The 10 Hottest Laptop Processors Of 2020

Thanks to new chips from AMD, Apple, Intel and Qualcomm, laptop buyers in every segment of the PC market had more choice in 2020 than perhaps ever before.

Competition In The Laptop Processor Market Heats Up

This year brought a better variety of laptop processors than perhaps ever before.

A lot of this is due to the increasingly competitive environment in the semiconductor industry, with AMD putting out new, powerful and efficient processors for different laptop segments. New Arm-based chips are also coming from Qualcomm and Apple.

[Related: Apple’s Next Mac Chips Aim To Clobber Intel On Performance: Report]

But the incumbent, Intel, is not sitting still, as evident with the launch of its Tiger Lake processors for ultrathin laptops and high-performance CPUs for gaming and content creation laptops that push the clock speeds up to 5.3GHz. The company has also introduced a new version of Core i3 and Core i5 processors that use Intel’s nascent Foveros 3-D packaging technology.

What follows are the 10 hottest laptop processors of 2020.

Get more of CRN’s 2020 tech year in review.

AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U

AMD’s Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U is part of the chipmaker’s Ryzen Pro 4000 mobile processor series for commercial laptops. The Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U comes with eight cores, 16 threads, a 1.7GHz base frequency, a 4.1GHz turbo frequency and a 12-MB cache. It comes with AMD Pro Technologies, a set of enterprise features that consist of AMD Pro Security, AMD Pro Manageability and AMD Pro Business Ready. In comparison with Intel’s six-core Core i7-10710U, AMD said the processor provides anywhere from a 9 percent to 33 percent improvement in performance across several benchmarks, including in multi-threaded performance, while it dips by 2 percent for the single-threaded Cinebench 1T test, which narrows the previous gap AMD had in that area. Laptops that come with the processor include Lenovo’s ThinkPad L14 Gen 1 and HP’s EliteBook 849 G7.

AMD Ryzen 7 4800U

AMD’s Ryzen 7 4800U is part of the company’s Ryzen 4000 U-Series lineup for ultrathin laptops. The processor comes with eight cores, 16 threads, a 1.7GHz base frequency, a 4.1GHz turbo frequency and a 12-MB cache. Compared with Intel’s 10th-generation Core i7-1065G7 Ice Lake processor, AMD said benchmark data shows that the Ryzen 4800U provides 4 percent better performance in single-threaded performance, 90 percent better multi-threaded performance and 28 percent better graphics performance. AMD also showed that the Ryzen 4800U provides double-digit performance improvements over Intel’s Core i7-1065G7 across a variety of content creation benchmarks and applications, with gains reaching as high as 49 percent. Laptops with the processor include Lenovo’s ThinkBook 13s Gen 2 and Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7 14.

AMD Ryzen 4900H

AMD’s Ryzen 7 4900H is part of the company’s Ryzen 4000 H-Series lineup for high-performance gaming and content creation laptops. The Ryzen 7 4900H comes with eight cores, 16 threads, a 3.3GHz base frequency, a boost frequency of up to 4.4GHz, a 12-MB cache, eight graphics cores and a 1,750MHz graphics frequency. While the company said the Ryzen 7 4800H is “one of the best gaming notebook processors today,” beating Intel’s ninth-generation Core i9-9880H in 3DMark Fire Strike Physics and Cinebench R20 nT[2] benchmarks for gaming and content creation, the Ryzen 9 4900H takes things a step further, providing higher clock speeds, more graphics cores and a higher graphics clock frequency than the new Ryzen 7. Laptops with the processor include Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, Lenovo’s Legion Slim 7 and Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7 Pro.

Apple M1

Apple’s M1 processor is the company’s first in-house Arm-based processor for Macs and MacBooks. The 5-nanometer system-on-a-chip comes with an eight-core CPU, split between four performance cores and four efficiency cores, and an eight-core GPU as well as a 16-core Neural Engine. The processor’s other features include a unified memory architecture that combines high-bandwidth and low-latency memory as well as a Secure Enclave that keeps biometric data separate and comes with other key security capabilities such as hardware-verified secure boot, automatic high-performance encryption for files and macOS runtime protections. Apple said the M1 offers CPU clock speeds that offer two times the performance of laptop processors offered by competitors. On the GPU side, Apple said the M1 provides up to two times the graphics performance of competing chips with far fewer power requirements. The M1 is available in the Mac Mini desktop, the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro.

Intel Core i5-L16G7

Intel’s Core i5-L16G7 is one of two new processors code-named Lakefield and officially known as Intel Core processors with Intel Hybrid Technology. The processors are designed for foldable and dual-screen PCs, among other types of innovative and ultralight form-factor PCs. As the name suggests, the Core i5-L16G7 features a hybrid of new technologies, including the Foveros 3-D packaging technology that allows the company to stack different CPU components in three layers to dramatically reduce the size of the processor. The Intel Core i5-L16G7 comes with five cores, five threads, 64 graphics cores, a 4-MB cache, a 1.4GHz base frequency, a 3GHz max single-core turbo frequency, a 1.8GHz max all-core turbo frequency, 500MHz in graphics frequency and support for LPDDR4X-4267 RAM. Among the first devices to include the processor are Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold and Samsung’s Galaxy Book S.

Intel Core i7-1185G7

Intel’s Core i7-1185G7 is the flagship processor from the chipmaker’s 11th-generation Intel Core mobile lineup, code-named Tiger lake. The Core i7-1185G7 comes with four cores, eight threads, a 3GHz base frequency, a 4.8GHz max single-core turbo frequency, a 4.3GHz max all-core turbo frequency, a 12-MB cache, 96 GPU execution units, a 1.35GHz max graphics frequency and support for DDR-3200 and LPDDR4x-4266 RAM with a 12- to 28-watt thermal design power. The chipmaker said the processor delivers up to 2.7 times faster content creation, more than two times faster gaming performance and more than 20 percent faster office productivity than AMD’s Ryzen 7 4800U. Laptops featuring the processor include MSI’s Prestige 14 Evo and Summit E15.

Intel Core i9-10885H

Intel’s Core i9-10885H is a high-performance processor that is part of the company’s 10th-generation vPro lineup for commercial PCs. The Core i9-10885H comes with eight cores, 16 threads, a 2.4GHz base frequency, a 5.3GHz max turbo frequency and a 16-MB cache. The processor comes with silicon-level features for remote management, with Intel Active Management Technology, which is cloud-enabled through Endpoint Management Assistant. The processor also uses Intel Hardware Shield, a set of built-in hardware security features that protect the system at the BIOS level. Laptops featuring the processor include HP’s Envy 15, Dell’s XPS 9700 and Lenovo’s ThinkPad P15 Gen 1.

Intel Core i9-10980HK

Intel’s Core i9-10980HK is part of the company’s 10th-generation Core H-Series for high-performance laptops. The Core i9-10980HK comes with eight cores, 16 threads, a 2.4GHz base frequency, a 5.3GHz turbo frequency and a 16-MB cache. New features include Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0, Intel Speed Optimizer, integrated Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 support and support for DDR4-2933 memory. The processor also features Intel Adaptix Dynamic Tuning Technology and Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, support of up to 128 GB in DDR4 memory capacity, up to 40 platform PCIe lanes and support for Thunderbolt 3 and Intel Optane memory. For the flagship Core i9-10980HK, the company is promising up to 54 percent more frames per seconds in games, up to 44 percent better overall performance and up to two times faster 4K video rendering and export time compared with a three-year-old laptop running seventh-generation Core i7 processors. Laptops with the processor include MSI’s GE75 Raider 10Sx and Asus’ ROG Strix Scar 15.

Intel Xeon W-10885M

Intel’s Xeon W-10885M is a high-performance workstation processor that is part of the company’s 10th-generation vPro lineup for commercial PCs. The Xeon W-10885M comes with eight cores, 16 threads, a 2.4GHz base frequency, a 5.3GHz max turbo frequency and a 16-MB cache. The processor features support for error-correcting code memory, Intel Trusted Execution Technology, Intel Optane memory, Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and Intel Software Guard Extensions. It also comes with Intel Hardware Shield, a set of built-in hardware security features that protect the system at the BIOS level. Laptops featuring the processor include Lenovo’s ThinkPad P17 Gen 1 and Dell’s Precision 7550.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen2 5G is a new Arm-based processor for ultrathin Windows 10 laptops. Qualcomm said the compute platform provides up to 25 or more continuous hours of battery life, which is double the longevity of traditional laptops, and up to 50 percent greater total system performance than competing processors. It also enables multi-Gbit connectivity speeds with support for 5G, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi 6.The system-on-chip includes an eight-core Qualcomm Kryo 495 CPU, a Qualcomm Adreno GPU, a Qualcomm Spectra 390 image signal processor, a Qualcomm Hexagon 690 AI processor, a Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 modem-RF system for 5G connectivity and a Qualcomm Snapdragon X24 LTE modem for 4G. The first laptop to support the processor is Acer’s Spin 7.