Core i5-9400H vs Core i7-1180G7

Both the Core i5-9400H and Core i7-1180G7 share an identical 4-core/8-thread configuration. Boost clocks reach 4.3 GHz on the Core i5-9400H versus 4.6 GHz on the Core i7-1180G7 — a 6.7% clock advantage for the Core i7-1180G7 (base: 2.5 GHz vs 1.3 GHz). The Core i5-9400H uses the Coffee Lake-H (2018−2019) architecture (14 nm), while the Core i7-1180G7 uses Tiger Lake-UP4 (2020−2021) (10 nm SuperFin). In PassMark, the Core i5-9400H scores 7,794 against the Core i7-1180G7's 7,788 — a 0.1% lead for the Core i5-9400H. Geekbench 6 single-core — the metric most relevant to gaming — records 1,341 vs 1,845, a 31.6% lead for the Core i7-1180G7 that directly translates to higher frame rates. L3 cache: 8 MB on the Core i5-9400H vs 12 MB (total) on the Core i7-1180G7.

The Core i5-9400H uses the BGA1440 socket (PCIe 3.0), while the Core i7-1180G7 uses FCBGA1598 (PCIe 4.0) — making them incompatible on the same motherboard. Both support up to DDR4-2666 memory speed. The Core i5-9400H supports up to 128 GB of RAM compared to 32 GB — 120% more capacity for professional workloads. Both feature 2-channel memory with ECC support. PCIe lanes: 16 (Core i5-9400H) vs 4 (Core i7-1180G7) — the Core i5-9400H offers 12 more lanes for additional GPUs or NVMe drives. Chipset compatibility: HM370,QM370 (Core i5-9400H) and Tiger Lake-UP4 (Core i7-1180G7).

Neither processor supports overclocking. Only the Core i7-1180G7 supports AVX-512 instructions — important for machine learning and scientific applications. Both support VT-x, VT-d, EPT virtualization. Both include integrated graphics — UHD Graphics 630 (Core i5-9400H) and Iris Xe Graphics 96EU (Core i7-1180G7) — useful as a fallback for troubleshooting or display output without a dedicated GPU. Primary use case: Core i5-9400H targets High Performance Laptop, Core i7-1180G7 targets Premium Ultra-Thin Laptop. Direct competitor: Core i5-9400H rivals Ryzen 5 4600H; Core i7-1180G7 rivals Ryzen 7 5800U.