How to know which processor I have 【all the information】?

Do you want to know what processor you have installed on your PC ? Do you want to update it? Don't worry, in this tutorial we will teach you how to identify it quickly! But before you have to know that the processor, CPU or central processing unit is the most important part of our computer. His soul and the reason why today it is possible to invent, investigate and process absolutely everything around us.

Without a doubt one of the great advances of our era. Being a little more modest, we are interested in our team going fast, so that we do not notice delays in the tasks we want to perform. In short, if I am thinking of buying a new processor, how to know what processor I have before buying anything would be very useful.

Index of contents

Knowing which processor I have installed on my computer is very important, especially if we are thinking of buying a new one. Virtually everything else depends on it, so if we are thinking of renewing our processor, surely we should also renew most of the other components. We will see all this in this article and in this way we will have a clear idea of ​​what we should do.

The basics: what is a processor

To know in detail what a processor is, what it is used for and what function it fulfills in our team, we invite you to take a look at our complete article on:

This way you will have more or less a clear idea of ​​why it is so important and what information and parameters we should look for from it to know how good it is.

Features I should look at from a processor

Name

Corresponds to the name of the CPU. Here we can identify the manufacturer and the processor model that we have. For example, the current families are from the main manufacturers Intel and AMD: Intel Core and AMD Ryzen, so if you do not have one of these you can get information on the Internet depending on the name you get.

Model (Model)

As for models, there are a huge number of them so, the best thing in this case is to get information directly on the internet depending on which we have. We are going to be interested in its benefits. Each of the models will have more and less powerful variants. So this information is useful but very relative.

Microarchitecture name (Code Name)

Represents the construction architecture of the processor. It is directly linked to miniaturization or micro architecture technology. The current names are: by Intel the Kaby Lake and by AMD the Ryzen

Socket or (Package)

This information is very important, almost the most, since it is the architecture of the socket or socket that the processor uses to connect to the motherboard. If this information does not match between your current processor and the one you want to buy, you must also purchase a new motherboard.

To find out what socket types are currently used, read our article:

Microarchitecture (technology)

This information corresponds to the miniaturization technology of the transistors that make up the processor. Increasingly smaller dimensions have been achieved over time, reaching currently 14 nm (nanometers). Previously we had: 22nm, 32nm, 45nm, 65nm and earlier. The processors we currently have should be among one of these figures. (the less the better)

Consumption power or (TDP)

As its name indicates, it is the electrical power consumed by the CPU. (The less, the better according to models)

Cores (core) and threads (thread)

Within a processor chip we can find from a core to 32 of them. Each core of these is itself a processor. If we have several of them, the chip will be able to perform a certain number of tasks simultaneously. Similarly, threads represent the ability to perform simultaneous tasks. (the more the better) to know more about the cores of a processor we recommend our article on What are the cores of a processor and the logical threads or cores

Frequency (speed)

The frequency of a processor marks its speed to make calculations, it is as if we had an extremely fast clock, in fact, the frequency is controlled by clocks. (the more the better)

Cache memory

Cache memory is another of the most important elements. We will all know the RAM, which is a volatile data storage space that is used to load the data from a hard disk and it is possible to work with them at a faster processing speed. Well, the processor itself has several types of these memories. In this case they are much faster memories than RAM but smaller, and also have several levels. They are normally 3 L1, L2 and L3, each of these will be faster and smaller than the next. For example, we will have a cache memory L1 of 32KB, L2 of 256 KB and L3 of 6 MB. Normally each of these memories are associated with a core, so if we have 4 cores we will have 4 caches for each one. (the more the better)

How to know which processor I have

So what we must do is find a way to know in detail which is our processor. For this we have a series of options, from the least to the most detailed

From the system properties:

The first and fastest way to look at it is through system properties. To do this, we are going to see how in both Linux and Windows

On Windows (any version)

For this we are going to go to the start menu and locate the Control Panel, normally it will be inside the folder "Windows System" OR "System".

Once inside, we change the view of the sale to "Icons" this can be done in the upper right corner, we go to the "System" icon . The information that interests us is the one that comes in the System section that is relative to hardware, specifically the “Processor” section that interests us. We will have the following information:

• Brand: it will be the first word of allModel: it will be the next thing we will see can be one or more wordsSpeed: numerical valueArchitecture: if we go a little lower in "System type" we will have the architecture (processor based on x64) or what it is the same 64-bit architecture.

With this information we can search the Internet for the other properties of our processor, we only have to enter this information and surely one of the first pages that appears to us will be that of the manufacturer.

On Linux (any version)

To find out what processor I have in Linux, the easiest thing is to go to the command terminal and write the following:

lscpu

Here we will have more detailed information than in the case of Windows, in addition to the previous one we will have:

• Cores and threads: are the processing units that the CPU chip contains. Cache memory: These will be represented by the letter "L" followed by a number expressed in units of KB or Kilobytes. The more the better of course.

Using specific software

CPU-Z for Windows

CPU-Z is a free program available in both installable and portable versions, which provides us with very complete information about our CPU. To download it we will enter its official website.

Once we have it, we will execute it to show us all the necessary information.

From here we can extract much more information than through the previous methods. In fact, we will have enough to know exactly what processor we have and what are its main properties to compare it with those that exist in the market.

Hardinfo for Linux

Hardinfo is a complete program to list not only the characteristics of the CPU but also all the hardware that our equipment has. To install it we will open the Linux terminal and write the following commands:

sudo apt-get install hardinfo hardinfo

Why know what processor I have?

The first and fundamental thing, to make comparisons with other processors on the market. So we can see if we are outdated or still have margin.

After being clear about the different characteristics of our processor and which are considered better the higher their numbers are, the first thing to look for is the type of socket we want if it is going to be the same or different from ours, since, based on To this we will have to buy a new motherboard and probably new RAM memory modules.

Next, we will have to look at the different models and brands on the market. Identify each of these to see its other characteristics:

• MicroarchitectureNucleiFrequencyCache memory

When we have located these characteristics we will be able to compare them between them and ours. One of the best pages to buy CPUs is cpuboss.com.

We recommend getting informed and looking for the models that interest you directly on our website, we have a large number of reviews from the best processors on the market.

We hope that all this information has been useful to you. Leave us your impressions in the comments.