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Intel Core i7-8550U
Intel's quad-core 15W U-series chip doubles the core count of the dual-core Kaby Lake U parts it replaced, while holding the same 15 W power envelope. Base clocks drop to 1.8 GHz to make room for the extra cores, so sustained performance leans heavily on a laptop's cooling.
Pros
- Four cores and eight threads at the same 15W TDP as its two-core predecessors
- Turbo Boost reaches 4.0GHz for short single-core bursts
- UHD Graphics 620 edges out the previous HD Graphics 620
- Large multi-core gains over two-core Kaby Lake U chips in review testing
- Supports faster DDR4-2400 memory
Cons
- Base clock falls to 1.8GHz to fit four cores in a 15W budget
- Sustained performance depends heavily on a laptop's cooling
- Built on the same 14nm process as its predecessors
- Integrated graphics remain far behind any dedicated GPU
Below average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the Intel Core i7-8550U
General
- Announced
- 2017
- Process
- 14 nm
- Base TDP
- 15 W
- Max TDP
- 25 W
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 4
- Threads
- 8
- Base clock
- 1.8 GHz
- Boost clock
- 4 GHz
- L3 cache
- 8 MB
Integrated GPU
- iGPU
- Intel UHD Graphics 620
- iGPU clock
- 1,150 MHz
Memory
- Memory support
- DDR4-2400 / LPDDR3-2133
- Max memory
- 32 GB
Benchmarks
- Cinebench R23 (single)
- 1,021Bottom 10%
- Cinebench R23 (multi)
- 2,914Bottom 6%
- PassMark
- 5,794Bottom 8%
- 3DMark Time Spy Graphics (iGPU)
- 389Bottom 8%
Quick answers
Is the Intel Core i7-8550U good in 2026?
The Intel Core i7-8550U earns an Inno Score of 35.9/100 (“Below average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. Intel's quad-core 15W U-series chip doubles the core count of the dual-core Kaby Lake U parts it replaced, while holding the same 15 W power envelope. Base clocks drop to 1.8 GHz to make room for the extra cores, so sustained performance leans heavily on a laptop's cooling.
Does the Intel Core i7-8550U count as "Core i7 or equivalent"?
Its PassMark CPU Mark average is 5,794 (cpubenchmark.net, retrieved Sep 26, 2026), which puts it in Tier D of our CPU tier checker: legacy Core i7 and budget chips, slower than recent Core i5 chips such as the i5-1235U. Requirement pages word this differently, so check the exact wording with your department.
What are the key specs of the Intel Core i7-8550U?
Cores: 4 · Threads: 8 · Boost clock: 4 GHz · Base TDP: 15 W
What are the closest alternatives to the Intel Core i7-8550U?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are Intel Core i5-10210U, Intel Core i7-10710U, Intel Core i3-N305 — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.
