Review: Intel Core i9-11980HK (Tiger Lake-H)

Conclusion

11th Gen Tiger Lake-H puts Intel back in the high-end mobile race. Improved IPC extends the chip giant's lead in lightly-threaded workloads, multi-threaded performance is a meaningful step up from 10th Gen predecessors, and with onboard PCIe 4.0, Intel laptops are going to be the first to offer widespread support for ultra-fast storage.

That good news is tempered by the fact that Intel's 10nm parts aren't as efficient as 7nm competitors from rival AMD. The range-topping Core i9-11980HK demands an unconventional 65W to hit the heights, and as expected, runs very hot when shoehorned into a slim laptop chassis.

On the balance of play, AMD maintains the edge, but the gap is closing, and with little to separate Core and Ryzen processors in the performance stakes, the onus is now on laptop manufacturers to showcase the respective CPUs at their best. Intel's oddly-configured review unit has provided a glimpse, but we await actual retail systems before passing judgement.

Bottom line: Tiger Lake-H isn't enough to put Intel back in the driving seat, but it is a useful stopgap prior to hybrid 12th Gen Alder Lake chips due later this year.

Intel Core i9-11980HK

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The Intel Core i9-11980HK processor is available in a range of high-performance laptops from Scan Computers.

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