Comparing Different CPUs
Whether you're upgrading your existing system or building a new PC, the CPU matters a lot. Higher clock speeds and core counts can make a major difference in overall performance, providing a faster system and smoother gaming. The CPU you choose will also determine your motherboard options since each processor only works with a specific CPU socket and set of chipsets. There is also the choice to buy the best processor that's available right now, or wait to see what next-generation chips brings. No matter which desktop processor you get, here are some things to keep in mind.
Clock speed and cores are the most heavily advertised part of processors. Clock speed is usually GHz while the number of cores is usually advertised as dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or octa-core. For a long time, it was this simple: the higher the clock speed, the faster the processor, and more cores meant better speeds. But processor technology today isn’t dependent as much on the clock speed and cores because CPUs now have several other parts that determine how fast they can perform. It comes down to how much computing can be done when all parts of a CPU come together in a single clock cycle. If performing a task takes two clock cycles on CPU A and one clock cycle on CPU B, then CPU B might be the better processor even if CPU A has a higher clock speed. Compare clock speeds only when you are trying to decide between two CPUs from the same family and same number of cores. or any other scenario, the clock speed or cores don’t always indicate performance. if you're comparing Intel vs. AMD, clock speed alone won't tell you much.
A secret in the computer world is that even though you're buying a processor with four cores, all four of those cores might not actually be used when you're running applications. Most software today is still single-threaded, which means the program is running as one process and a process can only run on one core. So even if you have four cores, you won't be getting the full performance of all four cores for that application. This is why you also need to check the single-threaded performance of any processor before buying it. Not all companies release that information, so you can refer to third party sites like Passmark benchmark tests.
The cache is one of the most under-appreciated parts of a CPU. In fact, a cache with poor specs could be slowing down the PC. So always check the cache specs of a processor. Cache is RAM for the processor, which means that the processor uses the cache to store all of the functions it has recently performed. Whenever those functions are requested again, the processor can draw the data from the cache instead of performing it a second time, making it faster. Processors have different levels of cache, starting with L1 and going up to L3 or L4, so only compare cache size at the same level. If one CPU has L3 cache of 4 MB and another has L3 cache of 6 MB, the one with 6MB is the better choice. This is assuming clock speed, core, and single-threaded performance are all comparable.
There are other factors that affect the performance of a PC. When it comes to overall performance, keep in mind that the processor is only as good as the rest of the hardware. If you have a great processor and only stick in 2 GB of RAM, then it will be bottlenecked in speed. But, with all other things being equal, you can still intelligently compare CPUs when you compare the cache, the type of cache, and single-core performance.