Does the processor significantly affect gaming performance? What is affected by the frequency of the GPU in a video card and what is it? Console emulators - need more CPU

Hello, %username%! It’s unlikely that anyone will be surprised by the fact that games today are churned out in a conveyor belt manner, and a gaming PC is simply associated with a heap of expensive hardware. There is no desire to waste money during a crisis, but you still want to play! Today we will find out for which games a powerful processor is more important, and which, on the contrary, rely on the performance of the video card. And at the same time, we’ll define a portrait of the optimal gaming PC at the turn of 2016-2017.

We live in amazing times, comrades! On the one hand, computers have not been developing at an explosive pace for a long time - with the evolution of processors in recent years, there has been a complete disgrace, and a considerable part of video cards simply change nameplates from year to year until a new technical process arrives. But as soon as you start talking about optimizing software or games and consider specifics, the public will immediately become indignant and hint, saying, “you, my friend, stop catching fleas and finally buy yourself some normal hardware.” And if you don’t have money for normal hardware, buy a console in which you don’t need to select components for games.

And they are partially right - in consoles there is no need to rack your brains over the package contents. In return, depending on the chosen system, the set of games - exclusives, as they say now - will differ. But what if you approach the PC configuration in reverse, and choose hardware based on the processor or graphics requirements of various games? Will games on the same engine run equally well on a fixed configuration? Today we will try to understand these issues.

“It’s too late to drink Borjomi” - which computers can no longer be gaming

• Full HD monitor
• Capable of delivering over 30 fps in single player and over 50 fps in multiplayer
• Suitable for high or maximum detail settings in modern games

Forever young, forever drunk!

From these theses comes a certain threshold of minimally acceptable hardware for games - a dual-core chip with Hyper Threading(maximum 4 years old) or junior quad-core processors when it comes to processors, as well as three- to four-year-old video cards at a level higher than middle-end. Less productive hardware has moved from the gaming category to “it’ll do for me anyway, I’m not into graphics, but gameplay!” or for free-to-play games in which pleasingness is more important than visual technology.

Console emulators - need more CPU

In emulators of relatively middle-aged consoles, with the advent of Direct3D plug-ins, it becomes possible to calculate the graphics component on a video card, although the requirements for a video accelerator still remain ridiculous by modern standards - in order to process (and even improve with the help of anti-aliasing) images from consoles of the early 2000s, Even an old mid-class video card is enough - AMD Radeon HD 7850, for example.

Who is more important in modern games: the processor or the video card?

Shooters

Metro: Last Light

Metro: Last Light (2013)

The publishing house Deep Silver plans to release the next game in the series “after 2017,” but it can already be assumed that the family values ​​of the developers will be preserved and Metro will continue to be an extremely difficult discipline for processors.
In modern realities, for a comfortable game at maximum detail, you will need at least a high-frequency Intel Core i5 processor and a GeForce GTX 680/770 or Radeon R9 280X/380/380X video card. Not bad, but it's hardly a compliment.

General principle: Both the processor and the video card are equally important.

Battlefield 4/Battlefield 1

Therefore, the new Battlefield about the First World War pleased “both yours and ours” - at ultra-detail the game produces over 30 fps, even when paired with unsuitable for most modern games GeForce video cards GTX 950/Radeon RX 460. Battlefield 4 is just as loyal to the video accelerator, but at the same time it is also “playable” on dual-core processors. With the “first” battlefield, such tricks work out worse.

Battlefield 1 (2016)

Yes, but the game consumes tons RAM- at maximum detail, she alone needs 8 gigabytes. So it makes sense to grab HyperX DDR3/DDR4 modules for your gaming computers, so as not to feel the limit beyond which “lags” begin in the game.

General principle: The processor is more important than the video card. In DirectX 12, even very old video accelerators provide an acceptable fps level.

What changed? The new part of Battlefield loads the processor more than its predecessor, consumes more video memory and RAM, but is still slightly better optimized for weak GPUs.

Third person action adventure

Batman Arkham Origins/Arkham Knight

But the subsequent game Batman: Arkham Knight will go down in history as an example of a mediocre port from consoles to PC. So mediocre that the game even had to be recalled to correct critical flaws. Until this time, assumptions that the middle-aged Unreal Engine 3.5 was capable of bringing productive computers to their knees seemed like a joke.

Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)

As a result, the corrected version of the game was released on PC months after its debut on consoles, it became more stable, but did not get rid of gluttony - with high graphics detail in Full HD, the game consumed over 3 GB of video memory and required a video card of the Radeon HD 7970 or GeForce GTX 780 level. In this case, the demands on the processor remained moderate - even dual-core Intel ones were enough to ensure that the number of frames per second did not drop below 40 fps.

General principle: The video card is more important than the processor. High detail, even in Full HD, is only achieved by truly powerful video accelerators.

What changed? In the new part of the game, at the time of release, instead of “new budget” video cards, slightly outdated flagships began to demonstrate the minimum acceptable fps.

Tomb Raider/Rise of the Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider (2013)

The Foundation Engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider abused the video accelerators of 2015 in much the same way. Video memory consumption in DirectX 11 jumped beyond 3 GB; only the newest video cards slightly older than the middle-end class produced frame rates suitable for Full HD gaming. And the DirectX 12 mode “delighted” gamers with memory leaks, as a result of which the game consumed all 6 GB of VRAM in the flagship video accelerators released in 2015!

Moreover, DX12 did not bring relief to processors either - if in DirectX 11 quad-core AMD budget phones and dual-core Core i3 felt comfortable, then with the activation of the new API, inexpensive models dropped out of the competition, and playable fps was demonstrated only by miraculously surviving “Hyper Threading is our everything” Core i3 and much more expensive processors"blue" and "red" camps.

General principle: The video card is more important than the processor. There is no such thing as too much video memory.
What changed? Instead of “at least some” four cores, the game began to require high-performance CPUs or at least high-frequency Core i3. DirectX 12 slightly improved picture quality and sharply worsened the performance of processors and video cards in RoTR.

Auto racing

Need for Speed: Rivals / Need for Speed ​​(2015)

NFS Rivals became the first game in the series on the “Battlefield” engine Frostbite 3, only, to put it mildly, with its own interpretation. The developers set a limit on the frame rate of 30 fps - either to make the picture more “cinematic”, or in an attempt to wean PC players from paying attention to graphic settings. No anti-aliasing, no smooth images, no SLI support - the Ghost Games studio clearly felt uncomfortable working with the new engine.

As a result, the “ultra-modern” graphically Need for Speed ​​worked comfortably on mid-class video cards and... that’s it, we hit 30 frames per second. But enthusiasts found a way to get around the limitation, so the competition ended with sub-flagship video cards that reached the 60 fps limit. Quite nice, especially since the video memory consumption in the game is not far from the usual 1 GB.

Need for Speed ​​(2015)

But with the requirements for the processor, things were different (although it would seem - racing games, why do they need a powerful CPU?), because with the frame rate unlocked to 60 fps, dual-core chips could no longer cope with the load and for a comfortable game they already needed at least high-frequency AMD FX-6100 or Intel Core i3. The situation was approximately the same in Battlefield 4, which was released on the same engine. Another thing is that for a dynamic shooter, “borderline” 30 fps is too low.

The belated port of 2015's Need for Speed ​​to PC finally put to rest the questions "why is Frostbite needed in racing games?" Because it’s beautiful, very beautiful! With the engine fully modified, the game began to eat up as much as 3 GB of video memory, but did not change in its essence - for a comfortable game, a mid-class video card (GeForce GTX 960/Radeon R9 280X) is enough, and either Core i3 or AMD quad-core with high clock speed. Such processor requirements, by the way, made the new NFS “unplayable” on a huge number of laptops. But nothing can be done: Frostbite is also outside the Frostbite battlefield.

General principle: The processor is more important than the video card. Levels of graphic detail are barely visible to the eye.

What changed? Memory consumption has increased, but the status quo (“I use a little less memory than in mainstream video cards”) has not changed. The processor requirements have increased slightly with engine improvements and unlocked frame rates.

Project CARS

Project CARS (2015)

With Project CARS the situation is different, because the game, for the development of which “the whole world” raised funds, has become one of the most beautiful and demanding car simulators of our time. But its engine grew out of old parts of Need for Speed ​​- for example, Shift Unleashed from 2011!

The graphic settings are overwhelming, and there is no way to manually select “high” or “maximum” presets. With a packed field of rivals, bad weather on the track and extremely high-detail graphics, Project CARS looks like a documentary about auto racing, and such beauty requires sacrifice. Lots of expensive GPU sacrifices - something between a GeForce GTX 770 or a Radeon R9 280X. That is, CARS require graphics cards that are slightly above average at the time the game is released. The game doesn’t stand on ceremony with processors either - Core i3 as the minimum “entrance ticket” and preference for quad-core processors with high frequencies.

General principle: The video card is more important than the processor for high performance.

Open world sandbox games

Assassin's Creed IV/Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Even in those years, the Anvi game engine was something akin to the constantly overgrown Call of Duty skeleton, but this absolutely did not prevent the game from being one of the most hardware-hungry among all the titles that came out in 2013. Radeon HD 7970 and GeForce GTX 770 as an entry ticket for playing in Full HD with high quality is a so-so optimization, it must be said. And among the processors, the game preferred quad-core ones with a higher frequency. At the same time, more than four threads in the processor miraculously pulled down the CPU results, so the fastest chips in Assassin’s Creed IV turned out to be Intel Core i5. Everything, except the amount of video memory, in the computer had to be “expensive and rich” in order for the game to work properly.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015)

However, such fun did not last long - in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the developers had to seriously engage in optimization, because the previous AC: Unity had just become a meme with prohibitive system requirements with a large number of bugs.

As a result, the game began to consume 3 GB of video memory already and required, it’s a shame to say, a GeForce GTX 960 as the minimum acceptable option for “very high 1080p). But it became much more loyal to processors - even cheap Intel Pentiums coped with the load perfectly.

General principle: The video card is more important than the processor. If you want to play well, buy above-average video cards.

What changed? The developers have optimized the game for more efficient use of the GPU and thus relieved the processor.

Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto 5 (2015)

GTA 5 came out on PC almost a couple of years after its debut on old-generation consoles, which means the developers had plenty of time for a quality port. By that time, the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine was “polished” for current hardware, so the game, although it consumed an indecent amount of video memory (over 2 GB in Full HD), ran without problems even on budget video cards, such as the GeForce GTX 750, for example . GTA 5 also did not experience any problems with performance on dual-core processors. An outrageous ease of existence by the standards of the PC industry, isn't it?

General principle: low requirements for components, high requirements for video memory. At the same time, the video card is more important than the processor - the lesson with GTA IV's gluttony for the CPU was not in vain for the developers.

Strategy games

Civilization Beyond Earth/Civilization VI

Civilization VI (2016)

But Beyond Earth, released in 2014, which was the fifth Civilization in a new setting, was a surprisingly lightweight game for modern hardware. Even a cheap Radeon HD 7770 easily crossed the 30 fps limit, and more was not needed for a turn-based game. And budget dual-core Intel Pentiums based on Haswell architecture easily handled the load of a game that was once power-hungry for desktops.

In the case of Civilization VI, the change in game generations looks strange - the graphics clearly have not gotten better, but the system requirements have grown to match the times. No one is offended by the need to have a “middling” GeForce GTX 950 for Full HD resolution, but why the processor load has become 2 times higher since Civilization 5 is a mystery. In any case, you can no longer play comfortably on dual-core Intel processors - you need a processor of at least a Core i3 level. The video memory capacity of the new game, by the way, is prohibitive - up to 4 GB in Full HD, and this is with a cartoon design!

The evolution of graphics in Civilization V and VI

But support for DirectX 12 in Civ 5 was not a mockery of the hardware, as in the Rise of Tomb Raider, but a truly useful way to reduce the load on the processor - up to a 10-15% increase in fps on DirectX 12 compatible configurations.

General principle: The processor is more important than the video card, although the GPU requires a lot of video memory.

What changed? The load on the CPU with changing parts of Civilization grows faster than on the graphics adapter, but support for DirectX 12 allows you to significantly “free up” the processor.

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void (2015)

In the case of processors, we observe a situation that is funny in these days, when the number of cores is not as important as the performance and frequency of each of them. In general, the Core i3 whistles ahead of eight-core AMD chips and is almost equal to the older Intel chips in terms of frame rates.

General principle: The processor is more important than the video card, the load on the GPU is very low.

What changed? Nothing! The game still lives in the past and loves fast dual-core processors without “rocking” the new hardware properly.

MMORPG, MOBA and free-to-play games

In mass online games, system requirements fade into the background - the game must start and work for any more or less solvent audience

What about the rest of the components?

In order for games to “just work normally”, a budget RAM Kingston ValueRAM is enough; sets with high frequencies allow you to play a little more fps “without being able to”, and overclocker memory meekly withstands high loads and for this reason will please those who look at frame rate not from the standpoint of “it’ll do for me anyway,” with the aim of “it can be done even faster.”

Budget-conscious gamers will benefit from the inexpensive Kingston UV400 as a system disk. To speed up game loading, it is advisable to get HyperX Savage

The SSD does not directly affect the number of frames per second - it affects the speed at which levels load. The larger the game world, the more noticeable the difference. Therefore, even an inexpensive HyperX Fury will help you arrive on the battlefield faster in online games or spend less time looking at slideshows accompanied by music while the computer brings the game into combat mode.

The cooler the drive, the more noticeable the difference, even if “on paper” a few seconds seem trivial.

We learned a lot today

If you love Battlefield, love Need for Speed ​​(the performance is the same), but be prepared for the fact that for truly cool graphics in racing games you will need a video card no less cool than for shooters.

The old Ubisoft sandboxes are Ubisoft's voracious sandboxes. In new games, it is already possible to save on the processor.

GTA has long ceased to be a “crooked port from consoles” - an average computer with graphics accelerator about three to four gigabytes of video memory. Strategies on a PC are an unpredictable thing: some of them are designed by incompetent studios, so the games “slow down” on any components, some are remakes of old games that do not require powerful hardware.

And only massive online games (especially pay-to-win) will welcome PC players into open arms with hardware of almost any level. But all these conclusions do not answer the main question:

How to build a cheap and high-quality computer for gaming?

• As for video cards, you should prefer NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with 6 GB of video memory. One of the cheapest ways to enjoy the latest games with high graphics detail.
• If you don't know what processor to buy, buy Core i5. In this case - Core i5-7400 or 7500 ( Intel Kaby Lake). A “cool”, not overly expensive, balanced processor for any “pop” games. Liquid on the secondary market, if maximalism arises in you and there is a desire to upgrade to Core i7.
• Kingston DDR4 RAM modules with a total capacity of 16 GB. Kingston - because it is inexpensive and efficient, 16 “tons” - because games have already begun to overcome the 8 GB bar (only for the game itself), it will get worse.

• A high-quality 550 W power supply will be enough to power all this stuff - don’t chase the exorbitant numbers on the box. Heavy-duty processor cooling systems are also not needed.
• If you are a balanced PC user and don’t start to miss the time it takes to load levels in games, buy a drive for the system disk and an HDD of terabytes or more as a “warehouse” for games. If you want a couple of games to be less annoying and load faster, it makes sense to fork out for a HyperX Savage with a capacity of at least 240 GB.
• Salt and pepper to taste. The choice of other components is not so fateful for a gaming PC.

Ladies and gentlemen, Captain Obvious reports that " New Year is rushing towards us - everything will happen soon.” Many thanks to everyone who reads and comments! And to make your computer bring more joy in the new year than in the old year, we have prepared discounts on Kingston/HyperX hardware and accessories. Starring:

12% discount on DDR4 Predator memory in the Yulmart network. Arm yourself promo code GEEKPR16- And until December 31 In 2016, you get the opportunity to buy the flagship RAM cheaper.

Want even cheaper? Don't miss out on the 10% discount on Savage DDR3/DDR4 RAM and solid state drives HyperX Savage. Promo code SAVAGE16 operates on the Yulmart network until December 28 2016.

Memory is even cheaper even where it is initially inexpensive. With promotional code KING16 on the Yulmart network until December 28 10% discount on Kingston ValueRAM!

It’s not just everything that’s worth improving your computer in the new year, so we’ve also prepared a 500 ruble discount on HyperX Cloud Stinger and Cloud Drone gaming headsets on the DNS network. Have time until December 25!

Buyers HyperX Cloud X at Yulmart will receive Xbox Live Gold status for three months.

And finally, to effectively combat those who are wrong on the Internet or are trying to defeat you in a network game, we offer a discount of 1,500 rubles on gaming mechanical keyboards HyperX Alloy components Add tags

For ease of understanding, we can understand FPS as FPS output by a processor with an infinitely powerful video card and FPS output by a video card with an infinitely powerful processor. in all cases, FPS is objectively finite and limited by the weakened part.
further then-yes. microfreezes and wet freezes can come from the processor part. Macro friezes are already true, either the PSL Express controller cannot push the video card or from the memory subsystem, micro friezes are common due to the fact that there are few cores-threads or the game is optimized for few threads and the power of the cores is not enough. Naturally, problems can also arise from the video card, but the usual picture with a weak processor and a good card is that the game gradually loses FPS until it slows down.

For clarity, if we take GTA 5, which I had the pleasure of testing with Pek-Pek AMD fx6100 and Zhifors 690 (with the exception of video memory dependence) at 1600x1200, the processor can run the game in a year densely populated with machines up to 25fps and probably lower. however, if you go out of town you can actually get around 50-60 fps. Posons usually had a diametrically opposite picture, since outside the city there is graphon and grass, which creates a load on the video card and the pitch balance is shifted towards the GPU.

is fx 8300 enough? and does the RAM frequency affect games or not?
with 970 and 1080p resolution, such a combination will be quite balanced (even I would say tending to a deficit in GPU performance with the correct selection of components for the processor) in games starting from 15-16 years old if one strives to set the maximum settings. since the performance of 970 is usually 30fps
If you answer how RAM affects FPS - it affects 2 channels to a greater extent than the memory frequency in a single channel. For the default frequency of fx 8300, 2x 1333 memory will be enough. Then proceeding to overclocking that a separate topic with 2-channel memory may require 1600 or faster memory. maybe in the sense that after about 3.8-4 GHz AMD will start cranking with 1333 memory, giving out FPS less than it could and with increasing frequency the cuckoo coefficient will increase
I would call a normal solution to take this fuyx with a normal full-size motherboard and drive it up to 4.-4.4 GHz without a turbo with an increase in the NT multiplier. Such performance, in principle, will be enough for most modern assassin-type players up to 30 fps and will ensure the expansion of cards up to about 1080 or 1080 if we consider it with a margin.

With old processors, in turn, there can be such a curiosity that despite some performance in benchmarks equal to some processor of the new generation - it will be significantly slower and run games somewhere on the verge of being unplayable (and the situation may be the opposite when some 32 the thread processor will, let's say, suck in games of the pastgen era). so it would be peck-peck to make a reliable forecast of how it will be trampled there by some severe old processor with a normal map and at max, peck-peck (otherwise I’m not interested) I wouldn’t

When answering the question of what the number of cores in a processor affects, I would like to say right away - the performance of the computer. But this is such a strong simplification that it even becomes a mistake at some point.

It would be nice if users were simply mistaken and did not lose anything. The problem is that misunderstanding the essence of multi-core leads to financial losses. Trying to increase performance, a person spends money on a processor with more cores, but does not notice the difference.

Multi-core and multi-threading

When we studied the issue, we noticed a feature of Intel processors - in standard Windows tools different number of cores is displayed. This is due to the work of Hyper-Threading technology, which provides multi-threading.

So that you no longer get confused in concepts, let’s sort it out once and for all:

• Multi-core – the chip is equipped with several physical architectural cores. You can see them and touch them with your hands.
• Multithreading – several simultaneously processed streams of information.
  The core may be physically one, but software technologies based on it create two threads of task execution; two cores – four threads, etc.

The impact of the number of cores on performance

Increased performance on a multi-core processor is achieved by breaking up task execution. Any modern system divides the process into several threads even on a single-core processor - this is how multitasking is achieved, in which you can, for example, listen to music, type a document and work with a browser. The following applications love and constantly use multithreading:

• archivers;
• media players;
• video encoders;
• defragmenters;
• antiviruses;
• graphic editor.

The principle of stream separation is important. If the computer runs on a single-core processor without Hyper-Threading technology, then operating system makes instant switches between threads, so that for the user processes are visually executed simultaneously. Everything happens within milliseconds, so you don't see much latency unless you're pushing the CPU hard.

If the processor is multi-core (or supports multi-threading), then ideally there will be no switching. The system sends a separate thread to each core. The result is increased productivity because there is no need to switch to another task.

But there is another important factor - does it support itself? program multitasking? The system can split processes into different threads. However, if you are running a very demanding game, but it is not optimized to run on four cores, there will be no performance gain compared to a dual-core processor.

Game and program developers are aware of this feature, so they constantly optimize their code to perform tasks on multi-core processors. But this optimization does not always keep pace with the increase in the number of cores, so you should not spend a lot of money on the latest powerful processors with the maximum possible number of supported threads - the chip’s potential will not be revealed in 9 out of 10 programs.

So how many cores should you choose?

Before you buy a processor with 16 cores, consider whether that number of threads will be required to perform the tasks you will assign to the computer.

• If a computer is purchased for working with documents, surfing the Internet, listening to music, watching movies, then two cores are enough. If you take a processor with two cores from the upper price segment with a good frequency and support for multi-threading, then there will be no problems when working with graphic editors.
• If you are buying a machine with the expectation of powerful gaming performance, then immediately install a filter for at least 4 cores. 8 cores with multi-threading support – the very top with a margin of several years. 16 cores are promising, but there is a high probability that by the time you unlock the potential of such a chip, it will become obsolete.

As I already said, game and program developers are trying to keep up with the progress of processors, but for now huge power is simply not needed. 16 cores are suitable for users who do video rendering or server computing. Yes, in stores such processors are called gaming processors, but this is only so that they can be sold - there are definitely more gamers around than those who render videos.

The benefits of multi-cores can only be seen with very serious computing work involving multiple threads. If, relatively speaking, a game or program is optimized for only four threads, then even your eight cores will be meaningless power that will not affect performance in any way.

It's like transporting a chair on a huge truck - it doesn't make the task any faster. But if you use the available opportunities correctly (for example, load the body with completely different furniture), then labor productivity will increase. Keep this in mind and don't be fooled by marketing tricks that add the word "gaming" to processors that won't reach their full potential even with the latest games.

Also on the site:

What is affected by the number of processor cores? updated: January 31, 2018 by: admin

The processor is one of the fundamental parts of a computer; performance directly depends on it.

The article describes the choice of processor for regular computer and does not consider server processors.

The processor may be built-in into the motherboard, which is typical for ultra-compact and low-power computers. Their performance is sufficient for most office tasks, browsing Internet sites and videos in medium resolution.

Even the cheapest ones external processors easily perform the same tasks as internal processors, so we will talk about them further.

Classification

The cost of a processor directly depends on its performance, so it can be taken as the main parameter for classification.

Up to $100– dual-core processors, sufficient for games that do not require calculation of scenes with a large number of objects on the screen, for fast processing of not very complex mathematical calculations.

$100-$200 – two or four-core processors, sufficient for most games, programs for complex engineering calculations, 3D modeling, processing large amounts of data in MS Office and analogues.

$200-$250 – quad-core processors, faster versions of processors up to $200.

More than $300– six-core processors, for any games and programs requiring complex calculations.

Manufacturer

Currently, only two manufacturers produce processors for desktop computers: AMD And Intel. Intel processors more productive, AMD - cheaper.

Significant differences between them will be indicated when considering the remaining characteristics.

Series

Processors from the same manufacturer with identical architecture and similar performance are combined into series, this is reflected in the name of the processor. Processors of the same series mainly differ in clock speed.

Latest series of processors:

• Intel – Core i3, Core i5, Core i7;
• AMD – Athlon II, Phenom II, FX.

Number of Cores

The number of cores directly affects the number of simultaneously running tasks.

This parameter should be taken into account only for very resource-intensive tasks, because even the cheapest ones modern processors have 2 cores, which is quite enough for office applications, watching videos and simple games.

Games with complex 3D graphics have recently begun to use multi-core processors, so a large number of games still use only one core.

Application programs with complex mathematical calculations They will probably use parallel data processing, using all cores.

There are differences in the implementation of multi-core AMD processors and Intel, but this plays a role only in certain specialized tasks, so it is enough to know that Intel, on this moment, works faster.

Clock frequency

Clock frequency is measured in megahertz (MHz) and affects the speed of the processor - the higher the frequency, the faster the processor.

It makes sense to compare frequencies only among processors from the same manufacturer and the same series, because The processor architecture also affects the speed, i.e. its internal structure.

Bus frequency

Processor bus frequency - shows at what speed information is exchanged between the processor and other computer components. It is proportional to the clock frequency and is also measured in MHz

Cache memory

Cache memory is the internal high-speed memory of the processor for temporary storage of data.

Significantly increases the speed of calculations by reducing access to the slow main memory of the computer. Volume is measured in kilobytes (KB) or megabytes (MB).

The cache is divided into several levels:

• first level L1 – indicated for one core, small volume, but high speed work;
• second level L2 – affects performance in complex calculations, indicated for the entire processor, larger in volume and slower than L1;
• third level L3 – also affects performance, indicated for the entire processor, the largest cache.

Connector type (Socket)

Socket – connector on motherboard, in which the processor is installed. It is important that the name of the socket on the processor matches the name on the motherboard!

Technical process

The technical process reflects the size of the element in the processor, measured in nanometers (nm).

A processor with smaller elements generates less heat and consumes less energy.

At the moment, the most advanced technology is 22 nm.

Graphics core

The latest generations of processors include the functions of graphics processors, which allows you to process images without an external video card. For games or complex 3D modeling, it is better to purchase an external video card.

Cooler (Box, Tray)

How more powerful processor, the more it heats up, and accordingly it is more difficult to cool it down. Usually the processor comes with a standard cooling system consisting of a radiator and a fan (the assembly is called cooler). But you can also install an alternative cooling system, for example, to reduce noise or when overclocking the processor when its temperature rises.

The presence or absence of a cooler in the kit depends on the delivery method:

• Box– processor and cooler in one box;
• Tray– only the processor, without a standard cooler.

When buying a processor, many people try to choose something cooler, with several cores and a high clock speed. But few people know what the number of processor cores actually affects. Why, for example, can a regular and simple dual-core processor be faster than a quad-core processor, or the same “percent” with 4 cores be faster than a “percent” with 8 cores. This is a rather interesting topic that is definitely worth understanding in more detail.

Introduction

Before we begin to understand what the number of processor cores affects, I would like to make a small digression. Just a few years ago, CPU developers were confident that manufacturing technologies, which are developing so rapidly, would allow them to produce “stones” with clock speeds of up to 10 GHz, which would allow users to forget about problems with poor performance. However, success was not achieved.

No matter how the technological process developed, both Intel and AMD ran into purely physical limitations that simply did not allow them to produce processors with a clock frequency of up to 10 GHz. Then it was decided to focus not on frequencies, but on the number of cores. Thus, a new race began to produce more powerful and productive processor “crystals”, which continues to this day, but not as actively as it was at first.

Intel and AMD processors

Today, Intel and AMD are direct competitors in the processor market. If you look at revenue and sales, the clear advantage will be on the side of the Blues, although Lately The Reds are trying to keep up. Both companies have a good range ready-made solutions for all occasions - from a simple processor with 1-2 cores to real monsters, in which the number of cores exceeds 8. Typically, such “stones” are used on special work “computers” that have a narrow focus.

Intel

So, today we have Intel 5 types of processors are successful: Celeron, Pentium, and i7. Each of these "stones" has a different number of cores and is designed for different tasks. For example, Celeron has only 2 cores and is used mainly on office and home computers. Pentium, or, as it is also called, “stump”, is also used at home, but already has much better performance, primarily due to Hyper-Threading technology, which “adds” two more virtual cores to the physical two cores, which are called threads . Thus, a dual-core “percent” works like the most budget quad-core processor, although this is not entirely correct, but this is the main point.

As for Core line, then there is approximately a similar situation here. The younger model with the number 3 has 2 cores and 2 threads. The older line - Core i5 - already has full-fledged 4 or 6 cores, but lacks the Hyper-Threading function and does not have additional threads, except for 4-6 standard ones. Well, the last thing - core i7 - these are top-end processors, which, as a rule, have from 4 to 6 cores and twice as many threads, i.e., for example, 4 cores and 8 threads or 6 cores and 12 threads.

AMD

Now it’s worth talking about AMD. The list of “pebbles” from this company is huge, there is no point in listing everything, since most of the models are simply outdated. It is perhaps worth noting the new generation, which in a sense “copies” Intel - Ryzen. This line also contains models with numbers 3, 5 and 7. The main difference from Ryzen’s “blue” ones is that the youngest model immediately provides full 4 cores, while the older one has not 6, but eight. In addition, the number of threads changes. Ryzen 3 - 4 threads, Ryzen 5 - 8-12 (depending on the number of cores - 4 or 6) and Ryzen 7 - 16 threads.

It is worth mentioning another “red” line - FX, which appeared in 2012, and, in fact, this platform is already considered obsolete, but thanks to the fact that now more and more programs and games are starting to support multi-threading, the Vishera line is again gained popularity, which, along with low prices only growing.

Well, as for the disputes regarding the processor frequency and the number of cores, then, in fact, it is more correct to look towards the second, since everyone has long ago decided on clock frequencies, and even top models from Intel operate at nominal 2.7, 2.8 , 3 GHz. In addition, the frequency can always be increased using overclocking, but in the case of a dual-core processor this will not give much effect.

How to find out how many cores

If someone does not know how to determine the number of processor cores, then this can be done easily and simply even without downloading and installing separate special programs. Just go to the "Device Manager" and click on the small arrow next to the "Processors" item.

Get more detailed information about what technologies your “stone” supports, what kind of technology it has clock frequency, its revision number and much more can be done using a special and small program CPU-Z. You can download it for free on the official website. There is a version that does not require installation.

The advantage of two cores

What could be the advantage dual core processor? There are many things, for example, in games or applications, in the development of which single-threaded work was the main priority. Take the game Wold of Tanks as an example. The most common dual-core processors such as Pentium or Celeron will produce quite decent performance results, while some FX from AMD or INTEL Core will use much more of their capabilities, and the result will be approximately the same.

The better 4 cores

How can 4 cores be better than two? Better performance. Quad-core “stones” are designed for more serious work, where simple “stumps” or “celerons” simply cannot cope. An excellent example here would be any 3D graphics program, such as 3Ds Max or Cinema4D.

During the rendering process, these programs use maximum computer resources, including RAM and processor. Dual-core CPUs will be very slow in render processing time, and the more complex the scene, the longer they will take. But processors with four cores will cope with this task much faster, since additional threads will come to their aid.

Of course, you can take some budget “protsik” from the Core i3 family, for example, the 6100 model, but 2 cores and 2 additional threads will still be inferior to a full-fledged quad-core one.

6 and 8 cores

Well, the last segment of multi-cores is processors with six and eight cores. Their main purpose, in principle, is exactly the same as that of the CPU above, only they are needed where ordinary “fours” cannot cope. In addition, full-fledged specialized computers are built on the basis of “stones” with 6 and 8 cores, which will be “tailored” for a specific activity, for example, video editing, 3D modeling programs, rendering ready-made heavy scenes with a large number of polygons and objects, etc. d.

In addition, such multi-core processors perform very well when working with archivers or in applications that require good computing capabilities. In games that are optimized for multi-threading, such processors have no equal.

What is affected by the number of processor cores?

So, what else can the number of cores affect? First of all, to increase energy consumption. Yes, as surprising as this may sound, it is true. There is no need to worry too much, because in everyday life this problem, so to speak, will not be noticeable.

The second is heating. The more cores, the better the cooling system is needed. A program called AIDA64 will help you measure the processor temperature. When starting, you need to click on “Computer” and then select “Sensors”. You need to monitor the temperature of the processor, because if it constantly overheats or operates at too high temperatures, then after some time it will simply burn out.

Dual-core systems are unfamiliar with this problem, because they do not have much high performance and heat dissipation, respectively, but multi-core ones - yes. The hottest stones are those from AMD, especially the FX series. For example, take the FX-6300 model. The processor temperature in the AIDA64 program is around 40 degrees and this is in idle mode. Under load, the number will increase and if overheating occurs, the computer will turn off. So, when buying a multi-core processor, you should not forget about the cooler.

What else does the number of processor cores affect? For multitasking. Dual-core processors will not be able to provide stable performance when running two, three or more programs simultaneously. The simplest example is streamers on the Internet. In addition to the fact that they are playing some game at high settings, they simultaneously run a program that allows them to broadcast gameplay to the Internet online; an Internet browser with several open pages, where the player, as a rule, reads the comments of the people watching him and follows other information. Not even every multi-core processor can provide proper stability, not to mention dual- and single-core processors.

It is also worth saying a few words about the fact that multi-core processors There is a very useful thing called "L3 cache". This cache has a certain amount of memory that is constantly written to various information O running programs, actions performed, etc. All this is needed in order to increase the speed of the computer and its performance. For example, if a person often uses Photoshop, then this information will be stored in memory, and the time to launch and open the program will be significantly reduced.

Summarizing

Summarizing the conversation about what the number of processor cores affects, we can come to one simple conclusion: if you need good performance, performance, multitasking, working in heavy applications, the ability to comfortably play modern games, etc., then your choice is a processor with four cores or more. If you need a simple “computer” for office or home use, which will be used to a minimum, then 2 cores are what you need. In any case, when choosing a processor, first of all you need to analyze all your needs and tasks, and only then consider any options.