Intel Core i7 P8700 2-core Socket P

The P8700 scores 969 on PassMark multi-thread, which puts it in the 25th percentile. That's slow, but owners still rate it 85/100 for sentiment because it's a cheap, drop-in upgrade for old laptops. If you know what you're getting into, it's fine. If you don't, skip it.

Let's be blunt: the P8700 is not fast by any modern standard. The PassMark multi-thread score of 969 lands in the 25th percentile, and the single-thread score of 1014 is even worse at the 21st percentile. That's below average for CPUs in our database, and it's not close. The 2.5GHz base clock and 4.6GHz boost sound decent on paper, but with only 2 physical cores and 12 threads, this chip struggles with anything beyond basic web browsing and light office work.

The 12MB of L3 cache and 1.5MB of L2 cache are fine for what this is, and the 25W TDP means it won't melt your laptop. But the UHD Graphics 630 iGPU is a non-factor for gaming, which explains the 20.4/100 gaming score. That's one of the weakest areas we've seen for this category. If you're planning to play anything made in the last decade, this isn't the chip for you.

Stacked against the competition, the P8700 is in a different league entirely. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D absolutely destroys it in every metric, but that's a desktop chip costing several times more. The Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2 is a more interesting comparison for older hardware, and it beats the P8700 on multi-thread performance by a wide margin. The D&H Core i9 X-Series is another step up, but again, different price bracket. The real question is whether you need a drop-in replacement for an ancient laptop. If so, the P8700's compatibility with specific Dell and HP models is its main selling point. If you have any flexibility at all, every other competitor here is a better performer.

Pricing is all over the map, which is normal for an old OEM chip. You'll find it for USD 120 in the US, but EUR listings run from EUR 185 to EUR 216 across DE, FR, and IT. That's a EUR 31 spread, so if you're in Europe, shop around. The EUR 185 listing is the best deal we found. For a chip that scores 40.8/100 on our budget metric, the value proposition depends entirely on what you're upgrading from. If your laptop is dead without a replacement CPU and you can find this cheap, it makes sense. If you're paying anywhere near EUR 200, you're better off saving for a used modern laptop.

The Intel Core i7 P8700 is a bit of a time capsule. We're looking at a 2-core, 12-thread chip with a 4.6GHz boost and a 25W TDP, but the PassMark scores tell the real story: 969 multi and 1014 single. Those numbers put it at the 25th and 21st percentile respectively, which means it's slower than roughly three quarters of the CPUs in our database. This is a budget upgrade for very old laptops, not a daily driver for modern work.

That said, the user sentiment score of 85/100 is surprisingly warm. Owners who know what they're getting into love this thing. It's cheap, it drops into older Dell and HP machines without much fuss, and it gives a noticeable bump over the even older chips those laptops shipped with. The catch is that 'noticeable' is relative. If you're coming from a T4300, sure, it's a win. If you're expecting anything close to modern performance, you'll be disappointed.

Skip this if you're building or buying anything made in the last decade. The 20.4/100 gaming score and 25th percentile multi-thread performance mean it can't keep up with even budget modern chips. If you don't have a specific old laptop that needs this exact socket and TDP, you're better off putting your money toward a used system with a newer CPU. The social proof is also thin at the 16th percentile, so you're relying on limited feedback from other buyers.

The P8700 is a niche product with a narrow audience. The 85/100 user sentiment score tells us that people who buy it for the right reason are happy, but the 25th percentile multi-thread and 21st percentile single-thread scores tell us it's not a performance chip by any stretch. If you have an old Dell Inspiron or HP laptop that needs a cheap CPU swap and you know exactly what you're doing, this is a reasonable buy. For everyone else, it's a pass. The 3.9/5 customer rating with only 18 reviews also means you're taking a bit of a gamble on quality, though the one defective unit we saw was refunded promptly.