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By Happy Hour

The CPU is one of main components of a computer and its function is similar to human brain, so choosing a CPU is very important.

This article explains in detail choice of CPU for several important parameters, home use, gaming, graphics rendering and other aspects.

If you don't want to read a long text explanation in middle, you can jump straight to summary at end of article.

A CPU has several important parameters: architecture, base frequency, core, thread, cache, interface.

Structure:

There's an old saying that "if you look at core clock speed regardless of architecture, it's a scam", so what is architecture? If we think of architecture as a vehicle, then old architecture is a train, and new architecture is a high-speed rail, so improving architecture directly affects CPU performance. That's why, although old-fashioned processor also has an ultra-high frequency, performance is still inferior to current i3.

Frequency:

We often see in CPU information that base frequency of a certain CPU is 3.6 GHz. The base frequency here is actually CPU core clock, which is not directly equal to CPU's processing speed. speed is critical.

Basic:

The kernel, also known as kernel, is device used by CPU to perform all calculations, receive/save instructions, and process data. We can simply understand core as a human hand, single core is one arm, dual core is two arms, and quad core is four arms.

The more cores better, it depends on use case. For example, when typing, two hands are more efficient than one hand, but when using a mouse, using two hands will only play a role. Reverse effect. As for which scripts should use how many CPU cores, I'll cover that below.

Subject:

We usually see two terms: "four cores and four threads" and "four cores and eight threads". What is a stream? We can simply compare a filament with a factory assembly line, and a worker with a processor core. Previously, because work skills were not high, worker could only handle tasks of a single assembly line. We can call it single-core single-threaded But later, workers experienced and felt that working on one assembly line was boring and could not reflect their own value, so they assigned another assembly line to allow a worker to complete tasks of two assembly lines at same time. At same time, we can call it "single core dual thread".

Cache:

Cache is also a very important CPU parameter because CPU's processing speed is much faster than read/write speed of a memory card, causing CPU to spend a lot of time waiting for data to arrive. or writing data to a memory card, currently cache in CPU can be used as a temporary storage medium to mitigate contradiction between CPU's computational speed and memory's read and write speed, so larger cache, better.

Interface:

For CPU to work, you need to install on motherboard through interface, and current CPU interface is a pin interface, AMD and Intel CPUs have a big difference in interface, so you need to use motherboard with an adapter. interface for normal operation Work. Currently, Intel's main interface type is LGA-1151 interface (such interfaces are i3 i5 i7 6th, 7th and 8th generation); AMD's main platform interface types include AM4 interface (Ryzen series) and FM2+ interface (Athlon). series, APU series).

PS: Although Intel 8th generation processor also has an LGA-1151 interface, it does not fit legacy LGA-1151 motherboard and you need to purchase another motherboard.

After discussing these important parameters, I think you have a general idea of ​​the CPU. Let's talk about CPU selection in various scenarios.

Home use:

The main purpose of home use is nothing more than browsing web, watching videos and playing games like LOL and DNF. Processor requirements are not high. Now $600 Intel Pentium G4600\G5500 is doing just fine. The performance of HD630 main display, which comes with a similar processor, has surpassed some inexpensive independent displays. It can easily decode and play 4k videos and run games like LOL smoothly and at high frame rates. .

Game:

I believe that most gamers have gaming needs. The choice of processor for game is also more difficult, currently try to choose a processor with a high single-core frequency.

As to why you choose a high frequency single core processor, it is actually related to characteristics of game. The game needs simple and rough calculations, so a high single core frequency processor will have more pluses, and multi-core seems a little useless . While major game makers are currently optimizing games for multi-core, process is very complex and some games are not suitable for multi-core optimization.

Give me a chestnut: 1+2=A, A+2=B, B+3=C, ask for C=? If this question is done for one person, efficiency will be very high, but if it is done for 3 people, and each person is divided into one step, it can have an effect of 1+1+1<1. Therefore, game manufacturers can only try their best to optimize game's multi-core from other aspects. At present, mainstream games mainly optimize cores from 4 to 6. No matter how large number of CPU cores, it will be useless. Therefore, for gamers, a processor with a high single-core frequency is more beneficial than a processor with multiple cores but a low frequency.

So for gamers, it's better to honestly choose an Intel processor with a higher main frequency. The i3-8350k with 4 cores, 4 threads and a single core frequency of 4.0GHz will be no more than twice as expensive. AMD Ryzen R7 1700X with 8 cores and 16 threads is much weaker. Of course, if you have money and don't care about performance cost, you can also opt for i5-8600K and 8th gen i7 8700k, but game improvement isn't that great.

Graphic Rendering:

For graphics rendering that requires a lot of parallel computing, simultaneous multi-core and multi-threading can have more advantages than processors with fewer cores and higher main frequency.

Also take arithmetic as an example, 1+1=A; 2+2=B; 3+3=C, ask A+B+C=?1 person will do it faster.

So, for students who need to render images, AMD Ryzen R7 1700X with 8 cores and 16 threads is much more beautiful than i7-8700K with 6 cores and 12 threads in terms of performance and price. Of course, if you have higher requirements to image processing, check out AMD Ryzen 1950X with 16 cores and 32 threads (if you can afford it

Browse:

1. The Intel CPU has a higher single core frequency than AMD Ryzen, so it is more suitable for gamers.

2. For general gaming users, ultra-high frequency i3-8350K is enough. Of course, if you have money, i5 and i7, which are less economical, are also good choices.

3. For users who need to perform graphics rendering, AMD Ryzen multi-core, multi-threaded processor with large cache, high performance and high cost can be used as first choice.

4. Of course, home users just need to choose an Inter i3 or Pentium for less than a thousand yuan, and it can save money on a video card, so why not do it.

After seeing this, I assume that you already have your own ideas on how to choose right processor for you.