Processors: Intel and AMD CPUs

How to identify a PC’s multi-core processor

Opening the Device Manager in the Control Panel is quickest way to find out what the make and model of processor is in a Windows computer. With the Device Manager open, scroll down to and click on Processors.

Use the free CPU-Z tool from cpuid.com if you want more information. See the image of it below, showing its tabs. It displays all of the information about the processor that you might need to know, such as its make and model, clock speed, FSB and clock multiplier settings in MHz, etc. It also identifies and displays information about the PC’s motherboard (mainboard)  and its BIOS version, its RAM memory and information about its graphics card or onboard graphics chip.

The Core Speed is the frequency at which each of the cores operates at, which in the image is 4197.52 MHz, which is 4.197GHz. To find out information of any of the terms the CPU-Z tool uses, use them as a web-search query with cpu in front of each of them, such as cpu bus speed, cpu multiplier, etc. These days, I choose a processor by going on the number of cores, Core Speed, price, and purchaser reviews. I don’t play the latest PC games, so I don’t need the best performance by the processor and graphics card.

CPU-Z - free tool that provides information on the CPU and its caches, motherboard, memory and graphics
CPU-Z – free tool that provides information on the CPU and its caches, motherboard, memory and graphics. Click on the image to see its full size

Another good utility used for processor identification is the free WCPUID utility, which is made available from several download sites, such as Softpedia.

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