Core i5-10500 vs Core i7-11800H

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

The Core i5-10500 and the Core i7-11800H are within a few percent of each other for gaming. In a game, you will not see the difference.

The Core i5-10500 has 6 cores and 12 threads, and the Core i7-11800H has 8 cores and 16 threads. The extra cores of the Core i7-11800H help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 4.5 GHz and 4.6 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i5-10500 uses the LGA1200 socket and the Core i7-11800H uses BGA, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 65 W for the first and 45 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

We do not have launch prices for both chips, so we cannot compare value.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the Core i5-10500 can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Core i7-11800H reaches the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i5-10500 if you want the faster gaming chip. Choose the Core i7-11800H if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.