Intel Core i7-10750H vs Intel Core i5-10400H

Intel Core i7-10750H

The Intel Core i7-10750H is a fast 45 W processor designed for use in larger, beefier laptops. The Comet Lake-H family CPU was launched in mid-2020. It features six cores (twelve threads) running at 2.6 GHz Boosting up to 5 GHz (single-core Boost). The likely all-core Boost frequency is 4.3 GHz. Most of the specs are the same as the 10750H’s direct predecessor, the i7-9750H. The newer model has two advantages over its predecessor in that its Boost frequency is higher and the memory controller can now officially host memory clocked at 2,933 MHz, an upgrade over the 2,666 MHz limitation of the outgoing model.

Architecture

Comet Lake is a yet another revision of the dated Skylake architecture (not unlike the previous Coffee Lake, Whiskey Lake, Kaby Lake families) for similar feature set and performance-per-MHz figures. Core i7-10750H is manufactured on the third-gen 14 nm Intel process that is undeniably inferior to TSMC's 7 nm process, the one AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series laptop-grade processors are manufactured on.

The hexa-core CPU is compatible with up to 128 GB of dual-channel DDR4-2933 RAM and has support for PCI-Express 3.0 and Thunderbolt 3 but not the professional features (vPro, TXT, SIPP) as found in the case of Core i7-10850H.

Both the CPU cores and the iGPU have access to 12 MB of L3 cache. Four PCI-Express 3.0 lanes allow for read/write rates of up to 3.9 GB/s provided a suitably fast NVMe SSD is used.

Intel 10750H gets soldered permanently on to the motherboard (BGA1440 socket interface) and is thus pretty much impossible to replace.

Performance

Multi-thread performance is most similar to Intel Core i5-10500H, Core i5-11400H and AMD Ryzen 7 4700U. While perhaps not the best bang for the buck, the i7 is fast enough for any task, gaming included, as of 2021. Your mileage may vary depending on how high the Power Limits are and how competent the cooling solution of your laptop is.

Graphics

We've known the Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU for a while. This is the same iGPU the Core i7-9750H and Core i7-8750H processors had. In this i7, the 24 EU iGPU is clocked at 350 MHz to 1,150 MHz.

Intel UHD Graphics 630 supports up to 3 monitors with resolutions of up to [email protected] and the built-in video decoder can handle AVC, HEVC, VP9 and other popular video codecs (AV1 is not supported here). This is not a gaming GPU as it is not fast enough to handle most AAA titles released in 2020. At 720p resolution, Escape from Tarkov runs at just 17 fps (low quality preset), to give you an example. As the iGPU has no VRAM of its own, it is paramount that fast system RAM is used.

Power Consumption

Energy efficiency is not great here as the 14 nm manufacturing process is very old by now. While the default TDP value (also known as the long-term Power Limit) of the i7 sits at 45 W, the actual consumption when under heavy load will be significantly higher than this.

Core i7-10750H is designed for use in chunky, powerful laptops, and a high-performance cooling system is a must. OEMs are free to set the TDP to 35 watts instead of 45 watts for leaner designs but the base as well as the Boost clock speeds would take a hit as a result.

Intel Core i5-10400H

The Intel Core i5-10400H is a fast processor for laptops with four cores based on the Comet Lake-H series (4th generation of Skylake architecture). The processor clocks at between 2.6 and 4.6 GHz (up to 4.4 with 4 cores) and can execute up to eight threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper-Threading. According to Intel, the CPU is manufactured in 14nm (14nm++) process. 

The Comet Lake architecture is similar to Coffee Lake and offers the same features and is produced in the same 14nm process. Other than the improved clock rates, the memory controller now also supports faster DDR4-2933 RAM. More information on Comet Lake and all the models and articles on it can be found here.

The Core i5-10400H supports the management features vPro, TXT and SIPP. 

Performance

The performance should be slightly better than the old Core i7-8809G (Quad-Core 3.1 - 4.2) which was the fastest mobile quad core by Intel.

Graphics

The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU is supposed to offer a similar performance as the UHD630 in the Core i5-9300H. As a  low-end solution it will probably only run current games smoothly at reduced details - if at all.

Power Consumption

Intel specifies the TDP with 45 watts and therefore the i5 is only suited for big laptops with good cooling solutions. Using cTDP-down, the CPU can also be configured to 35 Watt resulting in a reduced performance.