Core i7-1180G7 vs Core i5-9400H

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

The Core i7-1180G7 uses the FCBGA1598 socket (PCIe 4.0), while the Core i5-9400H uses BGA1440 (PCIe 3.0) — making them incompatible on the same motherboard. Both support up to LPDDR4x-4267 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: 4 (Core i7-1180G7) vs 16 (Core i5-9400H) — the Core i5-9400H offers 12 more lanes for additional GPUs or NVMe drives. Chipset compatibility: Tiger Lake-UP4 (Core i7-1180G7) and HM370,QM370 (Core i5-9400H).

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 — Iris Xe Graphics 96EU (Core i7-1180G7) and UHD Graphics 630 (Core i5-9400H) — useful as a fallback for troubleshooting or display output without a dedicated GPU. Primary use case: Core i7-1180G7 targets Premium Ultra-Thin Laptop, Core i5-9400H targets High Performance Laptop. Direct competitor: Core i7-1180G7 rivals Ryzen 7 5800U; Core i5-9400H rivals Ryzen 5 4600H.