Alder Lake is Intel’s first serious step into the world of hybrid architectures, combining a new high-performance CPU architecture (P-Cores), with smaller efficient cores also known as E-cores, for better performance and enhanced performance per watt. This is our first look at 12th-gen Core mobile processors, starting with the Core i7-12700H.
As we’ve discussed at length in our desktop Alder Lake reviews, this hybrid approach has been reasonably effective on desktop machines, but the dual architecture approach should really come alive in constrained form factors like laptops, where power consumption and efficiency are key.
The Alder Lake H-series targets high performance laptops, while also bringing a range of new platform advantages, including DDR5 support, a beefier Xe integrated GPU and other connectivity improvements. Intel claims these new processors should be the fastest ever seen for mobile computing and we’ll be exploring that later in our benchmarks.
We expect the Core i7-12700H that we’re reviewing today to become the most widely used chip in Intel’s line-up, like the Core i7-11800H and Core i7-10750H before it, slotting right into a huge range of mid and upper-mid range gaming and productivity systems.
The 12700H packs 6P cores and 8E cores for a total of 20 processor threads, along with 24MB of L3 cache and a 96 execution unit GPU.
The P-cores are clocked at 2.3 GHz base and 4.7 GHz boost, while the E-cores get a 1.7GHz base and 3.5 GHz boost clock. Like prior Intel products, the default TDP for this chip is 45W, though many laptop OEMs will have modes to enable higher long-term power limits.
The Core i7-12700H is the lowest chip in the stack that still provides the full complement of CPU cores found in Intel’s H-series die, making it a compelling option. The 12800H, 12900H and 12900HK that sit above it are essentially just clock speed improvements, and in previous generations simple clock speed bumps haven’t been a great value proposition for buyers.
We’ll be checking out the 12900HK soon, but the 12700H could be hitting that value sweet spot.
Our test platforms for today were kindly provided by XMG and their partner Uniwill. The two designs we have on hand should be widely used across various OEMs. We can’t tell if these specific ones will become XMG products, but other companies like Eluktronics use these sorts of laptops and you should see them available for sale soon.
The GM7AG8M 17-inch chassis includes the Core i7-12700H and new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU running at 150W. The smaller GM5AG7Y 15-inch also packs the Core i7-12700H, but running an RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU at 125W.
We’ll be testing both of these GPUs at a later time. Both models also pack 1440p high-refresh displays and 32GB of DDR5-4800 memory in a two stick configuration.
For testing the i7-12700H we’ve run two power configurations: a long-term PL1 power limit of 45W, Intel’s default spec for these chips, as well as 75W, which is a common boosted power level seen across many laptop vendors.
These will be compared apples to apples with other laptop chips running at the same configuration, which gives us the best look at how these CPUs compare in a fair benchmark battle.
If we compared one chip at 75W to another at 60W, we’d really only be comparing which specific laptop design can send the most power to the CPU, not which CPU actually performs better, which is why we test like this. Boost PL2 power is set to Intel’s default of 115W in both instances.
Conducting benchmarks in this way gives you the most useful information that can be applied to a wide range of laptops. If you’re buying a thinner and lighter system, the 45W numbers will be most important, while those after a beefier system with more cooling power should look at 75W.
On to the results!
We’ll start with everyone’s favorite, Cinebench R23 multi-threading. The Core i7-12700H is the fastest laptop CPU we’ve tested to date, beating all other contenders including the Ryzen 9 5900HX and Apple’s M1 Pro, even when run at just 45W.
This represents a 27% performance improvement over the Core i7-11800H, a 21% improvement on the Ryzen 7 5800H and a 12% gain on the Ryzen 9 5900HX. It’s also 8% faster than Apple Silicon, though the M1 Pro uses a bit less power in this workload. But among the x86 pack, the 12700H does appear to be the best processor in terms of performance per watt in this workload.
We’ll look at power scaling in more depth later, but these early results show the 12700H is able to produce a decent amount more performance when allowed to run beyond 45W in longer term workloads.
I should note that the M1 Pro is included in our 75W charts for reference, but one limitation of Apple Silicon is that it can’t be run above default power spec, so it’s a roughly a 40W part up against 75W configurations. It is possible the M1 Max version will be faster and scale power further, but we haven’t tested that chip.
This is achieved without consuming more single-thread power than other x86 processors, though the Arm-based M1 Pro is significantly more efficient.
The 12700H ends up 37% faster than the Core i7-11800H in this workload, as well as 36% faster than the Ryzen 7 5800H. So if you have a lot of compiling work to be done on the go, the 12700H is clearly superior to previous generation products and it’s not that close.
The 12700H clocks in 15% faster than the 11800H and delivers the first sub-1 second time in the chart, so that’s an excellent outcome.
We’re seeing a 15% performance improvement compared to the best previous generation chips which is a handy boost year on year.
It also ends up beating Apple’s M1 Pro by 8 percent, however the 12700H is using over twice the power of the Apple processor, so while it’s a performance victory, it’s not an efficiency victory by any means.
While the GPU might be playing a small role, the majority of this performance uplift is coming from the CPU which as seen previously is much faster for encoding and multi-threaded workloads.
Before we look at some gaming benchmarks, here are the CPU power scaling results. The Alder Lake Core i7-12700H shows much the same power scaling behavior as the Core i7-11800H, which is probably due to both parts using a similar family of process technology.
The Tiger Lake 11800H was built using 10nm SuperFin, while Alder Lake was 10nm Enhanced SuperFin before it was renamed to the Intel 7 process node. Clearly Intel 7 in conjunction with the new architecture is a lot more efficient, but it has the same characteristics of scaling very well into higher power levels.
Then compared to the Apple M1 Pro, the 12700H is similar in its performance per watt for multi-thread workloads. Where Intel benefits though is the ability to scale much higher than the M1 Pro, so again in those larger gaming laptops the multi-thread performance far outstrips what Apple can provide and this is seen in some of the 75W benchmarks shown previously.
Intel also raised default boost power limits this generation, which is why peak power consumption is also higher with the 12700H. This doesn’t paint a favorable efficiency picture versus the M1 in burst workloads like 7-Zip, where the M1 can keep up with the 12700H at less than half the power.
We don’t show any battery life numbers in our laptop CPU reviews because that’s highly dependent on the specific laptop maker and model. The battery life is ultimately dictated by battery size, power configurations, and other system components which are all at the mercy of the laptop vendors.
Next up is PC gaming performance, however running a direct comparison is complicated because this new generation of Alder Lake laptops uses different GPUs — the new Ti models from Nvidia. So this section won’t be very long or comprehensive as it’s hard to separate the gains from the CPU versus gains from the GPU.
It’s nice to talk about whether the 12700H is faster than other CPUs for laptop gaming, but the reality is that unless you are playing competitive games on low quality settings, you’re most likely going to be GPU bound in today’s games with laptop-class graphics.
The Core i7-12700H is an impressive laptop processor that’s set to bring a sizable performance upgrade to many mid-range and high-end laptops.
The Core i7 line has been widely used across countless laptop models, but over the past two generations has lagged a bit behind similar price or class Ryzen models, especially in multi-thread workloads. That’s no longer the case, Intel has been able to do more than just close the performance gap, instead the 12700H is truly a class leading processor in all areas.
That’s a big generational leap that’s been achieved through the new hybrid architecture with more processing cores, the upgraded Intel 7 process node, and other features like DDR5 memory. This is one of the most impressive performance generational leaps we’ve seen from Intel laptop CPUs in some time.
This lead stretches from multi-thread performance through to strong results in single-thread, and even gaming as well, so it’s a nicely rounded package. I just don’t see why you’d buy a laptop with 11th-gen or Ryzen 5000 CPUs inside anymore unless you’re getting a decent discount; the Core i7-12700H is stomping its foot down as the clear best available option.
While these are excellent results, these comparisons are mostly pitting Alder Lake against older architectures. Later in 2022, Intel will be competing with AMD’s Ryzen 6000, and we’re expecting to get hands on time with those laptops soon. So I’d want to at least wait until we see how AMD stacks up before buying a new laptop.
Based on what AMD is saying, we don’t expect Ryzen 6000 to necessarily beat Alder Lake, but we can’t know for sure where the performance or value equation will lie.
We also don’t have a firm grasp on laptop pricing yet, although we’re expecting 12700H models to be similarly priced to previous 11800H laptops, which would make the 12700H a good deal pending discounts on last-gen designs.
There’s not a lot of weaknesses to bring up here to be honest. The toughest battle is between the 12700H and Apple’s M1 Pro, but in many instances the 12700H is faster (especially at high power levels) and even has the capability to be similar in terms of sustained performance per watt.
Where Alder Lake seems to struggle is in power consumption for single-thread and burst workloads, where the M1 is clearly more efficient, but that’s down to Intel operating these parts well outside the efficiency window. I think the tools are there for Alder Lake to shine in low power laptop designs, it just needs an OEM to complement this with an efficiency-optimized product with great tuning, rather than a brute force performance system like the majority of H-series laptops.
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