Core i7-7700HQ: CPU benchmarks and laptop guide

The Intel Core i7-7700HQ was the quad-core H-class standard-bearer of 2017 — the Kaby Lake design inside that era's gaming laptops and mobile workstations. The catalog matches it to 26 models, and it meets the recommended CPU requirement in 30 of the 69 games the site tracks. This guide covers where the chip sits among laptop CPUs, what it brings to a portable, and which laptops carry it.

Where the Core i7-7700HQ sits in 2026

A catalog score of 49.1 places the chip 274th of 672 scored laptop CPUs — the middle of a table that spans two decades of silicon. The neighborhood is settled territory: the Core i7-7820HQ (49.4), Core Ultra 5 332 (49.3) and Core Ultra 5 322 (49.2) just above, the Core i7-6820HQ (47.8), Core i5-8305G (47.8) and Core i7-1355U (47.7) just below. Sitting a few slots beneath its own direct sibling, with same-era quad-cores clustered around it, tells the story plainly — this is where 2017 silicon comes to rest, and only efficient modern U-series parts drift into the block from the side.

What the chip brings

Kaby Lake-H is a 4-core, 8-thread design built on a 14 nm process and rated at 45 W in its HQ-class configuration: a 2.8 GHz base clock and up to 3.8 GHz boost. Memory support runs to 64 GB of DDR3 or DDR4 across two channels with 37 GB/s of bandwidth, and the integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 handles light display duty when no discrete GPU is present. In public benchmarks the chip posts 1,173 single-core and 3,633 multi-core in Geekbench, with a PassMark overall score of 6,882.

Games: CPU-side readiness

Measured purely as a processor, the chip clears the recommended CPU tier for 30 of 69 cataloged games — Doom Eternal, Death Stranding, Control, Hitman 3, God of War, Grand Theft Auto V and Overwatch among them. Another 24 sit at the minimum tier: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, Minecraft, Valorant and Far Cry 5 all list the chip above their minimum but below their recommended CPU requirement. Fifteen games fall below even the minimum CPU mark — Starfield, Helldivers 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, Counter-Strike 2, Fortnite and Resident Evil 4 Remake among them — a reminder that a 2017 quad-core no longer clears modern requirements. These verdicts are CPU-only — whether a game actually plays well depends on the laptop's GPU and RAM, though at this age all three are usually limits together.

Laptops that carry it

The 26-model roster is Acer-heavy. The Aspire 7 line runs from the A715-42G at $399 through the A715-51G at $553 to the A715-76G and A715-79G at $650, while Nitro 5 gaming variants — AN515-45, AN515-46, AN515-55, AN515-57, AN515-58 and AN515-47 — span $590 to $922. The 2017 originals are the ZBook 15 G4 workstation at $269 and the XPS 15 9560 at $422. Roster medians describe the fleet honestly: office comfort at 75, a gaming index of 47 and a performance index of 49 reflect entry-level graphics across the board, while mobility at 24 and portability at 28 keep these firmly in mainstream-chassis territory.

Bottom line

The Core i7-7700HQ is a budget-and-expectations CPU in 2026: a mid-table rank, recommended-tier readiness for 30 of 69 tracked games, and fifteen titles it cannot clear even at minimum. It remains serviceable for older single-player games, lighter esports entries and everyday work — the roster's $269 workstation and $399-$650 Aspires price it accordingly. Buyers should treat any gaming ambition on this chip as modest, check RAM alongside the GPU, and step up a generation or two if the newest CPU-bound titles matter.