Intel Core i5-8250U vs Intel Core i7-8550U

Core i5-8250U vs Core i7-8550U comparison

In our benchmarks, the Core i7-8550U beats the Core i5-8250U in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i5-8250U in all gaming tests too.

When comparing these CPUs we notice that they have the same number of cores and the same number of threads. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i7-8550U has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-8250U. Also, the Core i7-8550U has a slightly higher turbo speed. Both these chips have an identical TDP (Thermal Design Power). This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption. The data shows that both these CPUs have same sized L2 caches. The Core i7-8550U also has slightly more L3 cache.

Most CPUs have more threads than cores. This technology, colloquially called hyperthreading, improves performance by splitting a core into multiple virtual ones. This provides more efficient utilisation of a core. Indeed, the Core i5-8250U has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.