How to Choose the Right Processor

There are various factors that can help you determine the right processor. If you don't want to get deep into the subject and just want the best for your system, look at our ranking list and choose the fastest processor that you can afford.

For those who want to learn more about how performance is determine, continue this article. Some of the most critical factors that determine the performance are:

• IPC
• Clock Speed
• Fabrication Process
• Cache
• Cores

IPC is known as Instruction Per Clock. It means how many instructions a CPU can perform every Clock Cycle.

Clock Speed or Frequency is measured in Hertz and it is typically around a few Giga Hertz in Modern Processors. Higher IPC + Higher Clock Speed results in better performance.

Processors cannot be compared on the basis of Clock Speeds either. A 2 GHz Processor can outperform a 3 GHz processor if it has much higher IPC than the latter.

Fabrication Process or the nanometer number shows the manufacturing process that is used to manufacture a semiconductor device. Lower the number, better the performance and efficiency. A 14nm Processor will be more efficient than a 28nm Processor.

CPUs have a local storage of data that ranges from a few Kilobytes to a few Megabytes. Storing data locally on its chip helps in reducing requests to the Memory and makes the system considerably faster and more responsive.

The more number of Cores a CPU has, the more process it can handle simultaneously and will result in better Multi-Tasking performance. Programs that support Multi-Threading run much faster on CPUs that have higher Physical Cores and Logical Threads.

While choosing a Laptop or Mobile Phone, you need to also consider the efficiency of the Processor. An efficient processor will consume less battery and will let you work longer.