What you need to know
- Intel announced its 10 Gen H-series laptop chips today.
- The processors will appear in laptops for gamers and creators.
- Intel is really pushing clock speeds to the max, with up to 5.3GHz on the top-end Core i9 chip.
Intel unveiled its latest batch of 10th Gen laptops chips, today, and they're packed with performance to spare. The new 10th Gen Core H-series chips are aimed squarely at gamers and content creators, and they'll appear in dozens of high-end laptops through the rest of 2020. Rather than representing modest performance gains over their previous generation counterparts, however, Intel is really pushing some major clock speed boosts with these new processors.
In all, there are six new H-series chips across Core i5, i7, and i9 entries in the series. Four of those chips boast maximum single-core turbo frequencies at or above 5GHz, which is impressive for laptop processors.
The thinking behind pushing single-threaded performance to the max is to give gamers and content creators the horsepower they need to accelerate the games and apps they use as much as possible. The majority of games out there, and quite a few creative tasks, rely on single CPU cores for most of their work. By hitting clock speeds at and above the 5GHz mark, the H-series chips can push higher framerates and complete creative tasks more quickly.
| Processor | Cores/Threads | Base Clock | Max single core turbo frequency | TDP | Intel Thermal Velocity Boost | Unlocked | Cache | Intel Optane memory support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i9-10980HK | 8/16 | 2.4GHz | 5.3GHz | 45 | Yes | Yes | 16MB | Yes |
| i7-10875H | 8/16 | 2.3GHZ | 5.1GHz | 45 | Yes | No | 16MB | Yes |
| i7-10850H | 6/12 | 2.7GHz | 5.1GHz | 45 | Yes | Yes (Partial) | 12MB | Yes |
| i7-10750H | 6/12 | 2.6GHz | 5.0GHz | 45 | Yes | No | 12MB | Yes |
| i5-10400H | 4/8 | 2.6GHz | 4.6GHz | 45 | No | No | 8MB | Yes |
| i5-10300H | 4/8 | 2.3GHz | 4.5GHz | 45 | No | No | 8MB | Yes |
In terms of tangible benefits, Intel claims the 5.3GHz, 8-core Core i9-10980HK delivers up to a 54 percent increase in game FPS, up to 44 percent better overall performance, and up to two times faster 4K video rendering and export compared to a high-end Intel Core i7-7820HK PC. Similarly, Intel claims up to a 44 percent FPS increase, up to 70 percent faster 4K video export, and up to 33 percent better general performance with the Core i7-10750H versus a high-end Core i7-7700HQ laptop.
Along with the performance increases, Intel has included a new Speed Optimizer that offers a one-click method for overclocking. There's also Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), support for up to 128GB of DDR4 RAM, Thunderbolt 3 support, and Intel Optane memory support.
Several laptops are launching alongside the Intel 10th Gen H-series today from Razer, ASUS, MSI, and others. Intel says you can expect more than 100 designs using these new chips in the coming months. Intel's 9th Gen chips will also continue to be sold as a more affordable option for gamers and creators in laptops as well.
