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Summary
Upgrading to a new CPU is equally exciting and frustrating.
Synthetic vs. ## Single-Core vs. Multi-Core Performance
Single-core and multi-core performance are terms that you’ll see in synthetic benchmarks.
Productivity Benchmarks
If you need a good CPU for work, you should check productivity benchmarks.
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To be more specific, you should check benchmarks for tasks and programs that you’ll use it for.
For tasks like video editing, compiling, and 3D modeling, you need a good CPU.
There are, however, always exceptions in specific applications.
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Optimization plays an important role here, as some programs might be better optimized for AMD or Intel.
For example, many Adobe tools, like Premiere Pro, seem tofavor Intel.
You should check the specific models you’re interested in to get the most relevant scores.
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Resolution
Have you ever noticed that most CPU benchmarks focus on 1080p performance in games?
This doesn’t mean that CPU performance doesn’t matter for high-resolution gaming.
Quite the contrary, in fact.
You still need a powerful CPU that can keep up with your GPU to maintain a smooth FPS.
Higher FPS equals better performance.
While they might seem like random performance figures, they’re actually incredibly important indicators of overall performance.
It’s worth noting that optimization plays a massive role in FPS.
Gaming performance usually peaks at six cores with current games.
Simpler games, such as most eSports titles, favor blazing-fast single-threaded performance.
Also, all games benefit from moreCPU cache.
As with most things in life, you should always take the margin of error into account.
Namely, most consumer CPUs now have a maximumboost clock.
The longer a CPU can sustain its maximum clock speed, the better it’ll perform.
60% CPU utilization means a game is using 60% of the CPU’s maximum resources.
This metric is worth paying attention to when two CPUs achieve similar FPS in most games.
Alternatively, get apowerful AIO coolerto keep up with a hot CPU.
Buying a new CPU is easy if you know what benchmark metrics to focus on.
