Intel Core i7-4870HQ Review

The Core i7-4870HQ is one of Intel's high-end Laptop processors. It was released in 2014 with 4 cores and 8 threads. With base clock at 3.7GHz, max speed at 3.7GHz, and a 47W power rating. The Core i7-4870HQ is based on the Haswell 22nm family and is part of the Core i7 series.

Core i7-4870HQ is also the successor of Intel's last gen Core i7-3820QM processor that was based on the Ivy Bridge and 22nm process and was released in 2012.

Now, we're asking ourselves whether or not the Intel Core i7-4870HQ finally dethrones the FX-7600P as the de facto ruler of the mainstream processors. Ultimately, it depends: the Core i7-4870HQ doesn't reach the same single-core performance as AMD, but we're starting to see more games adopt multi-threaded CPUs, so that doesn't matter as much.

We covered the deep dive details of the Haswell chip design in our Intel Core i7-4900MQ and Core i7-4860HQ review, so head there for more information on the Core i7-4870HQ's architecture, which is identical to the Core i7-4860HQ.

As the higher-priced version of the Core i7-4860HQ, the Core i7-4870HQ has higher base and Boost frequencies of 3.7 and 3.7 GHz, respectively. That's an increase in base frequency and a bump to boost clocks, but the real advantage should lay in the higher Package Power Tracking (PPT) envelope, which is a measurement of the maximum amount of power delivered to the socket. The Core i7-4860HQ's PPT tops out at 47W, while the motherboard can pump up to 142W to the Core i7-4870HQ at peak performance. That opens up much more aggressive boost behavior, on both single and multiple cores, that could widen the performance gap beyond what we see on the spec sheet.

But, like most humans, if you do things other than gaming, the Core i7-4870HQ offers a better mixture of performance in single- and multi-threaded applications. The Core i7-4870HQ offers twice the threads of the price-comparable FX-7600P, and it wields them to great effect in threaded workloads. As such, rendering and encoding remain a strong suit of the Core i7 chips, and Intel's improvements to AVX throughput have yielded impressive results.

What this all means is that the Intel Core i7-4870HQ is an absolute beast when it comes to multi-threaded workloads, especially at this price point. If you're counting on doing some video editing or compiling one hell of an Excel spreadsheet, you're going to see firsthand a performance boost with the Core i7-4870HQ.

One of the nice things about the Intel Core i7-4870HQ processors is that the retail boxed models come with a CPU cooler. So, you can pick something like the Intel Core i7-4870HQ up for $434 and don’t need to spend any extra money on CPU cooling.

The Intel Core i7-4870HQ retail boxed processor comes with the traditional ‘pancake’ CPU cooler. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done on this processor which is rated at 47W TDP. You do not need to have an aftermarket cooling solution unless you want to.

Our look today at the Intel Core i7-4870HQ showed that it is a very capable processor. A 4-core processor sounds like it would be really under-powered these days, but we were pleasantly surprised with a snappy and very capable system. Having just 4 cores had this processor coming in at the back of the pack for heavily threaded workloads, but it performed better than some of its more expensive siblings in lightly threaded workloads where it shined thanks to its high base clocks.

If extended overclocking and boost frequencies are trivial matters to you, Intel also offers the Core i7-4860HQ at $434. It’s still outfitted with 4-cores and 8-threads, but clocks in at a slower 3.6GHz and maxes out at only 3.6GHz.

Fresh from a successful roll-out of mainstream Core i7 CPUs, Intel's attack on AMD now extends down into the high-end with its Core i7-4870HQ processors, which the company is making available as of on July 2014.