This post features a list of the fastest laptop processors currently available, explaining their main characteristics and comparing their benchmark

Are you looking forward to buy a new powerful laptop? Check our list on the fastest laptop processors, ranking them by performance and explaining its pros and cons.

Fastest Laptop Processors

This list is updated frequently. At the time of this publication Intel had just announced its Coffee Lake generation of chips. However, their specs were still not available. Until new information is available, this list will feature processors from the Kaby Lake and Skylake generation.

Before we get to our list of the fastest laptops processors, there are two important specs I would like to explain. They are the differences between dual and quad core processors, and the hyper-threading technology.

Dual Core vs Quad Core Processors

One of the main things to consider when buying a high performance laptop is whether it is a dual core or a quad core processor. Considering we are just listing processors from the Intel Core series, it is also important to analyze its benchmark before purchasing.

Regardless if you are buying a Core i5 or Core i7, I would recommend double checking if the processor is a dual core or a quad core. There are dual cores and quad cores among both Core i5 and Core i7 processors.

In the Intel Core series, quad cores are faster than dual cores. In some cases you might find a quad core i5 which is faster than a dual core i7. If you are looking for a powerful gaming laptop, I would recommend always buying a quad core laptop. All of the processors in this list are quad core processors.

Hyper-threading Technology

The hyper-threading technology is also something important regarding Intel chips. It allows Intel processors to improve its performance through parallelization of computations. As an example, a dual core processor using hyper-threading will have four threads, doing more calculations and therefore having a higher benchmark.

Quad core processors using the hyper-threading technology are currently the fastest laptops processors available. However, there are some pretty fast processors which do not use this technology.

Fastest Laptop Processors Chart

On the chart below we will rank the fastest laptop processors currently available, based on their benchmark. There are a few exceptions not in this list, since these chips are rarely found in laptops.

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The benchmark data to build this chart is available at PassMark.com

As we can see the Core i7-7920HQ and the Core i7-7820HK are the fastest laptop processors available (at the time of this publication).

Let’s analyze each one of the fastest laptop processors below and understand its pros and cons.

Skylake Chips

Skylake is the name for the sixth generation of Intel chips. There are some pretty powerful chips in this generation, but a few of them are excluded from this list, since they are not very popular and hard to be found in most laptops.

In fact, the fastest laptop processor from the Skylake generation is the Core i7-6970HQ, however, there almost no laptops currently available using this processor.

Core i5-6300HQ

The Core i5-6300HQ is the “slowest” among the fastest laptops in this list. However, it is a quad core processor and has a pretty decent benchmark. Despite being in the last place of our list it runs most games released in 2017 with very good graphic settings.

Core i7-6700HQ

The Core i7-6700HQ is the most popular quad core processor with hyper-threading from the Skylake generation. It has a base frequency of 2.60 GHz and a maximum turbo of 3.50 GHz.

The i7-6700HQ is not only a good idea because of its benchmark, but since the release of the Kaby Lake series, Skylake powered laptops decreased in price dramaticaly.

Core i7-6820HK

The i7-6820HK is one of the most powerful from the Skylake generation. Unlike the i7-6700HQ, there are fewer laptops using this processor, and they are usually pretty expensive.

Kaby Lake Chips

The Kaby Lake is the seventh generation of Intel chips and offers even more power than the Skylake generation. Now let’s check briefly the fastest laptop processors from the Kaby Lake generation.

Core i5-7300HQ

The Core i5-7300HQ is part of the Skylake generation of Intel chips, and is a quad core processor without hyper-threading.

Its main advantage is that is considerably more affordable than chips like the i7-7700HQ, therefore reducing the final laptop price. It has a great gaming performance, however, since it doesn’t use the hyper-threading technology, there is a considerable difference between it and other quad core chips which do use this technology.

The Core i5-7300HQ has a base frequency of 2.50 GHz an a maximum turbo of 3.50 GHz. Considering it does not use the hyper-threading technology, it is significantly slower than the i7-6700HQ or the i7-7700HQ.

If you want to know more about this processor, check our buying guide on the best i5-7300HQ laptops.

Core i7-7700HQ

The Core i7-7700HQ is the most popular among high-end gaming laptops manufactured in 2017. It has the perfect balance between a very high benchmark, but at the same time an attractive price for laptop manufacturing.

Let’s now analyze it’s main specs. The i7-7700HQ has a base frequency of 2.80 GHz and a maximum turbo speed of 3.80 GHz. The i7-7700HQ uses the hyper-threading technology and therefore has an extremely high benchmark.

If you want to know more about this processor, check our buying guide on the best i7-7700HQ laptops.

Recommended Core i7-7700HQ Laptop

ASUS ROG Strix GL553VE 15.6″ Gaming Laptop

One of the latest releases by the ASUS Republic of Gamers brand. If you are into PC gaming, even if you don’t own a gaming laptop, you have probably heard about this brand and its products.

This laptops’ hardware is nothing short of awesome. It features the all new i7-7700HQ quad core processor, from the Kaby Lake generation of Intel chips. Expect also a lot of performance from its NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti dedicated graphics card.

Click here to buy this laptop on Amazon.com

Processor	Intel Core i7-7700HQ
Display	15.6 inches Full HD
RAM	16 GB DDR4
Storage	256 GB SSD +1 TB SSD

Core i7-7820HQ

The Core i7-7820HQ is in the category of what I would consider extreme high-end laptop processors.

It is a quad core processor, with hyper-threading and pretty impressive benchmark. It has a base frequency of 2.90 GHz and a maximum turbo speed of 3.90 GHz.

It is important to note that the i7-7820HQ is available in just a few high-end laptops. However, there is an even more powerful and more popular alternative for he i7-7820HQ. Let’s check it below.

Core i7-7820HK

The Core i7-7820HK has two important advantages compared to the i7-7820HQ. The first advantage is its popularity, and the second is its benchmark.

In terms of popularity the i7-7820HK is great, as it powers laptops from different brands and different models. Even if these laptops are usually expensive, at least you have good options to choose from.

Recommended Core i7-7820HK Laptop

Alienware AW17R4-7352SLV-PUS 17″ QHD Laptop (7th Generation Intel Core i7, 32GB RAM, 256SSD + 1TB HDD, Silver) VR Ready with NVIDIA GTX 1080

One of the most powerful Alienware models currently available. This VR Ready excels in almost every aspect, with plenty of RAM and storage.

Starting from its exterior, this Alienware, like every model from the brand, looks pretty awesome. When we start analyzing its hardware however, it is just mind blowing.

The i7-7820HK is one of fastest quad core processors currently available from Intel, and it is ideal for gaming purposes.

The processor isn’t however, the only impressive hardware spec in this laptop. It has plenty of RAM, with 32 GB DDR4 available. Need a lot of storage? No problem, as this Alienware has a 256 GB SSD as well as a 1 TB hard drive disk.