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Summary
Struggling to pick out the parts for your next PC?
I know how exhausting comparing specs can be.
Just because something looks great on paper, doesn’t mean it’s great in practice.
Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek |aslysun/ Shutterstock
Teraflops are confusing, andCPU clock speedsdon’t tell the whole story, either.
Don’t even get me started onRAM speed and timings.
I own an olderRyzen 7 2700X, which supposedly has amaximum boost clockof 4.3GHz.
Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
I’ve never seen it go above 4.0GHz, regardless of the load and temperature.
Benchmarks also provide excellent insight into what kind of temperatures a component reaches under a full load.
Power draw is another spec that isn’t necessarily the same as on the spec sheet.
This means you should account for the real maximum power draw withoutoverspending on your PSU.
Instead, look at benchmarks that are relevant to your use case.
A good rule of thumb is that newer PC parts are usually the better purchase.
For instance, I’d pick the NVIDIARTX 4060over theRTX 2080if the price was within ~$40.
Another drawback of benchmarks is that test results might not always be 100% accurate.
