Intel recently launched their new 10th gen U series CPUs, which for the first time includes
a 6 core option, so let’s see how well this new chip compares with the 6 core 9th gen
i7-9750H to help you decide which CPU you should get in your next laptop.
Intel’s i7-10710U, apart from having a lovely name, is a 14nm 10th generation CPU. Just
to keep things confusing, Intel has both 14nm and 10nm CPUs in their 10th gen lineup. The
14nm chips are branded as Comet Lake, while the 10nm are Ice Lake. The Ice Lake CPUs only
currently go up to 4 cores, while the 10710U is the first U series chip that goes up to
6 cores. U series CPUs are typically lower power parts for thinner and lighter notebooks,
so it will be interesting to see how this new 6 core compares with the popular 9750H.
Let’s look at the differences in specs between these two CPUs. Both have 6 cores and 12 threads,
12mb of cache, and are based on Intel’s 14nm architecture. The main difference is
in the TDP, the 9750H has a much higher 45 watt TDP, while the 10710U has a 15 watt TDP,
though this can be configured up to 25 watts by the laptop vendor if there’s enough thermal
and power headroom. This difference in power is why the 10th gen CPU has a much lower base
clock speed. The single core turbo speed of the 10th gen chip is 200MHz faster than the
9750H, however its all core turbo speed when all 6 cores are utilized is 100MHz behind.
Now here’s the thing, the performance of either of these CPUs will in the end depend
on the power limits that are defined by the laptop they’re installed in. For the i7-10710U,
I’m testing the MSI Prestige 15, and when under a CPU only workload it’s capable of
running up to 45 watts, so the same TDP as the 9750H. Technically it can go to 50 and
beyond, but PL1 is 45 watts and this is where it settles. This will not always be the case,
I haven’t tested any other laptops with this 10th gen CPU yet but I suspect this could
be a best case.
I’ve tested the i7-9750H both at its stock 45 watt limit, which some laptops do actually
adhere to, but I’ll also include results with the 9750H when the power limit has been
raised to 60 watts, as some other laptops also do this, and that’s the case with the
Clevo NH58RDQ I’m testing with. Basically it’s not as simple as comparing two CPUs
against each other, as power limits can play a big role. In this testing I have tested
both the 10th gen 10710U and 9th gen 9750H with the same 45 watt TDP, so the results
are about as comparable as we can get.
With that in mind let’s get into those results, starting with Cinebench R20. I’ve got the
10th gen 10710U CPU in the middle, and 9750H at the same 45 watts down the bottom. The
top result is the 9750H once it’s been boosted up to 60 watts, which is more representative
of what it’s typically capable of, but as mentioned it will vary by laptop.
In this test the 10th gen CPU was 16% ahead of the 9750H in multicore, and considering
that both have the same 45 watt power limit this result surprised me. When the 9750H is
boosted to 60 watts though it’s 8% faster than the 10th gen chip. The 10th gen CPU was
11% faster when it came to single core, this makes a bit more sense when we remember that
it does have a higher single core turbo boost speed.
I’ve also tested Cinebench R15 as many people still use it, so these numbers can be used
for comparison. Anyway the results are similar, the 10th gen chip was ahead by 9% in single
core performance but a much lower 4.6% increase in multi core. Again the 60 watt 9750H takes
the lead by 7.7% in multicore, but was still behind in single core due to the higher single
core turbo of the 10710U.
I’ve run the BMW and Classroom benchmarks with blender, and despite being a heavy multicore
test the 10th gen CPU was again ahead of the 9750H when both had the same 45 watt TDP.
The 10710U completed the Classroom test 10% faster, and 12% faster for the BMW test. With
the 9750H set to a higher 60 watt power limit it’s only just able to take the lead in
this test.
I’ve used Adobe Premiere to export the same 4K laptop review, and the 10710U was completing
the task 5 minutes faster than the 9750H. Interestingly there was no change to the 9750H
even with the higher power limit. I was only testing the CPU here, GPU acceleration was
disabled.
I’ve also used the warp stabilizer effect in Adobe Premiere which basically uses a single
core to smooth out a clip. Interestingly the 10th gen CPU was behind here, which I didn’t
expect considering it should have a higher single core turbo boost speed, however the
results were consistent.
Handbrake was used to convert a 4K video file to 1080p, and then a separate 1080p file to
720p. With both chips at 45 watts, the 10710U was 10% faster at processing the 4K file,
however when it came to the 1080p to 720p conversion the 9750H was slightly ahead.
The V-Ray benchmark uses the CPU to render out a scene, and the 10710U was 6.6% faster
than the 9750H when at the same 45 watt power limit. With a higher power limited 9750H though
it’s able to come out 8% faster than the 10th gen CPU.
The Corona benchmark also uses the CPU to render out a scene, and there was a similar
result here, with the 10710U completing the task 6.4% faster than the 9750H. With the
power limit on the 9750H boosted it’s just able to claim the victory.
I’ve used 7-Zip to test compression and decompression speeds, and the 10th gen CPU
was winning in both cases when it came to compression speed, but was slightly behind
in terms of decompression.
VeraCrypt was used to test AES encryption and decryption speeds, and this time the 10th
gen CPU was behind in all instances, though it was only by about 2% or so.
GeekBench produced results a bit different to the other real applications, the multicore
score was lower compared to the 9750H, and the single core was a bit higher, so these
results do make sense in the context of the clock speeds of each chip.
Here’s a summary of all of the applications just tested. On average over these 18 tests,
the 10th gen i7-10710U was 5.2% faster than the 9th gen i7-9750H in both single and multicore
workloads, at least when both had the same 45 watt TDP. Some of the results don’t match
what I was expecting. For instance the Warp Stabilizer result at the bottom, I expected
the 10710U to win that as it’s a single core test. Likewise I assumed the Cinebench
R20 multicore result would have done better on the 9750H given it has a higher all core
turbo boost speed.
Let’s investigate why the 10710U was ahead of the 9750H in most of these cases.
These are the average clock speeds of both CPUs during one of the blender benchmarks.
We can see that the 9750H was around 400MHz lower over all 6 cores on average when compared
to the 10710U. The 9750H was only able to match the clock speed with its higher power
limit.
These are the values for CPU package power as reported by hardware info while the same
blender test was running. The 9750H is basically dead on its 45 watt limit, as per the bottom
bar, then at the 60 watt limit once it’s raised without issue. The 10710U on the other
hand was actually averaging a little below its 45 watt limit, at least in this specific
test.
This is because of thermals, the 10710U was thermal throttling in the blender test. As
I mentioned earlier, U series chips are generally used in thinner and lighter machines, and
those typically have less cooling capacity. This will of course vary between each laptop,
but in general you’ll find the 9750H in thicker machines with bigger heatsinks and
heatpipes to keep it running cooler.
Despite thermal throttling in blender, the 10710U was still completing the task faster
and performing better.
If we look at the total system power draw from the wall for the whole machine when under
these same tests, the results are even more interesting. The 10710U is using 20% more
power than the 9750H in this exact same test, however as we saw just before according to
Hardware Info both were around their 45 watt TDP.
I’m not exactly sure what the deal is here, the difference could simply be down to the
changes in Comet Lake. My 10th gen laptop was clearly using more power to achieve its
higher performance, as measured from the wall. The only change I noted in Hardware Info was
that the 10710U was reporting as using 4 more watts under IA cores.
Anyway the 9750H machine needed far more power to maintain its 60 watt TDP in this same test,
and if you remember it was only just able to beat the 10710U like this. Even if the
software is reporting incorrectly or there is some architecture difference causing this,
the 9750H needed more power from the wall to perform similarly in the blender test and
achieve similar clock speeds.
The fact that the 10710U is competing at all with the 9750H honestly took me by surprise.
When I saw its Cinebench performance while reviewing the MSI Prestige 15 I just knew
I had to compare the two. Now most laptops with the 9750H will run the CPU higher than
45 watts when under CPU only workloads like these, but that’s not always the case, it
will vary. When both have the same power limit though the 10th gen chip appears to be in
the lead. The 10710U is also more likely to be lower in other laptops, while the 9750H
will pretty much always at least be capable of running at 45 watts.
I should also note that no undervolting was done here, these are all stock results, and
memory for both machines was 16GB in dual channel at DDR4-2666.
Unfortunately I’m not able to test gaming at this point, as I had both laptops with
completely different graphics. The MSI Prestige 15 had the Nvidia GTX 1650 Max-Q and I’ve
never had that in another machine so can’t fairly compare.
Pretty much all gaming laptops are based on the 9750H at the moment, it will be interesting
if the 10710U starts popping up in these. Otherwise for thinner and lighter machines,
with adequate cooling the new 6 core 10th gen Comet Lake CPU can perform quite well.
Let me know which of these two CPUs you’d pick and why down in the comments, and if
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tech videos like this one.