Intel Core i7-11700 vs Intel Core i9-7980XE

Core i7-11700 vs Core i9-7980XE benchmarks

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i7-11700 performs better than the Core i9-7980XE. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-7980XE in all gaming tests too.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i9-7980XE has significantly more cores with 18 cores compared to the Core i7-11700 that has 8 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i7-11700. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i9-7980XE has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i7-11700. Despite this, the Core i7-11700 has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i7-11700 CPU outputs less heat than a Core i9-7980XE CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

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 i7-11700 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.