Intel looks to pour further fuel on the high-performance laptop fire by releasing a gaggle of HX-class chips in the coming weeks.
Current 12th Gen Core H-series chips, destined for high-performance gaming laptops, were documented at the turn of the year and scale from eight cores to 14, with the exact Performance and Efficient composition depending upon model. The Core i9-12900HK, for example, throws 20 threads into the mixer, but that may not be enough to stave off the rival Ryzen 6000 Series mobile threat.
This is precisely where unannounced HX-class chips come in, and we have seen evidence of a 24-thread beastie doing the Geekbench 5 rounds. Companies use stress-testing software such as Geekbench when qualifying laptops before release, and it proves fertile ground for leaks as little care is taken in hiding results from the public.
Said software provides further illumination on Intel’s upcoming mobile HX strategy. Bot scanner Benchleaks has picked up three HX chips submitted to the Geekbench database: enter the Core i5-12600HX, Core i7-12850HX and Core i9-12950HX.
By its very name, Core i9-12950HX is the fastest of all Intel 12th Gen mobile CPUs. Touting an expected 16 cores and 24 threads, thereby matching the same topology as desktop Core i9s, it ought to be marginally faster than the already-leaked Core i9-12900HX. It’s not evident in the performance numbers, however, as the single- and multi-thread score is lower than what’s observed on that processor. Of course, Lenovo engineers are likely evaluating the chip in different thermal scenarios, resulting in a wide range of results that may not marry up with final perf.
Good news for performance aficionados is Core i7-12850HX also housing a 16C24T design, going by the recent submission. Last but not least, Core i5-12600HX occupies a 12C16T topology… which doesn’t exist in the standard H-class line-up. Complicated, eh?
Premium gaming laptops are soon going to be spoilt for CPU choice as the ongoing battle between AMD and Intel heats up. The evidence suggests a very reasonable uptick in performance from a laptop of, say, three years’ ago, so this summer presents an opportune time to upgrade that old workhorse.
