HiSilicon Kirin 970 vs Intel Core i9-9980HK

Last updated: 2024-04-16

CPU comparison with benchmarks


HiSilicon Kirin 970		Intel Core i9-9980HK
CPU comparison HiSilicon Kirin 970 or Intel Core i9-9980HK - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.40 GHz. Up to 8 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 was released in Q3/2017. The Intel Core i9-9980HK has 8 cores with 16 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 5.00 GHz. The CPU supports up to 128 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i9-9980HK was released in Q2/2019.

HiSilicon Kirin (29)	Family	Intel Core i9 (78)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (1)	CPU group	Intel Core i 9000H (11)
6	Generation	9
Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53	Architecture	Coffee Lake H Refresh
Mobile	Segment	Mobile
--	Predecessor	--
--	Successor	Intel Core i9-10980HK

CPU Cores and Base Frequency The HiSilicon Kirin 970 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 2.40 GHz. The Intel Core i9-9980HK has 8 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 2.40 GHz (5.00 GHz).
HiSilicon Kirin 970	Characteristic	Intel Core i9-9980HK
8	Cores	8
8	Threads	16
hybrid (big.LITTLE)	Core architecture	normal
No	Hyperthreading	Yes
No	Overclocking ?	Yes
2.40 GHz 4x Cortex-A73	A-Core	2.40 GHz (5.00 GHz)
1.84 GHz 4x Cortex-A53	B-Core	--
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.
HiSilicon Kirin 970	Characteristic	Intel Core i9-9980HK
--	AI hardware	--
--	AI specifications	--

Internal Graphics The integrated graphics unit of a processor is not only responsible for the pure image output on the system, but can also significantly increase the efficiency of the system with the support of modern video codecs.
ARM Mali-G72 MP12	GPU	Intel UHD Graphics 630
0.75 GHz	GPU frequency	0.35 GHz
--	GPU (Turbo)	1.25 GHz
Bifrost 2	GPU Generation	9.5
16 nm	Technology	14 nm
1	Max. displays	3
12	Compute units	24
192	Shader	192
No	Hardware Raytracing	No
No	Frame Generation	No
2 GB	Max. GPU Memory	64 GB
12	DirectX Version	12

Hardware codec support A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.
ARM Mali-G72 MP12	GPU	Intel UHD Graphics 630
Decode / Encode	Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit)	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit)	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec h264	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec VP9	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec VP8	Decode / Encode
No	Codec AV1	No
Decode / Encode	Codec AVC	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec VC-1	Decode
Decode / Encode	Codec JPEG	Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe The HiSilicon Kirin 970 supports a maximum of 8 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Intel Core i9-9980HK can connect up to 128 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.
HiSilicon Kirin 970	Characteristic	Intel Core i9-9980HK
LPDDR4X-2133	Memory	LPDDR3-2133, DDR4-2666
8 GB	Max. Memory	128 GB
4 (Quad Channel)	Memory channels	2 (Dual Channel)
--	Max. Bandwidth	42.7 GB/s
No	ECC	No
--	L2 Cache	--
2.00 MB	L3 Cache	16.00 MB
--	PCIe version	3.0
--	PCIe lanes	16
--	PCIe Bandwidth	15.8 GB/s
Thermal Management The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has a TDP of 9 W, that of the Intel Core i9-9980HK is 45 W.
HiSilicon Kirin 970	Characteristic	Intel Core i9-9980HK
9 W	TDP (PL1 / PBP)	45 W
--	TDP (PL2)	--
--	TDP up	--
--	TDP down	--
--	Tjunction max.	100 °C
Technical details The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has a 2.00 MB cache, while the Intel Core i9-9980HK cache has a total of 16.00 MB.
HiSilicon Kirin 970	Characteristic	Intel Core i9-9980HK
10 nm	Technology	14 nm
Chiplet	Chip design	Monolithic
Armv8-A (64 bit)	Instruction set (ISA)	x86-64 (64 bit)
--	ISA extensions	SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2
--	Socket	BGA 1440
None	Virtualization	VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
No	AES-NI	Yes
Android	Operating systems	Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux
Q3/2017	Release date	Q2/2019
--	Release price	580 $

show more data		show more data

HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz buy now on Amazon and save! Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 2.40 GHz (5.00 GHz) buy now on Amazon and save!

Rate these processors

Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks

HiSilicon Kirin 970 (30%)

Intel Core i9-9980HK (100%)

⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks

HiSilicon Kirin 970 (20%)

Intel Core i9-9980HK (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	349 (30%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 5.00 GHz	1183 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	1455 (20%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 3.40 GHz	7301 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 ARM Mali-G72 MP12 @ 0.75 GHz	330 (69%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK Intel UHD Graphics 630 @ 1.25 GHz	480 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)

The Cinebench 2024 benchmark is based on the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxon's 3D program Cinema 4D. The benchmark runs are each 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 5.00 GHz	71 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

The Multi-Core test of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark uses all cpu cores to render using the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxons Cinema 4D. The benchmark run is 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 5.00 GHz	424 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 5.00 GHz	1186 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 3.40 GHz	8370 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 5.00 GHz	1492 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 3.40 GHz	6927 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 5.00 GHz	485 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 3.40 GHz	3503 (100%)

Blender 3.1 Benchmark

In the Blender Benchmark 3.1, the scenes "monster", "junkshop" and "classroom" are rendered and the time required by the system is measured. In our benchmark we test the CPU and not the graphics card. Blender 3.1 was presented as a standalone version in March 2022.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 3.40 GHz	145 (100%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 3.40 GHz	14481 (100%)

Blender 2.81 (bmw27)

Blender is a free 3D graphics software for rendering (creating) 3D bodies, which can also be textured and animated in the software. The Blender benchmark creates predefined scenes and measures the time (s) required for the entire scene. The shorter the time required, the better. We selected bmw27 as the benchmark scene.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 3.40 GHz	251.2 (100%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 2.40 GHz	4269 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 5.00 GHz	196 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.


	HiSilicon Kirin 970 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i9-9980HK 8C 16T @ 3.40 GHz	1607 (100%)

Devices using this processor
HiSilicon Kirin 970	Intel Core i9-9980HK
Huawei Honor 10 Huawei Note 10 Huawei Play Huawei Honor View 10 Huawei Mate 10 Pro Huawei P20 Huawei Nova 3 Huawei Nova 4	Acer ConceptD 9 Acer Predator Helios 700 Acer Predator Triton 900 Alienware m17 Aorus 17 Apple MacBook 15.4 (2019) Apple MacBook 16 (2019) Asus G703GX Asus ProArt StudioBook One Asus ROG Mothership Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Dell XPS 15 7590 Gigabyte Aero 17

Popular comparisons containing this CPUs


1.		Apple M1 vs Intel Core i9-9980HK
2.		AMD Ryzen 7 4800H vs Intel Core i9-9980HK
3.		Intel Core i9-9980HK vs Apple A14 Bionic
4.		Intel Core i7-9750H vs Intel Core i9-9980HK
5.		Intel Core i9-9980HK vs Intel Core i9-9900K
6.		HiSilicon Kirin 970 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G
7.		Intel Core i9-9980HK vs Intel Xeon E-2286M
8.		Intel Core i9-10980HK vs Intel Core i9-9980HK
9.		AMD Ryzen 9 4900H vs Intel Core i9-9980HK
10.		HiSilicon Kirin 970 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G