How we test
Making the choice
Once you’ve familiarised yourself with what makes a modern processor, it ’s time to th in k about exactly what yo u need from your ne xt chip.
There are importan t rules to rememb er when picking a proc essor. If possible, ma ke sure you buy the latest generation – that’s how you will get the best perfor mance for longest.
Also allow room in your budget for suitable components elsewhere.
It’s pointless spending a lot of money on a high-end
Every processor has been subjected to a broad range of benchmarks that evaluate its performance in a wide variety of workloads ( see graphs from p92).
First, we look at real-world tests. PC Pro’s suite of application tests evaluate a CPU’s performance in image-editing, video-encoding and multitasked environments. We use Cinebench and Blender to benchmark video production and rendering capability, while workstation manufacturer Puget Systems makes it possible to test each processor’s performance in both Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro tests.
We use Geekbench 5 to test each CPU for its performance in encryption, HTML5, navigation, physics and machine learning workloads, and Y-Cruncher provides pure computational tests.
We use SiSoftware Sandra to run tests on cryptography and neural network workloads.
Where possible, every test has been conducted with both single and multicore modes. Finally, we measure the power draw and temperature levels of each CPU when idling, during benchmarks and with each chip running at full load (each result is printed at the foot of the feature table on p76).
For games, we first turned to 3DMark’s Time Spy due to its universal appeal, but we’ve also tested using a selection of real games – Ghost Recon Wildlands, Total War: Warhammer II and Civilization VI’s AI test.
Our test rig consists of 16GB of 3,000MHz DDR4 memory, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card, a Seagate Barracuda 510 M.2 SSD and a Corsair Hydro H150i Pro RGB cooler.
CPU if slow memory or a weak graphics card will then bottleneck it. Also check that you’ve picked a motherboard that includes every feature you’re going to realistically need. As ever, though, don’t spend excess cash on components and a motherboard that are too powerful or have features that you don’t require – it’s a waste of money.
Finally, consider what you need your new processor to do.
If you’re only building a PC for web browsing and office tasks, you don’t need to spend much – an entry-level chip will do the job. You don’t need many cores, either; a quadcore chip with multithreading will be more than capa bl e.
In de ed, for web browsing, office task s and light media du ties, it’s more important to concentrate on getting the best clock speeds po ssible, because these task s don’t make use of many cores. Also look for low TD Ps as that usually translates into fewer coolin g requirements and, consequently, less distractin g fan noise.
There are other areas where cloc k speed is more beneficial: many photoeditin g tools and graphic design applications are more responsive here, although you’ll have to spend more for a high-end chip to really motor through these tasks with any kind of speed.
Games are also far better when running on processors that have better single and low-thread performance, and you should at least consider buying a mid-range chip for good gaming pace.
Conversely, other tasks are far better when running on chips that are more capable with multicore and multithreaded workloads. Video editing, rendering and encoding software run faster on chips with more cores. Modelling and CAD software works better here, and most scientific and financial modelling tools run far more quickly on chips with a lot of cores.
Don’t buy more CPU than you need, though. If you run high-end professional tools then look towards expensive chips that can handle workstation-level tasks, but consider stepping down to mainstream chips if you’re only going to be tackling mainstream work.