Intel Core i5-10310Y vs Intel Core i7-1165G7 vs Intel Core i7-8500Y

Intel Core i5-10310Y

The Intel Core i5-10310Y is a extremely power efficient quad-core SoC for small laptops and tablets based on the Comet Lake (CML-Y) generation and was announced in August 2019. Compared to the similar Amber Lake processors (e.g. Core i7-8500Y), the only difference are two additional cores in the top models (except i3-10110Y). The processor cores are clocked between 1.1 and 4.1 GHz (all 4 cores 2.8 GHz max). Thanks to HyperThreading 8 threads can be used. Compared to the faster i7-10510Y, the level 3 cache is reduced to 6 MB and the clock rates are lower.

More information on Comet Lake and all the models and articles on it can be found here.

Performance

While we have not tested a single system built around the 10310Y as of August 2023, it's realistic to expect the chip to be about half as fast as the Core i5-10210U (Comet Lake, 4 cores, 8 threads, up to 4.2 GHz) in multi-thread workloads. Those 4 cores of the 10310Y are set to be very much constrained by the low TDP target leading to high DPC latencies and generally unresponsive system behaviour no matter the activity.

The integrated graphics adapter is still the same as in the previous generations. It should be still called Intel UHD Graphics 615 and clock from 300 - 1050 MHz in the i5. Furthermore, the SoC integrates a VP9 and H.265 de- and encoder.

The chip is now produced in the 14nm++ process (Amber Lake Y was 14nm+) but not 10nm like Ice Lake Y. The TDP is specified at 7 Watts but can be varied from 5.5 to 9 Watt from the manufacturer (cTDP up/down) resulting in different performance (especially Turbo durations).

Intel Core i7-1165G7

The Intel Core i7-1165G7 is an upper mid-range, quad-core SoC designed for use in ultra-thin laptops. The Tiger Lake-UP3 processor was unveiled in September 2020; its Hyper-Threading-enabled Willow Cove CPU cores run at 2.8 GHz (base clock speed @ 28 W TDP) to 4.7 GHz (single-core Boost frequency). The all-core Boost frequency sits at 4.1 GHz. This i7 was the second-fastest CPU of TGL-UP3 line-up when Intel initially launched the series in 2020.

The i7 is ever-so-slightly inferior to Intel Core i7-1185G7 in that vPro support is nowhere to be found, the clock speeds are lower, and the iGPU's clock speed is a little lower as well.

Architecture

A sizeable performance-per-MHz boost is one of the many benefits of Tiger Lake generation compared to the older Ice Lake and Comet Lake product families. Core i7-1165G7 is compatible with dual-channel DDR4-3200 or quad-channel LPDDR4x-4267 RAM; Intel recommends using no more than 64 GB, for reference. The processor also supports PCI-Express 4.0 (4 lanes) and is capable of HW-accelerating certain AI workloads. Thunderbolt 4, USB 4 and Wi-Fi 6 support is partially baked into the chip. Four PCI-Express 4.0 lanes allow for read/write rates of up to 7.9 GB/s, provided a suitably fast NVMe SSD is used.

The i7 is built with the third-gen 10 nm Intel process marketed as SuperFin that is supposedly comparable to TSMC's 7 nm process, the one Ryzen 4000 and Ryzen 5000 series processors are manufactured on. Both the CPU cores and the iGPU have access to 12 MB of L3 cache. The SoC is supposed to be soldered straight on to the motherboard (BGA1449 socket interface); it is thus anything but user-replaceable.

Performance

The average i7-1165G7 in our database is just as fast as Intel's Core i5-10200H and Core i7-10810U are, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. The chip is brave enough to come dangerously close to the noticeably costlier i7-1195G7 while unfortunately not quite reaching the high bar set by the Ryzen 3 5300U. That being said, it's a very decent CPU that will have no trouble chewing through light video editing and 3D rendering jobs on the go with a bit of gaming possible as well, as of early 2022.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 40 W, the Schenker Vision 15 is among the fastest laptops built around the 1165G7 that we know of. It can be more than 60% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Graphics

The Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96 EUs) is based on Intel's Generation 12 architecture. It is a lot faster than the older Iris Plus G7 (Ice Lake) and UHD Graphics 620 (Comet Lake) solutions. The Xe has 96 Execution Units running at 400 MHz to 1,300 MHz, in the case of this Core i7.

This graphics adapter can drive up to 4 monitors in resolutions as high as SUHD 4320p@60 simultaneously, and the built-in video decoder is AV1-friendly. It will happily decode most other video codecs including HEVC, AVC, VP9, MPEG-2 and so on, too.

The Xe will let you play most games at 1080p / Low. It's nearly as fast as NVIDIA's GeForce MX350, surpassing anything we have seen from AMD's integrated graphics thus far. It is paramount that fast RAM is used as the Xe has no VRAM of its own. The other prerequisites for decent 3D performance are decently high Power Limits and a competent cooling solution.

Power consumption

The i7-1165G7 has a default TDP of 12 W to 28 W, the expectation being that laptop makers will go for a higher value to get higher clock speeds and thus better performance. Either way, these values are too high to allow for passively cooled designs.

The i7 is built with Intel's third-generation 10 nm process marketed as SuperFin for decent, as of mid 2022, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i7-8500Y

The Intel Core i7-8500Y is a very efficient dual-core SoC for tablets and passively cooled notebooks based on the Amber Lake generation and will be announced around August 2018. It is the fastest Amber Lake-Y CPU at the time of announcement and consists of two processor cores clocked at 1.5 - 4.2 GHz. 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. Compared to the Kaby Lake-Y predecessors (e.g. Core i7-7Y75), Amber Lake uses the same architecture produced in the improved 14nm+ FinFET process (no 14nm++) but offers higher clock speeds at an increased TDP rating.

Architecture

Intel basically used the familiar micro architecture from the Skylake / Kaby Lake generation, so the per-MHz performance is identical.

Performance

The performance of the Y series is highly depending on the cooling solution of the laptop / tablet and the TDP settings for sustained load. Therefore, the differences between a Core m3 and a i7 may be rather slim, if the thermals are very limited. The high Turbo clock speeds in Amber Lake should however lead to a very good single thread performance for short bursts.

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 950 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 and Amber 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 the second generation 14 nm+ process with FinFET transistors. The typical TDP for the Amber Lake Y-series is specified at 5 Watts (previous generations were 4.5 Watt), and can be adjusted in both directions depending on the usage scenario.