Core Ultra 7 164U vs Core i5-11500T

The Core Ultra 7 164U packs 12 cores / 14 threads, while the Core i5-11500T offers 6 cores / 12 threads — the Core Ultra 7 164U has 6 more cores. Boost clocks reach 4.8 GHz on the Core Ultra 7 164U versus 3.9 GHz on the Core i5-11500T — a 20.7% clock advantage for the Core Ultra 7 164U (base: 1.1 GHz vs 1.5 GHz). The Core Ultra 7 164U uses the Meteor Lake-U (2023) architecture (7 nm), while the Core i5-11500T uses Rocket Lake (2021) (14 nm). In PassMark, the Core Ultra 7 164U scores 12,625 against the Core i5-11500T's 12,730 — a 0.8% lead for the Core i5-11500T. Cinebench R23 multi-core: 8,766 vs 9,500 (8% advantage for the Core i5-11500T). Geekbench 6 single-core — the metric most relevant to gaming — records 2,131 vs 1,818, a 15.9% lead for the Core Ultra 7 164U that directly translates to higher frame rates. Multi-core Geekbench: 8,973 vs 6,306 (34.9% advantage for the Core Ultra 7 164U). Both processors carry 12 MB (total) of L3 cache.

The Core Ultra 7 164U uses the FCBGA2551 socket (PCIe 5.0), while the Core i5-11500T uses LGA1200 (PCIe 4.0) — making them incompatible on the same motherboard. Maximum memory speed reaches LPDDR5x-6400 on the Core Ultra 7 164U versus DDR4-3200 on the Core i5-11500T — the Core Ultra 7 164U supports 22.2% faster memory, which can translate to measurable gains in memory-sensitive workloads. The Core i5-11500T supports up to 128 GB of RAM compared to 64 GB — 66.7% more capacity for professional workloads. Both feature 2-channel memory with ECC support. PCIe lanes: 12 (Core Ultra 7 164U) vs 20 (Core i5-11500T) — the Core i5-11500T offers 8 more lanes for additional GPUs or NVMe drives. Chipset compatibility: Meteor Lake-U (Core Ultra 7 164U) and H510,B560,Z590,Q570 (Core i5-11500T).

Neither processor supports overclocking. Only the Core i5-11500T supports AVX-512 instructions — important for machine learning and scientific applications. Virtualization support: VT-x, VT-d (Core Ultra 7 164U) vs VT-x, VT-d, EPT (Core i5-11500T). Both include integrated graphics — Intel Arc (Core Ultra 7 164U) and UHD Graphics 750 (Core i5-11500T) — useful as a fallback for troubleshooting or display output without a dedicated GPU. Primary use case: Core Ultra 7 164U targets Enthusiast, Core i5-11500T targets Quiet Desktop / SFF. Direct competitor: Core Ultra 7 164U rivals Ryzen 7 7840U; Core i5-11500T rivals Core i5-10500T.