but most laptops will use a PL1 of around 60 Watt. The SoC is manufactured in a 10nm process at Intel, which is known as Intel 7.

Intel Core i7-13700HX

The Intel Core i7-13700HX is a fast high-end mobile processor of the Raptor Lake series. Is was announced in early 2023 and is based on the desktop Core i7-13700K with combined 16 cores and 24 threads. Eight fast Raptor Cove performance cores (P-cores) with HyperThreading clocking between 2.1 - 5 GHz (4.5 GHz all core boost) and eight Gracemont efficiency cores without HyperThreading (1.5 - 3.7 GHz).

Compared to Alder Lake, Raptor Lake offers improved P-Cores (Raptor Cove micro-architecture) with bigger Caches and more E-Cores (same Gracemont micro-architecture). Furthermore, the chip supports faster DDR5 memory (up to 5600 MHz for the 13980HX, but only 4800 MHz for the i7).

Performance

The average 13700HX in our database is in the same league as the i7-13650HX, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned, and thus outguns the Ryzen 7 7745HX by a significant margin. This is a very fast chip, as of early 2023.

Thanks to its powerful cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 122 W, the Uniwill GM6PX7X is among the fastest laptops built around the 13700HX that we know of. It can be at least 10% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Power consumption

The chip's "minimum assured" power consumption sits at 45 W. Its Turbo power consumption is not supposed to exceed 157 W; its Base power consumption is supposed to be around 55 W. Most laptop makers will probably go for a value much higher than 55 W to get better performance.

This Raptor Lake family processor is built with Intel's 4th generation 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for average, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.