OCTOBER 2019 PCWorld 75to a Windows on ARM laptop (just kidding,
we’re not that frustrated). Even Intel itself
admits there “might be some confusion”
between its different 10th-gen CPUs.
Fortunately for you, we’ve combed through
all of Intel’s newest 10th-gen laptop CPUs to try
to find the strengths and weaknesses of the
19 different parts. Although we haven’t
personally touched each different model
integrated into a laptop, we’re comfortable
with our performance forecast based on the
fact that we’ve actually already run 10th-gen Ice
Lake though its paces (go.pcworld.com/ilpv).
As 10th-gen Comet Lake shares much in
common with the 8th-gen Whiskey Lake U, we
know what to expect there too.
But first, here are the details of Intel’s
entire 10th-gen laptop CPU lineup to date.
Yup, that’s a lot of information as well as a
lot of different options. If you’re the kind of
consumer who doesn’t care about code
names, manufacturing process, clock speed,
core count or graphics execution units but
you don’t want to make a buying mistake,
we’ve translated the hellish Excel spreadsheet
of the CPU lineup into concrete use cases.HOW TO USE OUR CHART
On the far left of the chart on the next page are
the individual model numbers of each new
10th-gen CPU. The table shows important
performance criteria and how we’re rating each
CPU model. As you move from left to right, ask
yourself how important each criterion is for what
you do or might do, and note how it balances
against the other CPUs.
For example, if you want a CPU with good
multi-core performance and with good gaming