Unannounced 8th-gen Intel Core i7 processor for laptops lands on Geekbench

Benchmarks of an upcoming eighth-generation Intel “Coffee Lake” processor for notebooks recently appeared in the Geekbench database. The unannounced chip is listed as the Core i7-8750H and tested in three different notebooks: Two by Quanta and one by HP. All three show the chip to have six cores and 12 threads with a base speed of 2.2GHz. 

Here are the processor specifications as listed in the benchmarks: 

 As for the actual benchmarks, here are the numbers: 

Although technically Intel already offers five eighth-generation processors for laptops (and that’s not including the new modules with Radeon graphics), they’re not based on Intel’s eighth-generation “Coffee Lake” processor design. Instead, they rely on tweaked seventh-generation (Kaby Lake) technology. But the upcoming Core i7-8750H and whatever else Intel has up its laptop sleeve will undoubtedly be true eighth-generation designs. 

A note to keep in mind is the suffix used in Intel’s processors. The “U” typically stands for ultra-low power, meaning the chip is ideal for ultrathin laptops and focuses on long battery life versus high performance. Meanwhile, the “H” indicates high-performance graphics, thus the resulting laptop won’t be quite as battery-conservative, and possibly support discrete graphics. These chips may include the same integrated graphics component seen in the desktop models: Intel UHD Graphics 630. 

As a comparison, the single-core score of the current four-core i7-8650U chip averages around 4332 — depending on the parent laptop — whereas the multi-core score averages around 13928. Meanwhile, the six-core i7-8700K chip for desktops has a single-core score average of 5939 and a multi-core score average of 25884. The next step down is the six-core i7-8700 desktop chip with an average single-core score of 5689 and an average multi-core score of 24994. 

If anything, the upcoming Core i7-8750H may be on par with the current six-core i5-8400 chip for desktops. It has an average single-core score of 4991 and an average multi-core score of 18631. Of course, the benchmark numbers we now see for the unannounced i7-8750H are preliminary, so the numbers may rise before the products go live. At least now we have a taste of what’s coming to laptops in the near future. 

Intel’s upcoming laptop processors will join the company’s new modules packing seventh-generation cores, AMD Radeon graphics, and dedicated graphics memory into a single package. Intel officially revealed five of these modules at the beginning of the year featuring four processor cores with base speeds ranging from 2.80GHz to 3.10GHz, and maximum speeds ranging between 3.80GHz and 4.20GHz. Over on Geekbench, the top-of-the-line i7-8809G module has a single-core score of 5270 and a multi-core score of 17012. 

Laptops with Intel’s unannounced eighth-generation processors will likely appear by the end of March.