Eight-Core Tiger Lake-H Processor Spotted

(Image credit: Intel)

Intel officially confirmed plans to launch high-performance Tiger Lake-H processors with up to eight cores back in September, and while we are eager to learn more about their specifications, the main question about these CPUs is when they will be available. Recently an anonymous tester from Taiwan ran a benchmark of an engineering sample of the chip, indicating these processors are already in the wild and being tested by various companies from the supply chain. 

As discovered by technology enthusiast Tum_Apisak, someone from Taiwan ran UserBenchmark on a system called Insyde TigerLake based on an eight-core CPU. The 'U3E1' processor is said to feature a 3.10 GHz base clock and a 2.75 GHz turbo clock, which cannot be correct. Given the wrong frequencies and generally mixed reputation that UserBenchmark has among enthusiasts, actual benchmark results are barely important (since they are most probably wrong). What is important is that someone from Taiwan is already testing a laptop based on an eight-core Tiger Lake-H processor.

(Image credit: Future)

Intel's Tiger Lake-H processors with up to eight Willow Cove cores feature a massive (up to) 24 MB LLC to maximize effective memory bandwidth as well as single-thread performance. Like all modern 'H'-series CPUs, Tiger Lake-H will feature a very basic version of Xe-powered UHD Graphics with all the advantages this architecture offers when it comes to media encoding/decoding and display outputs. The TGL-H CPUs are designed for high-end laptops and low-power compact desktops, so expect them to feature a 45 W TDP, which will peak at 65 W (based on Intel's claims about capabilities of the Tiger Lake design). The peak TDP will be particularly useful for compact desktops as well as desktop replacement notebooks.

(Image credit: Future)

This is the first confirmation that Intel has started to sample its codenamed Tiger Lake-H processors to partners. At present, it is hard to say when exactly the company plans to officially launch its eight-core Tiger Lake-H CPUs, but it is reasonable to expect these chips to arrive sometime in 2021.

Intel traditionally feels relatively comfortable on the laptop market. However, the company's position got significantly weaker after AMD launched its Zen 2-based Ryzen Mobile 4000H-series processors, which offer great performance compared to Intel's Comet Lake-H CPUs. Without any doubt, Ryzen Mobile 4000 (both H and U-series), in general, was a massive success for AMD. But since Intel spends a great deal of time and money helping PC makers design their laptops and because of certain inertness of decision making, the company's sales were barely hit by AMD's H-series Ryzen Mobile 4000 processors.  

But now that PC makers have experience with AMD's high-end mobile platform, the number of design wins with the Ryzen Mobile 4000H CPUs and their successors will increase significantly in the upcoming cycle. That said, to maintain sales of its mobile CPUs for higher-end notebooks, Intel will have to offer something better than the Comet Lake-H, which essentially makes Tiger Lake-H a rather important product for the company.    

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • nofanneeded
    Sadly, there are not much notebooks options to choose from when it comes to AMD CPU ... even If you find it with RTX 2060 the screen will be garbage . and if you want RTX 2070super/2080super good luck with it.

    Intel Dominates the Notebook market.
    Reply
  • JayNor
    Some articles say this TGL-H chip will be paired with Intel's Xe-HPG enthusiast gaming GPU. For example, the notebookcheck article from 9/17 shows a photo of an mxm DG2 (Xe-HPG) GPU board with gddr6. The TGL-H is also stated to have 20 lanes of pcie4 (up from 4 on TGL-U).
    Reply
  • jgraham11
    AMD's 4000 line of CPUs completely destroy Intel's in virtually all multi-core tests and basically ties in single threaded workloads.
    The fact that Toms is referencing Userbenchmark is deplorable, as Userbenchmark is almost universally known as Intel Shills!

    Look at the ratings of the 5900x and 5950x: Despite that every hardware reviewer that I've seen (Paul's harware, Hardware Unboxed, Gamers Nexus, Jarod's Tech, PC benchmarks, Hardware Cannuck, etc) has said that these processors are vastly superior to what Intel is offering and yet on Userbenchmark the Intel 10900k is better than both.

    Userbenchmark - the only ones who have the 10900k better than AMD 5000 series
    Another example of Toms being an Intel shill... Userbenchmark should be taken with a grain of salt... Next they'll use Bapco Sysmark in their benchmarks again...
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    jgraham11 said:
    AMD's 4000 line of CPUs completely destroy Intel's in virtually all multi-core tests and basically ties in single threaded workloads.
    The fact that Toms is referencing Userbenchmark is deplorable, as Userbenchmark is almost universally known as Intel Shills!

    Look at the ratings of the 5900x and 5950x: Despite that every hardware reviewer that I've seen (Paul's harware, Hardware Unboxed, Gamers Nexus, Jarod's Tech, PC benchmarks, Hardware Cannuck, etc) has said that these processors are vastly superior to what Intel is offering and yet on Userbenchmark the Intel 10900k is better than both.

    Userbenchmark - the only ones who have the 10900k better than AMD 5000 series
    Another example of Toms being an Intel shill... Userbenchmark should be taken with a grain of salt... Next they'll use Bapco Sysmark in their benchmarks again...
    The point of this article is to inform people that Tiger Lake H is out in the wild and being tested. The article makes no reference to the scores and no one cares what they are from an early engineering sample.
    Reply
  • shady28
    jgraham11 said:
    AMD's 4000 line of CPUs completely destroy Intel's in virtually all multi-core tests and basically ties in single threaded workloads.
    The fact that Toms is referencing Userbenchmark is deplorable, as Userbenchmark is almost universally known as Intel Shills!

    Look at the ratings of the 5900x and 5950x: Despite that every hardware reviewer that I've seen (Paul's harware, Hardware Unboxed, Gamers Nexus, Jarod's Tech, PC benchmarks, Hardware Cannuck, etc) has said that these processors are vastly superior to what Intel is offering and yet on Userbenchmark the Intel 10900k is better than both.

    Userbenchmark - the only ones who have the 10900k better than AMD 5000 series
    Another example of Toms being an Intel shill... Userbenchmark should be taken with a grain of salt... Next they'll use Bapco Sysmark in their benchmarks again...


    Best scores for top SKU 4900HS on geekbench single core are around 1200, mostly less.

    Best scores for top sku 1185G7 Tiger Lake -U is over 1600 while typical is in the 1500s.

    So Tiger Lake already 'completely destroys' (using your words) AMD 4000 series laptop SKUs in single core, even compared to the rare special release 4900HS.

    It's no big surprise that the 4 core tiger falls behind in multi-core vs 8-core 4000 series, but it isn't behind as much as core count would indicate. It matches and usually beats the 6 core 4600U in multi-thread.

    It is getting single core comparable to the 5600X Zen 3 desktop. 5800X and higher have higher clocks, and can get ~5% more on single core than the Tiger Lake - U laptop chip....
    Reply
  • Freestyle80
    jgraham11 said:
    AMD's 4000 line of CPUs completely destroy Intel's in virtually all multi-core tests and basically ties in single threaded workloads.
    The fact that Toms is referencing Userbenchmark is deplorable, as Userbenchmark is almost universally known as Intel Shills!

    Look at the ratings of the 5900x and 5950x: Despite that every hardware reviewer that I've seen (Paul's harware, Hardware Unboxed, Gamers Nexus, Jarod's Tech, PC benchmarks, Hardware Cannuck, etc) has said that these processors are vastly superior to what Intel is offering and yet on Userbenchmark the Intel 10900k is better than both.

    Userbenchmark - the only ones who have the 10900k better than AMD 5000 series
    Another example of Toms being an Intel shill... Userbenchmark should be taken with a grain of salt... Next they'll use Bapco Sysmark in their benchmarks again...

    funny how you say userbenchmark are intel shills while being an even bigger amd shill
    Reply