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Intel Core i7-1260P vs Intel Core i7-1280P

Intel Core i7-1260P

► remove from comparison Intel i7-1260P

The Intel Core i7-1260P is an upper mid-range 28 W Alder Lake CPU designed for use in ultra-light laptops. It was announced in early 2022 and it features 4 performance cores as opposed to the 6 cores of the top-of-the-line i7-1280P (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) mated to 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores are Hyper-Threading-enabled for a total of 16 threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock speeds range from 2.1 GHz to 4.7 GHz for the performance cluster and 1.5 GHz to 3.4 GHz for the efficient cluster. The i7's shortcomings as compared to Intel Core i7-1270P include the marginally lower clock speeds and limited vPro feature set ("Essentials" tier only, not allowing for remote device management).

Architecture

The i7 is a continuation of Intel's efforts to use the ARM-developed big.LITTLE technology for its own benefit. A single "littile" Alder Lake core is supposed to be just as fast as a Skylake core (as found in the venerable Core i7-6700HQ among other options) which is six years old at this point. All of an Core i7-1260P's CPU cores enjoy access to 18 MB of L3 cache. The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to LPDDR5-5200, DDR5-4800, LPDDR4x-4267 or DDR4-3200; Intel recommends using no more than 64 GB, for reference. Just like the other 12th Gen Intel Core processors, Intel Core i7-1260P comes with Thread Director which is a new functionality designed to help Windows 11 decide which cores to use for what workload for best performance and efficiency possible. Hardware acceleration of AI algorithms is supported via GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). PCI-Express 5.0 support has not found its way into Alder Lake P processors, so users will have to be content with PCI-Express 4.0 for the time being. Four PCI-Express 4 lanes allow for a read/write rate of up to 7.9 GB/s, provided a suitably fast NVMe SSD is used.

Please note this is not a user-replaceable CPU. It gets soldered permanently on to the motherboard (BGA1744 socket interface).

Performance

Multi-thread performance is most comparable to the Ryzen 7 5800U, Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U and also the Core i5-11260H. This makes the 1260P a great little CPU - one capable of punching above its weight.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 35 W, the Asus ExpertBook B5 Flip B5602FBN is among the fastest laptops featuring the 1260P that we know of. It can be about 2 times as fast in CPU-bound workloads as the slowest system built around the same chip in our database (as of August 2023).

Graphics

The built-in graphics adapter in the form of the 96 EU Iris Xe running at up to 1.4 GHz has seemingly seen no change from what was built into certain Tiger Lake-UP3 processors, like a i7-1165G7. Which is hardly a downside as this iGPU is loaded with modern features such as AV1 video decoding capability and SUHD 4320p monitor support. Up to 4 monitors can be used simultaneously with this graphics adapter. Its gaming performance is bound to be tied to how high the Power Limits and how good the cooling solution of a laptop are; expect something close to NVIDIA's MX350 or in other words, acceptable framerates in most games when playing at 1080p / Medium settings. Fast RAM is a prerequisite for decent performance as the Iris Xe has to make do with no dedicated video memory. Last but not the least, we discovered that the GPU utilization when playing YouTube UHD 2160p60 videos is higher than it was with Tiger Lake chips.

Power consumption

The i7's base power consumption (also known as the default TDP or Power Limit 1) is 28 W, with 64 W being its maximum Intel-recommended Turbo power consumption (also known as the PL2). Its "Minimum Assured" power consumption sits at 20 W. All in all, an active cooling solution is a must for a CPU like this one here.

The i7-1260P is manufactured on Intel's fourth-gen 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for decent, as of late 2022, energy efficiency. Despite that, many 7 nm U-class AMD Ryzen 5000 parts are less power-hungry while being as fast (or even faster, depending on the workload) as the i7.

Intel Core i7-1280P

► remove from comparison Intel i7-1280P

The Intel Core i7-1280P is the flagship Alder Lake-P CPU, which is to say, an expensive 28 W part meant for use in ultra-light (yet actively cooled) laptops. This CPU was announced in early 2022 and it has 6 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) mated to 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores are Hyper-Threading-enabled for whopping 20 threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock speeds range from 1.8 GHz to 4.8 GHz for the performance cluster and 1.3 GHz to 3.6 GHz for the efficiency cluster. This is the only hexa-core 28 W Alder Lake CPU as of February 2022, trumping what the more affordable i7-1270P and i7-1260P have in store. Full vPro feature set is supported by this Core i7 ("Enterprise" tier, allowing for remote device management).

Architecture

The i7 is a continuation of Intel's efforts to use the ARM-developed big.LITTLE technology for its own benefit. A single "little" Alder Lake core is supposed to be just as fast as a Skylake core (as found in the venerable Core i7-6700HQ among other options) which is six years old at this point. All of a Core i7-1280P's CPU cores enjoy access to 24 MB of L3 cache. The integrated memory controller supports up to 64 GB of LPDDR5-5200, DDR5-4800, LPDDR4x-4267 or DDR4-3200 RAM. Just like the other 12th Gen Intel Core processors, Core i7-1280P comes with Thread Director which is a new functionality designed to help Windows 11 decide which cores to use for what workload for best performance and efficiency possible. Hardware acceleration of AI algorithms is supported via GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). PCI-Express 5.0 support has not found its way into Alder Lake P processors, so users will have to be content with PCI-Express 4.0 for the time being. Four PCI-Express 4 lanes allow for a read/write rate of up to 7.9 GB/s, provided a suitably fast NVMe SSD is used.

Please note this is not a user-replaceable CPU. It gets soldered permanently on to the motherboard (BGA1744 socket interface).

Performance

The average 1280P in our database delivers multi-thread benchmarks scores that are most similar to those of the Ryzen 9 5900HS, Ryzen 9 PRO 6950HS and also the Core i9-11980HK.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 80 W, the MSI Summit E16 Flip A12UDT-031 is among the fastest laptops built around the 1280P that we know of. It can be roughly 60% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Graphics

The built-in graphics adapter in the form of the 96 EU Iris Xe running at up to 1.45 GHz has seen no change from what was built into the 11th Gen Tiger Lake-UP3 processors, like a i7-1165G7, which is hardly a downside as this iGPU is loaded with modern features such as AV1 video decoding capability and SUHD 4320p monitor support. An Iris Xe Graphics G7 will let you use up to 4 monitors simultaneously, provided the laptop has the ports required.

The graphics adapter will let you play most games at 1080p / Medium settings to be very close to NVIDIA's MX350.

That being said, the Xe's gaming performance is bound to be tied to how high the Power Limits and how competent the cooling solution of a laptop are. Fast RAM is a prerequisite for decent performance as well (the Iris Xe has to make do with no dedicated video memory).

Last but not the least, we discovered that the GPU utilization when playing YouTube UHD 2160p60 videos is higher than it was with Tiger Lake chips.

Power consumption

The i7's base power consumption (also known as the default TDP value or the PL1) is 28 W, with 64 W being its maximum Intel-recommended Turbo power consumption (also known as the PL2). The "Minimum Assured" power consumption is fairly high at 20 watts. All in all, an active cooling solution is a must for a CPU like this.

The i7-1280P is built with Intel's fourth-gen 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for decent, as of late 2022, energy efficiency. This is still a rather power-hungry CPU; a single P-core will happily eat more than 20 W and even ask for more when under heavy load. A couple of higher-end 7 nm U-class AMD Ryzen 5000 chips are noticeably more modest than the i7 while delivering the same or higher performance levels.

ModelIntel Core i7-1260PIntel Core i7-1280P
SeriesIntel Alder Lake-PIntel Alder Lake-P
CodenameAlder Lake-PAlder Lake-P
Series: Alder Lake-P Alder Lake-P
Intel Core i7-1280P1.3 - 4.8 GHz14 / 20 cores24 MB L3
Intel Core i7-1270P compare1.6 - 4.8 GHz12 / 16 cores18 MB L3
Intel Core i7-1260P « 1.5 - 4.7 GHz12 / 16 cores18 MB L3
Intel Core i5-1250P compare1.2 - 4.4 GHz12 / 16 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core i5-1240P compare1.2 - 4.4 GHz12 / 16 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core i3-1220P compare1.1 - 4.4 GHz10 / 12 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core i7-1280P « 1.3 - 4.8 GHz14 / 20 cores24 MB L3
Intel Core i7-1270P compare1.6 - 4.8 GHz12 / 16 cores18 MB L3
Intel Core i7-1260P1.5 - 4.7 GHz12 / 16 cores18 MB L3
Intel Core i5-1250P compare1.2 - 4.4 GHz12 / 16 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core i5-1240P compare1.2 - 4.4 GHz12 / 16 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core i3-1220P compare1.1 - 4.4 GHz10 / 12 cores12 MB L3
Clock1500 - 4700 MHz1300 - 4800 MHz
L1 Cache1.1 MB1.2 MB
L2 Cache10 MB11.5 MB
L3 Cache18 MB24 MB
Cores / Threads12 / 1614 / 20
TDP28 Watt28 Watt
Technology10 nm10 nm
max. Temp.100 °C100 °C
SocketBGA1744BGA1744
FeaturesDDR4-3200/LPDDR4x-4266/DDR5-4800/LPDDR5-5200 RAM, PCIe 4, Thread Director, DL Boost, GNA, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, BMI2, ABM, FMA, ADX, SMEP, SMAP, EIST, TM1, TM2, Hyper-Threading, Turbo, SST, AES-NI, RDRAND, RDSEED, SHADDR4-3200/LPDDR4x-4266/DDR5-4800/LPDDR5-5200 RAM, PCIe 4, Thr. Director, DL Boost, GNA, Rem. Platf. Erase, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, BMI2, ABM, FMA, ADX, SMEP, SMAP, EIST, TM1, TM2, HT, Turbo, SST, AES-NI, RDRAND, RDSEED, SHA
iGPUIntel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs ( - 1400 MHz)Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs ( - 1450 MHz)
Architecturex86x86
Announced
Manufacturerark.intel.comark.intel.com

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - CB R15 + R20 + 7-Zip + X265 + Blender + 3DM11 CPU - i7-1260P
39.2 pt (54%)
Performance Rating - CB R15 + R20 + 7-Zip + X265 + Blender + 3DM11 CPU - i7-1280P
39.9 pt (55%)
Cinebench 2024 - CB24 CPU Single Core
94 Points (65%)
Cinebench 2024 - CB24 CPU Multi Core
435 Points (8%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Multi Core
min: 6860     avg: 9551     median: 9711 (9%)     max: 12150 Points
min: 8632     avg: 11685     median: 11666 (11%)     max: 14803 Points
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Single Core
min: 1433     avg: 1695     median: 1737.5 (74%)     max: 1812 Points
min: 1609     avg: 1670     median: 1651 (70%)     max: 1787 Points
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Single Core)
min: 541     avg: 653     median: 670 (74%)     max: 698 Points
min: 615     avg: 642     median: 629 (70%)     max: 701 Points
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Multi Core)
min: 2634     avg: 3694     median: 3761.5 (9%)     max: 4748 Points
min: 3283     avg: 4627     median: 4677.5 (11%)     max: 5415 Points
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
min: 1081     avg: 1625     median: 1626 (10%)     max: 2034 Points
min: 1905     avg: 2120     median: 2112 (13%)     max: 2332 Points
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64 Bit
min: 174.8     avg: 236.8     median: 243 (73%)     max: 260 Points
min: 203     avg: 237.3     median: 238 (72%)     max: 258 Points
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 CPU Multi 64 Bit
min: 20.06     avg: 21.9     median: 22 (29%)     max: 23.6 Points
25.2 Points (33%)
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 CPU Single 64 Bit
min: 2.93     avg: 3.1     median: 3.1 (77%)     max: 3.15 Points
3.1 Points (76%)
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Single (32bit)
min: 8490     avg: 8737     median: 8793 (53%)     max: 8927 Points
8881 Points (54%)
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Multi (32bit)
min: 33137     avg: 41867     median: 44516 (32%)     max: 47948 Points
46007 Points (33%)
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Multi (64bit)
min: 53950     avg: 63721     median: 63721 (44%)     max: 73492 Points
70566 Points (49%)
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Single (64bit)
min: 13568     avg: 14036     median: 14036 (17%)     max: 14504 Points
14362 Points (17%)
wPrime 2.10 - wPrime 2.0 1024m *
min: 235.874     avg: 262.5     median: 237.1 (3%)     max: 314.4 s
1168 s (14%)
wPrime 2.10 - wPrime 2.0 32m *
min: 3.641     avg: 6     median: 4.5 (1%)     max: 9.8 s
34 s (7%)
wPrime 1.55 - wPrime 1.55 1024m *
1165 s (5%)
wPrime 1.55 - wPrime 1.55 32m *
28 s (15%)
WinRAR - WinRAR 4.0
min: 6559     avg: 10179     median: 7200 (11%)     max: 16777 Points
7082 Points (11%)
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Multli Thread 4 runs
min: 29214     avg: 39648     median: 41260.5 (24%)     max: 47064 MIPS
min: 45292     avg: 49730     median: 49572 (28%)     max: 53710 MIPS
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Single Thread 4 runs
min: 4668     avg: 5335     median: 5373 (64%)     max: 5791 MIPS
min: 4995     avg: 5488     median: 5540 (66%)     max: 5874 MIPS
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - x264 Pass 2
min: 77.75     avg: 94.1     median: 94.1 (33%)     max: 110.5 fps
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - x264 Pass 1
min: 224     avg: 245     median: 245 (57%)     max: 266 fps
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2 - HWBOT x265 4k Preset
min: 7.57     avg: 11     median: 11.5 (20%)     max: 13.6 fps
min: 9.62     avg: 12.5     median: 12.9 (23%)     max: 14.5 fps
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt Serpent
min: 1     avg: 1.1     median: 1.1 (0%)     max: 1.1 GB/s
1.2 GB/s (0%)
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt Twofish
min: 1.8     avg: 1.9     median: 1.9 (33%)     max: 1.9 GB/s
2.1 GB/s (36%)
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt AES
min: 10.4     avg: 11.2     median: 11.6 (30%)     max: 11.6 GB/s
11.8 GB/s (31%)
Blender - Blender 3.3 Classroom CPU *
min: 494     avg: 638     median: 623 (8%)     max: 861 Seconds
min: 490     avg: 566     median: 537 (7%)     max: 741 Seconds
Blender - Blender 2.79 BMW27 CPU *
min: 264     avg: 344.2     median: 328 (2%)     max: 463 Seconds
min: 259     avg: 281.7     median: 285 (2%)     max: 309 Seconds
R Benchmark 2.5 - R Benchmark 2.5 *
min: 0.4559     avg: 0.5     median: 0.5 (10%)     max: 0.569 sec
min: 0.4505     avg: 0.5     median: 0.5 (10%)     max: 0.512 sec
3DMark 06 - CPU - 3DMark 06 - CPU
min: 8954     avg: 12154     median: 12963.5 (28%)     max: 14103 Points
6579 Points (14%)
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M *
min: 7.718     avg: 7.8     median: 7.8 (2%)     max: 7.842 s
7 s (2%)
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M *
min: 17.183     avg: 17.4     median: 17.4 (1%)     max: 17.587 s
16 s (1%)
Super Pi Mod 1.5 XS 32M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 32M *
min: 407.751     avg: 420.7     median: 424.8 (2%)     max: 429.697 s
366 s (2%)
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. CPU no Physx
min: 44438     avg: 56424     median: 62250 (55%)     max: 66354 Points
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Physics
min: 6250     avg: 14081     median: 14251 (39%)     max: 18968 Points
min: 11415     avg: 15372     median: 15372.5 (42%)     max: 18478 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Physics
min: 58070     avg: 71340     median: 72467.5 (59%)     max: 81448 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme Physics
min: 61536     avg: 73824     median: 76374 (62%)     max: 81012 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Physics
min: 67100     avg: 76553     median: 78260 (66%)     max: 82492 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Physics
min: 7812     avg: 12377     median: 12296 (31%)     max: 16042 Points
min: 7264     avg: 12588     median: 12154 (31%)     max: 17047 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Physics
min: 12122     avg: 18172     median: 18321 (33%)     max: 22877 Points
min: 15398     avg: 19695     median: 19017.5 (34%)     max: 25756 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Time Spy CPU
min: 3678     avg: 6925     median: 6852 (29%)     max: 10150 Points
min: 6205     avg: 8459     median: 7672.5 (32%)     max: 12031 Points
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Single-Core
2424 Points (74%)
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Multi-Core
9532 Points (38%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Single-Core
min: 1528     avg: 1704     median: 1719 (73%)     max: 1786 Points
min: 1571     avg: 1701     median: 1746 (74%)     max: 1802 Points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
min: 6499     avg: 8967     median: 9298 (17%)     max: 10570 Points
min: 9623     avg: 10839     median: 11191 (20%)     max: 11811 Points
Geekbench 5.0 - Geekbench 5.0 64 Bit Single-Core
min: 1557     avg: 1655     median: 1668 (7%)     max: 1694 Points
min: 1685     avg: 1706     median: 1694 (7%)     max: 1738 Points
Geekbench 5.0 - Geekbench 5.0 64 Bit Multi-Core
min: 6440     avg: 9445     median: 9907 (31%)     max: 10411 Points
min: 9886     avg: 10561     median: 10537 (33%)     max: 11260 Points
Geekbench 4.4 - Geekbench 4.1 - 4.4 64 Bit Single-Core
min: 6698     avg: 7261     median: 7531 (75%)     max: 7554 Points
7522 Points (75%)
Geekbench 4.4 - Geekbench 4.1 - 4.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
min: 36974     avg: 38338     median: 38187 (43%)     max: 39852 Points
40196 Points (45%)
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
min: 531     avg: 555     median: 543 (1%)     max: 604 ms
min: 526     avg: 563     median: 538 (1%)     max: 683 ms
Sunspider - Sunspider 1.0 Total Score *
min: 92.2     avg: 102.6     median: 102.6 (1%)     max: 112.9 ms
95.5 ms (1%)
Octane V2 - Octane V2 Total Score
min: 70338     avg: 81728     median: 83695 (75%)     max: 86881 Points
min: 83104     avg: 84579     median: 84578.5 (76%)     max: 86053 Points
WebXPRT 4 - WebXPRT 4 Score
min: 224     avg: 244.7     median: 247 (71%)     max: 258 Points
min: 232     avg: 247.2     median: 248.5 (71%)     max: 257 Points
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
min: 250     avg: 280.9     median: 283 (59%)     max: 298 Points
min: 203     avg: 271.3     median: 286 (60%)     max: 290 Points
CrossMark - CrossMark Overall
min: 1482     avg: 1630     median: 1662 (64%)     max: 1811 Points
min: 1652     avg: 1704     median: 1690 (65%)     max: 1773 Points
Power Consumption - Prime95 Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 30     avg: 50.2     median: 52.5 (9%)     max: 68.4 Watt
min: 40.8     avg: 56.1     median: 54.3 (9%)     max: 73.4 Watt
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 10.7     avg: 58.5     median: 60.5 (11%)     max: 89.1 Watt
min: 45.3     avg: 65.3     median: 65.1 (12%)     max: 90.7 Watt
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 4.52     avg: 7.4     median: 7 (5%)     max: 12.2 Watt
min: 3.08     avg: 8.5     median: 8.7 (6%)     max: 13.6 Watt
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
min: 4.38     avg: 6.8     median: 7 (8%)     max: 8.33 Watt
min: 4.07     avg: 10.5     median: 10.2 (11%)     max: 17.4 Watt
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Efficiency - external Monitor
min: 21.2     avg: 28.4     median: 26.4 (20%)     max: 50.3 Points per Watt
min: 25.7     avg: 32.6     median: 30.3 (23%)     max: 46.8 Points per Watt

Average Benchmarks Intel Core i7-1260P → 100% n=44

Average Benchmarks Intel Core i7-1280P → 103% n=44

- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation

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v1.26
log 29. 00:34:09

#0 checking url part for id 14064 +0s ... 0s

#1 checking url part for id 14059 +0s ... 0s

#2 not redirecting to Ajax server +0s ... 0s

#3 did not recreate cache, as it is less than 5 days old! Created at Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:35:32 +0100 +0.001s ... 0.001s

#4 composed specs +0.035s ... 0.036s

#5 did output specs +0s ... 0.036s

#6 getting avg benchmarks for device 14064 +0.017s ... 0.053s

#7 got single benchmarks 14064 +0.102s ... 0.155s

#8 getting avg benchmarks for device 14059 +0.015s ... 0.17s

#9 got single benchmarks 14059 +0.032s ... 0.202s

#10 got avg benchmarks for devices +0s ... 0.202s

#11 min, max, avg, median took s +0.325s ... 0.527s

#12 return log +0.025s ... 0.552s

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Benchmarks / Tech > Processor Comparison - Head 2 Head
Redaktion, 2017-09- 8 (Update: 2023-07- 1)