Core i7-11800H vs Core i7-8700K

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the Core i7-11800H scores 45 and the Core i7-8700K scores 43, about 5% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The Core i7-11800H has 8 cores and 16 threads, and the Core i7-8700K has 6 cores and 12 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 4.6 GHz and 4.7 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i7-11800H uses the BGA socket and the Core i7-8700K uses LGA1151, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 45 W for the first and 95 W for the second. That difference changes the cooler you need, and it shows up in heat and noise.

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 i7-11800H 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 i7-8700K reaches the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i7-11800H if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Core i7-8700K if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.