Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y vs Intel Core i7-8750H vs Intel Core i7-7700HQ

Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y

The Intel Pentium 4415Y is a low power entry level processor for small laptops or tablets and based on the Kaby Lake architecture. It was announced in Q2 2017 and offers two processor cores clocked at 1.6 GHz (no Turbo Boost). Thanks to Hyper Threading, the processor can execute up to four threads simultaneously. The chips also includes the Intel HD Graphics 615 GPU, a dual-channel memory controller (DDR3L/LPDDR3) as well as VP9 and H.265 video de- and encoder. It is still produced in a 14 nm process with FinFET transistors. Compared to the much faster Core m3-7Y30, the Pentium 4415 offers no Turbo Boost, different CPU and GPU clock speeds, a smaller L3 cache and a higher TDP of 6 Watt.

Architecture

Intel basically used the familiar micro architecture from the Skylake generation, so the per-MHz performance is identical. Only the Speed-Shift technology for faster dynamic adjustments of the voltages and clocks was improved, and the matured 14 nm process now also enables much higher frequencies and better efficiency than before. 

Performance

Due to the missing Turbo Boost, the Pentium 4415Y offers a significantly worse single thread performance than the more expensive Core m3-7Y30. This should be noticeable in daily tasks.

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 615 GPU has 24 Execution Units (EUs) like the old HD Graphics 515 and runs with clocks between 300 and 850 MHz in combination with this processor. The performance heavily depends on the TDP limit as well as the memory configuration; with fast LPDDR3-1866 RAM in dual-channel mode, the GPU should sometimes be able to compete with the HD Graphics 520, but can also be much slower in other scenarios. Modern games from 2016 will, if at all, only run smoothly in the lowest settings.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby Lake now also supports hardware decoding for H.265/HEVC Main10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec.

Power Consumption

The chip is manufactured in an improved 14 nm process with FinFET transistors, so the power efficiency was once again improved significantly. The TDP is rated at 6 Watt and can be reduced to 4,5 Watt (cTDP down).

Intel Core i7-8750H

The Intel Core i7-8750H is a high-end processor for laptops with six cores based on the Coffee Lake architecture and will be announced early 2018. The processor clocks at between 2.2 and 4.1 GHz (4 GHz with 4 cores, 3.9 GHz with 6 cores) and can execute up to twelve threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper-Threading. According to Intel, the CPU is manufactured in an improved 14nm (14nm++) process.

The Coffee Lake architecture is similar to Kaby Lake and differs only in the amount of cores (now six cores for the high end versions) and the improved 14nm process (14nm++ according to Intel).

Performance

Due to the two additional cores, performance has increased by almost 50% compared to a similar clocked Kaby Lake processor like the Core i7-7820HQ (2.9 - 3.9 GHz). Single-core performance has not improved since its Kaby Lake predecessor. As a high-end model, the i7-8850H is suitable for the most demanding applications and games.

Graphics

The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU is supposed to offer a slightly higher performance as its clock rate has been increased by 50 MHz (rumored). The architecture is identical to that of the Intel HD Graphics 630. We do expect a performance improvement, but as a low-end solution it will probably only display current games smoothly at reduced details - if at all.

Power Consumption

Intel specifies the TDP with 45 watts and therefore the i7 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.

Intel Core i7-7700HQ

The Intel Core i7-7700HQ is a fast quad-core processor for notebooks based on the Kaby Lake H architecture (7th generation Core), which was announced in January 2017 at CES. It is the successor to the Core i7-6700HQ from the Skylake generation and is manufactured in an improved 14 nm+ process, so the clocks are 200 MHz higher at the same TDP. The architecture was not changed, only the video engine got an update (see our Kaby Lake article).

The integrated graphics card is called Intel HD Graphics 630, but the architecture does not differ from the 530 GPU from the Skylake generation and only the clocks are slightly higher. 

Performance

Thanks to the 200 MHz higher clocks (5.5-7.6% depending on the Boost), the CPU performance is increased and roughly on par with the Core i7-6970HQ (2.8-3.7 GHz but with 128 MB eDRAM). The TDP can also be reduced to 35 Watts (cTDP down), but this will reduce the performance.

Power Consumption

Due to its 45-Watt TDP, the CPU will be used in bigger notebooks with at least 15 inches most of the time.