Your Last Chance to Learn All About Buying CPUs
They're probably gonna change forever soon...
I wanted to write an article on CPUs explaining the naming schemes of processors from the two big manufacturers. But the problem is that their naming schemes are really confusing. To add to the confusion, they change it every now and then making it more confusing.
In Pakistan, the general narrative is that the i7 processor is better than i5 but this topic is more nuanced because many people don't take into account that there are many more versions under a series like i7. Even in the same generation i7 could mean many different versions of the processor.
The fact is that an i5 can be better than i7 in many cases not to mention that not all i7 processors are created equal. AMD has a similar problem and it gets confusing really fast.
Now, If I start explaining the naming schemes for both AMD and Intel processors, this article would be a confusing mess for anyone trying to get a general understanding of the topic. That's why in this article, I have focused on the fundamental areas of a processor which an average consumer can focus on to decide the best thing for himself.
These fundamentals stay the same across processor manufacturers. So, it doesn't matter if you're with team blue or team red, you can make a sound decision for yourself.
The Fundamentals of a CPU
The PC processor market is primarily divided between two major manufacturers - Intel & AMD. Almost every year they release a new generation of CPUs that have new requirements and specs.
It's easy to get confused looking at the processor numbers and generations. Every now and then companies like Intel and AMD change their naming schemes that also adds to the confusion.
If you want you can research on generation and processor numbers but here in this article I have listed some of the basic specifications of a CPU that you can track to get an idea of its potential and use-case for yourself.
So, there are four main things an average buyer can focus on when choosing a CPU. I'll list them below and explain each in detail one by one:
Cores & Threads
Clock Speed
Cache Size
Thermal Design Power (TDP)
Cores & Threads
Cores
The processor is the physical chip that you install on your motherboard and cores are the physical CPUs inside it that perform calculations. Computers used to be single-core but efficiency in processor design allowed us to fit even smaller CPUs inside a CPU chip, that's why we see processors with multiple cores.
You should know that more cores in a processor generally mean that your computer can take on more tasks at once. More cores also mean that your computer can finish smaller tasks in less time if the program you're using is written in a way to utilize multi-threading.
Threads
Unlike Cores which are physical divisions of a processor, You can think of threads as virtual divisions of a core. Basically threads allows us to use a single core to perform more than one task through multi-threading. In this way the number of cores and threads are linked with each other when buying a CPU.
Multi-threading is the technology through which a processor performs multiple tasks at once making use of more than one threads inside a system. When you have multiple applications open in a computer like a Web Browser and a Calculator, the CPU is utilizing multi-threading to run both programs in parallel.
Just imagine what you'd do if you could only open a single application at one time on your computer. That was the case with older processors when we didn't have multi-core processors and technologies like multi-threading.
Clock Speed
Clock speed also known as Frequency is the number of operations a computer could process a single second. Clock speed is a metric to measure a processors' speed in performing calculations.
Your favorite video games, Your web browsers at the end of the day are just programs. Programs are just a really big set of instructions that a processor works on, one at a time.
A computer generally takes a 'cycle' when it processes a single instruction. Now, this is a simplification but it gets the point across for now. The Clock speed determines how many cycles a processor can do in a second.
To sum it up, Clock speed tells about the speed of a processor in executing instructions. Giga-hertz generally means billions of instructions per second. CPU with a higher clock speed generally means it's a faster CPU.
Modern CPUs have their clock speeds in Giga-hertz (Ghz). What it means for you is that a processor with 3.2 Ghz could process 3.2 billion instructions a second. Now the number of instructions that get executed by a processor at once do change up between different Instructions sets like ARM and x86.
If you're curious about how instructions executed in a single second differ across Instruction-Set Architectures like ARM and x86, Checkout the References section in this blog post. You may also want to read my previous blog post on the topic linked here.
Cache
Cache (pronounced as Cash) is a really small but very fast short-term memory available in a computer. Cache is built right into the CPU and is usually a few megabytes.
A larger cache generally means a CPU can store more of the recently processed data and doesn't need to clear the small cache and have to process the data again.
Try to understand it this way, you start your computer and load up File Explorer. It may take 2-4 seconds at first load but then you close it and load again and this time it takes half of that to load. This is where cache comes in where a computer stores a small amount of data it has recently processed.
The memory hierarchy in a computer usually works this way:
1. Processor Registers (Very Fast)
2. Processor Cache (Very Fast )
3. Random Access Memory RAM (Fast)
4. Hard Drives / USB (Slow)
Here's a visualization of this concept:
To tum it up, the closer you get to the CPU the faster the memory gets. Cache which is baked on to the processor is an extremely fast but really small memory inside a computer.
Thermal Design Power (TDP)
TDP is the maximum amount of heat your CPU could produce which in-turn means how much power it would use. It is a maximum cap on the potential heat your CPU can produce under the most intense load. Some people also call it Thermal Design Profile.
A higher TDP generally means a higher performance CPU in the same generation but it also means that the CPU would produce more heat when under load. Because of a higher TDP you need a higher performance cooler for your processor.
A higher TDP also means that the CPU would also need a higher wattage power supply. Also keep a check on the thermal paste you're using as some perform better for higher TDP CPUs. TDP can exceed the normal values too in many cases.
The General considerations for deciding a CPU
When buying a CPU you don't need to consider a lot of factors. Focusing on just a few things like the number of Cores it has, Its TDP and Its compatibility with other components can land you at a pretty good decision.
When looking to purchase a new CPU, you can keep the following list of stuff in handy to check if it meets your use-case or not:
The Number of Cores
The number of cores a CPU has should generally be the first consideration when buying a CPU. They should be according to your use-case. Here's the general criteria of how many cores are needed in common scenarios:
General Everyday Usage (2-4 Cores) - Most of the users that have a computer would be fine with a 4 core processor. These include everyday users who want to use their PC for web browsing, gaming, content consumption and other similar use-cases.
Serious Gaming / Content Creation (6-8 Cores) - For those who want to use their computers for heavy gaming or for professional content creation, 6-8 cores hit the sweet spot.
High Performance Usage (8+ Cores) - For those who require really high levels of performance with their PCs working on tasks such as AI Development or similar ones, They are usually equipped with computers that start from 8 cores and above.
Compatibility with Other Components
The CPU is generally referred to as 'the brain' of the computer and rightly so. The CPU is responsible for all the general processing inside the computer that includes the Arithmetic & Logical Operations along with controlling the flow of instructions for the entire computer.
Intel & AMD processors both have their proprietary sockets and they're not interchangeable which means that you must know if your motherboard supports the same socket your CPU needs.
The CPU you have also tells what RAM you can use with it, what Motherboard it supports and what generation of peripherals like M.2 SSDs, Graphics Cards and I/O it supports.
When searching for a CPU it is important to ensure that the parts and features you want to use with it are compatible. Let's say you want to use DDR5 RAM, you must make sure that both your motherboard and CPU support it.
The Overall Thermal Design Power (TDP)
Now the TDP you want in a processor depends on how beefy a power supply your computer has and how good of a cooler do you need for that processor.
As I explained earlier, TDP refers to how much heat the CPU produces which in-turn means how much power it would consume from the power supply. A higher TDP CPU in a similar generation of CPUs generally means a higher power processor.
When selecting a power supply for your computer you must factor in the TDP of your processor as well as other higher power components like the graphics card. Adding them up and leaving room for some extra is how many select power supplies.
Clock Speed
For an end user, a higher clock speed means how fast and snappy applications would perform. But this is generally the case and isn't always applicable. That's why you don't have to pay a lot of attention to the clock speed when deciding a CPU.
As a general case you can use the following relation to decide for yourself:
General Everyday Usage (1.5-2.5 GHz) - Everyday tasks like web browsing, content consumption, emails, word processing etc would go fine with this clock speed
Serious Gaming / Content Creation (3.5-4.0 GHz) - For gaming and professional content creation use-cases, 3.5 - 4.0 GHz clock speed would be sufficient
High Performance Usage (4.0 GHz and above) - And those who have specific high performance needs, they can go for 4.0 GHz+ clock speed
You should note that there is a difference between Base Clocks and Boost Clocks. Base clocks as the name suggests are the clock speed which the CPU uses most of the time while Boost Clock is the maximum clock speed it could turbo to at maximum loads. The clock speeds discussed above are Base Clocks.
Integrated GPU
When building your PC one more thing to consider is the existence of an iGPU aka Integrated GPU in your CPU. In addition to CPU cores in your processor chip, there also exist GPU cores. These are low powered GPUs integrated in the processor that allow for light graphical tasks.
The CPU is a versatile computing chip and it can do almost everything a GPU can but the CPU isn't made to process graphics or parallel processing. It computes instructions in a series starting from one point to another.
That's why CPU manufacturers have started including GPU cores inside the processor which you can think of as cores that are somewhat similar to CPU cores which are designed specifically to perform graphics related operations.
It should be noted that all processors don't come with an iGPU. Generally most processors have an iGPU but some don't come with any GPU, those processors require a dedicated graphics card to be installed separately in the computer so you must make sure that your computer has an iGPU if you need one.
Conclusion
This article was an attempt to reduce the complexities that surround CPUs. It's unfortunate the CPU manufacturers have done little to simplify and make them clearer for the end-user to understand.
It's hard to make your way out of the marketing bluff that follows the launch of every big CPU release from manufacturers these days. It’s a time consuming process to go through every new release with their generational architecture and the difference between each specific model in the series.
As always, Thanks for reading my article. I hope I have somewhat contributed to your understanding of CPUs from a general perspective.
Now that we've moved our site to Substack we can have better discussions around these blog posts. If you have any questions or rants please share them down below. I will keep a check on the comments and will do my best to reply to your queries :)
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