The last year or so has not been easy for Intel. Its once seemingly impenetrable line-up of laptop and CPU processors have now started to show signs of weakness. The problem hasn't necessarily been a drop-off, or stagnation in the performance of the company's silicons, but rather the fact that its primary competitor, AMD, has made significant architectural gains with its Ryzen lineup of mobile and desktop processors.
AMD's Ryzen processors have pushed Intel just that much harder, forcing the company to focus on improving the performance of its latest 10th Generation processor line-up of chipsets. While a lot of the headlines are dominated by the action seen in the enthusiast segment of the market, it cannot be ignored that Intel has devoted significant resources to come up with powerful 10th Gen Core i5 and i7 processors for both laptops and desktops.
Today have with us the Acer Swift 5 [SF514-54T] notebook that hides beneath its compact enclosure the mighty Intel Core i7-1065G7 processor. This 10th Generation Intel chip is currently available on a number of high-end laptops in India right now, making it one of the most talked-about chips found in the market right now. Read our review to find out if the Acer Swift 5, or other competing offerings with this processor is worth spending money on.
Intel 10th Gen Core i7-1065G7: Specifications and performance
Part of Intel’s Ice Lake architecture of CPUs, this is a chip that's made using the company's 10nm node. Compared to older Intel processors fabricated using 14nm processes, the new Ice Lake mobile CPUs offer better thermal efficiency and performance as they pack a greater number of transistors on a die that's similar in size to older variants.
Although the new 10th Gen line-up brings a number of processors, we're focusing on the Core i7-1065G7, which is a quad-core chip that's supplemented by Intel's in house Iris Plus Graphics on this particular Acer Swift 5 laptop. While we'll delve into the compute performance and even crunch a few numbers to understand the GPU's limits, we would overall try and keep things simple, to effectively answer the most important question -- are laptops powered by this processor worth investing in?
In terms of the numbers, this one is a 4 core chip with 2 virtual computing threads per core. Each core is rated to push clocks up to 3.9 GHz. The CPU supports 8MB of cache and DDR4 memory running at a maximum of 3200Mhz. This support for fast RAM helps the processor clock better scores on benchmarks and overall gives it that extra in games and other applications.
This particular chip is rated at 15W TDP making it quite effective when it comes to thermal performance. While we did not get the chance to bench the chip against a lot of other competing processors, we believe it would have finished among the top end of the table of modern mobile processors if had tested it against the likes of AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS and other Core i9 and i7 chips from Intel.
In our time with the Acer Swift 5 which comes with 16GB of DDR RAM running in dual channel mode, we found the 10th Gen i7-1065G7 CPU to perform quite well in day-to-day tasks. Web browsing, basic editing, and multimedia consumption is a breeze on the laptop. It doesn't hang, doesn't slow down, and generally keeps running like new despite being bogged down by the eventual bloat that generally brings the performance of a Windows PC down over time. However, what is most impressive is the fact that because of the extra computing power that this CPU packs, the laptop does handle heavy computing as well, with both photo and video editing also handled quite effectively by the CPU.
Intel 10th Gen Core i7-1065G7 review: Gaming
Although a lot of laptops being powered by the Core i7-1065G7 do bring with themselves external graphics from Nvidia, there are others that don't. Like the Acer Swift 5 model sent to us for review, these come with Intel's Iris Plus [G7] integrated graphics that as we found out is quite a capable GPU in itself. For on the go gaming, this onboard solution is quite interesting as it offers impressive performance at very little cost to the battery life.
Although it's not the most powerful mobile GPU out there, it can still hold its own when fighting against discreet GPUs from the likes of Nvidia. With its 64 graphics processing cores, the Iris Plus G7 provides superior performance to older generation onboard graphics solution from Intel and is good enough to run games such as Fifa 20 on medium-high graphics and above 1080p resolutions without seeing a significant drop-off in frame rate.
But still, we won't recommend the Iris Plus GPU to those looking for a laptop to play demanding games on. After all, it is a basic onboard graphics solution that promises performance to match the description. It is no match for gaming laptops, and as such is only good enough if you're looking for a laptop to run basic games, or maybe demanding games but at low-medium graphics levels.
Intel 10th Gen Core i7-1065G7 review: Worth investing in?
Well, the answer to this depends totally on the laptop you find this processor fitted in. With Asus' AMD Ryzen 4900HS powered Zephyrus G14 now retailing for around Rs 1 Lakh in India, it becomes difficult to recommend the Intel 10th Gen Core i7-1065G7 on a laptop that's retailing for a price similar to the Zephyrus G14. This is because this 8-core monster not only offers powerful computing performance but also a discreet GPU to power long gaming sessions.
However, what that laptop does not offer is the ultra-portability of i7-1065G7 powered laptops from the likes of Acer and even Asus. Our review unit which comes with a 14-inch screen weighs less than a KG, making it an extremely portable laptop. Add to that the fact that the i7-1065G7 offers impressive thermal efficiency, battery life, and even overall performance, making it an easy option to recommend to a lot of buyers who value these above all else in a laptop.
Are you in the market searching for a new laptop? If so, then one question might be bothering you, Should I buy i5 or i7 laptop?
After Intel has launched their latest 11th gen CPUs, another question has started bothering people, Is i5 11th gen better than i7 10th gen?
What if you buy an Intel i5 laptop? Will it be sluggish compared to the i7? Can’t it deliver the same level of performance as the Intel i7?
If all these questions are creating a fuss in your mind, then don’t worry, we got you covered.
We will help you to know whether you should buy an Intel i5 or i7 laptop, and which one is the right choice for you.
How powerful is the Intel i5 11th gen over the 10th gen?
The latest 11th gen series of Intel processors is going to perform better than the previous gen. But the question is, how much of a difference does it make?
How powerful is the i5 11th gen over the i5 10th gen? Have a look at the specs first.
Note that we have chosen only those variants of CPUs that are common in the budget laptop range. If you go for higher or different variants of these processors, then the specs will vary.
| Fabrication | 10nm | 10nm SuperFin |
| Base/Max Frequency | • 1.00 GHz • 3.6 GHz | • 2.4 Ghz • 4.2 GHz |
| Cores Threads | • 4 Cores • 8 Threads | • 4 Cores • 8 Threads |
| Cache | L3: 6MBL2: 2MB L1: 320KB | L3: 8MBL2: 5MB L1: 384KB |
| TDP | 15W Max: 25W | 28W |
| GPU speed | 300MHz | 400MHz |
| PassMark score | 7981 | 10130 |
Note that we are comparing the i5 10th and 11th gen CPUs used on professional laptops. The i5 CPUs used on gaming laptops are different and more powerful from the ones we are comparing.
Because the 11th gen CPU is an upgrade over the 10th gen, it has to be faster, at least on paper.
But how much of a difference does it make in real life?
Well, the overall speed also depends on the hard disk. If an i5 10th gen laptop has NVMe SSD, then it will act blazing fast to every action.
Yes, the i5 11th gen is a faster CPU, but it doesn’t make the 10th gen a slower one.
In basic tasks like opening apps, browsing, or consuming content, there is little to no difference. But this difference is evident when you do some heavy tasks like video editing or playing some light games.
The latest 11th gen CPU uses 28W TDP which means, it can perform significantly better in heavy tasks at the cost of more power consumption.
The i5 11th gen will perform 20-25% faster than the 10th gen in this scenario. This difference increases further when we take i5-11300H into the count. The i5-11300H is a more powerful CPU than the regular i5-1130G7.
So overall, the 11th gen is a better processor in every regard, but the 10th gen is also a fast processor.
If you are getting a better deal on an i5 10th gen laptop, then there is nothing wrong with that. Just make sure that the laptop comes with an SSD.
Check these Best Laptops under 50000 with i5 Processor and SSD.
How powerful is the Intel i7 11th gen over the 10th gen?
What about the Intel i7 CPU. How much does the i7 11th gen differ from the i7 10th gen?
Have a look at the specs first.
| Fabrication | 10nm | 10nm SuperFin |
| Base/Max Frequency | • 1.30 GHz • 3.9 GHz | • 2.8 Ghz • 4.7 GHz |
| Cores Threads | • 4 Cores • 8 Threads | • 4 Cores • 8 Threads |
| Cache | L3: 8MBL2: 2MB L1: 320KB | L3: 12MBL2: 5MB L1: 384KB |
| Max TDP | 25W | 28W |
| GPU speed | 300MHz | 400MHz |
| PassMark score | 8987 | 10496 |
The same story continues here. The latest i7 11th gen is more powerful than the i7 10th gen.
But how powerful is the newer CPU? And how much difference does it make in real life?
To be honest, the difference isn’t significant, especially in regular day-to-day tasks.
Note that the integrated Iris Xe GPU is around 50% more powerful than the previous gen, so the GPU tasks are going to get done much faster.
What tasks are we talking about? Well, the tasks like video editing, rendering, and games are going to load faster here.
Because of the higher 28W TDP, the latest gen i7 processors deliver more power overall.
On regular usage, including some heavy tasks too, the latest i7 11th gen CPU will perform around 20% faster than its predecessor.
But here also, if you are getting a good deal on an i7 10th gen CPU laptop, then go for it because it’s a capable CPU.
Don’t forget to check these Best Laptops For IT Professionals.
Is Intel i5 11th gen better than i7 10th gen?
Because the competition is stiff now, companies are offering i5 11th gen and i7 10th gen laptops nearly at the same price.
Now the question is, which one should you buy? Should you buy an i5 11th gen or i7 10th gen laptop?
Before knowing all the benchmarks, take a look at how these two CPUs are different from each other.
| Fabrication | 10nm SuperFin | 10nm |
| Base/Max Frequency | • 2.4 Ghz • 4.2 GHz | • 1.30 GHz • 3.9 GHz |
| Cores Threads | • 4 Cores • 8 Threads | • 4 Cores • 8 Threads |
| Cache | L3: 8MBL2: 5MB L1: 384KB | L3: 8MBL2: 2MB L1: 320KB |
| TDP | 28W | 25W |
| GPU speed | 400MHz | 300MHz |
| PassMark score | 10130 | 8987 |
These are the technical differences between these laptops. To get a clear idea, take a look at the benchmarks below.
The data is rendered from nanoreview, and from here, you can see that the Intel i5 11th gen is beating the i7 10th gen in most regards.
Note that if you go for other variants of i7 10th gen CPUs with higher Cores and Threads, then the result would be the opposite.
An i7 10th gen CPU with 8 cores and 16 Threads can easily outperform the i5 11th gen CPU.
But again, we are comparing those variants which are being used in most of the laptops.
Do you need the most powerful laptop for heavy work? If so, then check these Best Workstation Laptops under 1 Lakh.
Should you buy i5 or i7 laptop?
Now coming to the biggest question that might be bothering you, should you buy an i5 or i7 laptop?
Let’s make it simple. The i5 11th gen is a better CPU compared to the i7 10th gen CPU with the same numbers of cores and threads.
If your work routine include:
- Daily office work
- Writing or Web browsing
- consuming content
- Attending online classes
- Making presentations
- Editing FHD videos
- And playing casual games
Then, the i5 is the best CPU. It can handle all of the above tasks with ease. In this scenario, just go with the i5 11th gen laptop.
On the other hand, if your work included
- Heavy video editing
- Regular game-play
- Using heavy software like CAD
- Animations
Then, you should go with the i7 CPU laptop. But make sure that it has more Cores and Threads.
If you really want top notch performance, then you can go with these Ryzen 7 laptops under 60000.
How much should you pay for Intel i5 10th gen laptop?
The pricing totally depends on all the features combined. But in general, i5 10th gen laptops cost around 48-55k.
But there is a variant of Mi Notebook 14, which is priced under 45k. Getting an i5 10th gen laptop under 45k is a stellar deal. Take a look at the best variants of Mi Notebook 14.
How much should you pay for Intel i5 11th gen laptop?
An i5 11th gen laptop with a good set of features starts at 50000. If you really want extra features like an excellent screen, dual speakers, metal build, then the price can go up to 56-60000.
The newly launched Mi Notebook Pro and Ultra are the two best laptops in this segment.
This price range can vary depending on the features and brand name.
How much does an Intel i7 10th gen laptop cost?
i7 10th gen laptops are usually costly, but some of the laptops are available for less than 60000. At that price, it could be a great deal, unless you don’t have to compromise on basic features.
Usually, these laptops cost around 65-70000.
How much does an Intel i7 11th gen laptop cost?
The Intel i7 11th gen laptops will easily cost around 70000. Take it as a minimum price because some additional features and brand value will raise this price.
Is HP 14 worth Buying? Click here to know about the best HP 14 variants.
So, should you buy i5 or i7 laptop? We are sure you know the answer now.
If you still have any doubt, then feel free to ask us in the comments.
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