Intel 5GHz 8-Core 16-Thread Tiger Lake-H CPU Demoed At GDC, Arriving Q2 2021
During the demo (skip to the 18-minute mark in the video below), Intel made it a point to focus on the fact that the processor provides 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes, giving laptops the ability to fully support the latest GeForce RTX 30 Series mobile GPUs along with ultra-fast PCIe 4.0 SSDs. Intel is citing this as a significant advantage over AMD's Ryzen 5000 family of Zen 3 mobile processors, which lacks PCIe 4.0 support (even though Zen 2 beat Intel to the punch with PCIe 4.0 on the desktop side).
Intel's Tiger Lake-H processors also support native Thunderbolt 4 connectivity when AMD doesn't even support Thunderbolt 3. Whether these pluses in Intel's favor will make a difference to consumers remains to be seen, but it is something to note when comparing Intel and AMD platforms.
Although Intel didn't specify which processor it used during the GDC 2021 Showcase demo, we're guessing that it's the Core i9-11980HK. We've talked about this processor on several occasions, and it reportedly has a maximum turbo clock of 5GHz. The Core i9-11980HK will reportedly be joined by the Core i9-11900H, Core i7-11800H, and Core i5-11400H.
According to Intel, the first laptops equipped with Tiger Lake-H processors will ship during the second quarter.
