How do you compare CPUs?

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Can you only compare them by benchmarks and live performance? If cores and Ghz don't mean everything. 

[Archangel1994]

Synthetic benchmarks

Actual performance benchmarks

Gaming benchmarks without changing CPU

[Interfectorem]

Depends, if you're comparing same generation Intel CPUs, it's pretty safe to compare by clock speeds, amt. of cache, number of cores, and Hyperthreading. But benchmarks would be a better representation.

[Archangel1994]

Depends, if you're comparing same generation Intel CPUs, it's pretty safe to compare by clock speeds, amt. of cache, number of cores, and Hyperthreading. But benchmarks would be a better representation.

STill not safe, while broadwell is only a tick (Die shrink) it still has a small IPC improvement so I would still not compare them this way

[Sumsar]

You put them on a scale, and then you weigh them. The heaviest cpu wins.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Best way is by a mixture of Synthetic and real life benchmarks to get an idea of how they perform in different areas. 

[Interfectorem]

STill not safe, while broadwell is only a tick (Die shrink) it still has a small IPC improvement so I would still not compare them this way

I said same generation.

[Archangel1994]

I said same generation.

Oop, got them mixed up

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Synthetic benchmarks

Actual performance benchmarks

Gaming benchmarks without changing CPU

 

I said same generation.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought...

[Toddwjp]

if there the same family then cores and clocks, if there different familys then benchmarks.

[Mo5]

You put them on a scale, and then you weigh them. The heaviest cpu wins.

you got that wrong. More power consumption equals more better /s

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

if there the same family then cores and clocks, if there different familys then benchmarks.

 

So E3 xeon a whole family, right?

[Opcode]

Can you only compare them by benchmarks and live performance? If cores and Ghz don't mean everything. 

That's the thing cores and GHz do mean something. Actually both are quite important.

[Dimwitted]

Not a chance! Bigger is better always! Get the biggest chip and you'll always win. /s

 

Ok, now that's out of the way, the equivalent question is whether a Honda CRV is better than a Ford Escort or an Audi A4. And the answer, of course, is yes/no.

 

What are you trying to do? What is your budget? What are you trying to measure? It really doesn't matter what criteria you use, all cpu's will measure well in some benchmarks over others. "Best" is a foolish term and doesn't mean anything. As it stands now, nothing is cpu bound so your choice will not cripple the system. Your bet is to make a budget up and see what falls into that range. See what features are the most important to you and use that as your selection system.

[Toddwjp]

So E3 xeon a whole family, right?

 

if there all e3s, on the same size sililicon then yes it pretty much comes down to gigahertz and cores unless there are specific features you want