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The main manufacturers of processors nowadays are Intel and AMD, also in 2020, Apple introduced its M1 series CPUs (with further development as M1 Max and M1 Ultra), later showing the next generation M2(M2 Pro, M2 Max, M2 Ultra). The list of current Intel series includes Atom, Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Core i9 and Xeon. For AMD, in turn, this list looks like this: AMD Athlon, AMD FX, Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, Ryzen 9 and Ryzen Threadripper.

In general, each series includes processors of different generations, similar in general level and positioning. Here is a more detailed description of each of the options described above:

— Atom. Processors originally designed for mobile devices. Accordingly, they are distinguished by compactness, high energy efficiency and low heat dissipation, but they “do not shine” with performance. Perfect for microcomputers (see "Type"), among the more "large-format" systems are extremely rare — mostly in the most modest configurations.

— Celeron. Low-cost-level processors, the most simple and inexpensive consumer-level desktop chips from Intel, with the appropriate characteristics.

— Pentium. A family of low-cost desktop processors from Intel that is slightly more advanced than Celeron, but inferior to models from the Core i* series.

— Core i3. The simplest and most inexpensive series of desktop Core chips from Intel includes chips of the low-cost and inexpensive middle class, which, nevertheless, surpass Celerons and Pentiums in terms of performance.

— Core i5. Medium-level family among Intel Core processors; and in general, the chips of this series can be attributed to the average level by the standards of desktop systems.

— Core i7. A series of high-performance processors that has long been the top among Core chips; only in 2017 did it lose this position to the i9 family. However, the presence of an i7 processor still means a fairly powerful and advanced configuration; in particular, such CPUs are found in premium-level monoblocks, and are also quite popular in gaming systems.

— Core i9. The top series among Core processors, the most powerful among general purpose Intel desktop chips. In particular, the number of cores even in the most modest models is at least 6. Such chips are used mainly in gaming PCs.

— Xeon. High-end Intel processors, the capabilities of which go beyond the standard desktop chips. Designed for specialized applications, among PCs they are found mainly in powerful workstations.

— AMD FX. A family of processors from AMD, positioned as high-performance and at the same time inexpensive solutions, including for gaming systems. Interestingly, some models come standard with liquid cooling.

— Ryzen 3. AMD Ryzen chips (all series) are promoted as high-end solutions for gamers, developers, graphic designers and video editors. It was among these chips that AMD pioneered the Zen microarchitecture, which introduced simultaneous multithreading, which made it possible to significantly increase the number of operations per clock at the same clock frequency. And Ryzen 3 is the most inexpensive and modest family among the "ryzens" in terms of characteristics. Such processors are produced using the same technologies as the older series, however, half of the computing cores are deactivated in Ryzen 3. Nevertheless, this line includes quite performant models, designed, among other things, for gaming configurations and workstations.

— Ryzen 5. A family related to the middle level among Ryzen processors. The second series on this architecture, released in April 2017 as a more affordable alternative to Ryzen 7 chips. Ryzen 5 chips have slightly more modest performance characteristics (in particular, lower clock speeds and, in some models, L3 cache size). Otherwise, they are completely similar to the "sevens" and are also positioned as high-performance chips for gaming and workstations.

— Ryzen 7. Historically the first series of AMD processors based on the Zen microarchitecture (for more details, see "Ryzen 3" above). One of the older families among the "ryzens", in terms of performance it is second only to the Threadripper line; many PCs based on these chips are gaming.

— Ryzen Threadripper. Specialized Hi-End processors designed for maximum performance. They are mainly installed in gaming systems and workstations.

— Apple M1. A series of processors from Apple introduced in November 2020. They belong to mobile solutions (see "Type" above), are performed according to the system-on-chip scheme: a single module combines a CPU, a graphics adapter, RAM (in the first models — 8 or 16 GB), an NVMe solid-state drive and some other components (specifically Thunderbolt 4 controllers). Accordingly, among PCs, the main scope of such chips are compact nettops. As for the characteristics, in the initial configurations, the M1 processors are equipped with 8 cores — 4 performant and 4 economical; the latter, according to the creators, consume 10 times less energy than the former. This, combined with the 5nm process technology, has made it possible to achieve very high energy efficiency and at the same time performance.

— Apple M1 Max. An uncompromisingly powerful SoC with a focus on maximizing Apple desktop productivity for complex tasks. The Apple M1 Max line was introduced in the fall of 2021, it debuted on board Mac Studio computers.

Apple M1 Max consists of 10 cores: 8 of them are productive, and 2 more are energy efficient. The maximum amount of built-in combined memory reaches 64 GB, the “ceiling” of its bandwidth is 400 GB / s. The graphics performance of the Max version of the M1 single-chip system is about twice that of the Apple M1 Pro. The chip contains over 57 billion transistors. An additional accelerator for the professional ProRes video codec has also been introduced into its design, which allows you to easily play multiple streams of high-quality ProRes video in 4K and 8K frame resolutions.

— Apple M1 Ultra. Formally, the M1 Ultra chip consists of two Apple M1 Max processors on a single UltraFusion substrate, which allows information transfer at speeds up to 2.5 Tbps. In the language of "dry" numbers, this bundle consists of 20 ARM computing cores (16 high-performance and 4 energy efficient), a 64-core graphics subsystem and a 32-core neural computing unit. The system-on-chip supports up to 128 GB of combined memory. About 114 billion transistors are packed into the processor package. The main purpose of the Apple M1 Ultra is to confidently work with complex resource-intensive applications in the manner of processing 8K video or 3D rendering. In life, the processor can be found on board Mac Studio desktop computers.

In addition to the series described above, in modern PCs you can find the following processors:

— AMD Fusion A4.... The entire Fusion processor family was originally created as integrated graphics devices, combining a central processing unit and a graphics card in one chip; such chips are called APU — Accelerated Processing Unit. Series with the index "A" are equipped with the most powerful integrated graphics in the family, which in some cases can compete on equal terms with inexpensive discrete video cards. The higher the number in the series index, the more advanced it is; A4 is the most modest series among Fusion A.

— AMD Fusion A6. A series of processors from the Fusion A line, relatively modest, but somewhat more advanced than the A4. For common features of all Fusion A, see "AMD Fusion A4" above.

— AMD Fusion A8. A rather advanced series of Fusion A processors, the middle option between the relatively modest A4 and A6 and the high-end A10 and A12. For common features of all Fusion A, see "AMD Fusion A4" above.

— AMD Fusion A9. Another advanced series from the Fusion A family, slightly inferior only to the A10 and A12 series. For common features of all Fusion A, see "AMD Fusion A4" above.

— AMD Fusion A10. One of the top series in the Fusion A line. See "AMD Fusion A4" above for general features of this line.

— AMD Fusion A12. The top series in the APU Fusion A line, introduced in 2015; positioned as professional-level processors with advanced (even by APU standards) graphics capabilities. For general features of the Fusion A range, see "AMD Fusion A4" above.

— AMD E-series. This series of processors belongs to the APU, like the Fusion A described above, however, it is fundamentally different in specialization: the main scope of the E-Series are compact devices, in the case of PCs, mostly nettops (see "Type"). Accordingly, these processors have compactness, low heat dissipation and power consumption, but their computing power is also low.

— Athlon X4. A series of low-cost consumer-level processors, originally released in 2015 as relatively inexpensive and at the same time relatively performant solutions for the FM + socket.

— AMD G. A family of ultra-compact and energy-efficient processors from AMD, made on the principle of "system on a chip" (SoC). Unlike many similar chips, it uses the x86 architecture, not ARM. Positioned as a solution for devices with an emphasis on graphics, in particular, gaming. However, we are not talking about gaming PCs: like most processors of a similar "weight category", AMD G is found mainly in thin clients (see "Type").

— VIA. Processors from the company of the same name, mainly related to energy-efficient "mobile" solutions — in particular, many VIA models are directly compared with Intel Atom. However, despite the modest performance, such CPUs are found even among desktop systems; and in the future, the company plans to create full-fledged desktop chips, competing with AMD and Intel.

— ARM Cortex-A. A group of processors from ARM, the creator of the microarchitecture of the same name and the largest manufacturer of chips based on it. A feature of this microarchitecture compared to the classic x86 is the so-called reduced instruction set (RISC): The processor operates with a simplified instruction set. This somewhat limits the functionality, but allows you to create more compact, "cold" and at the same time performant chips. For a number of reasons, the ARM architecture is mainly used in "mobile" processors designed for smartphones, tablets, etc. This is also true for the ARM Cortex-A series; in PCs, such CPUs are rarely installed, and usually we are talking about a compact, modest device like a “thin client” (see “Type”).

— Nvidia Tegra. Initially, these processors were created for portable devices, but recently they have also been installed in PCs, mainly in monoblocks. They are "system-on-chip" devices that do not use the "desktop" x86 architecture, but the "mobile" ARM architecture, which requires the use of appropriate operating systems; the most commonly used is Android (see "Preinstalled OS").

— Armada. Another type of ARM architecture processors, positioned as high-performance solutions for cloud computing and home servers, including NAS. It is found in single models of "thin clients" (see "Type").

— Tera. A specialized family of processors designed specifically for "thin clients" (see "Type") and fundamentally different from classic CPUs (both full-size and compact). Tera-based systems are usually full-fledged "zero clients" (zero client), absolutely not capable of autonomous operation. In other words, these are devices designed to create a "virtual desktop": the user works with the interface and terminal equipment (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.), but all operations take place on the server. This allows you to provide increased security when working with sensitive data. But in more traditional PCs, Tera processors are practically inapplicable.

Of the outdated series of processors that can still be found in use (but not for sale), we can mention the Sempron, Phenom II and Athlon II from AMD, as well as the Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo from Intel.

Note that on the market there are configurations that are not equipped with a processor — in the expectation that the user can pick it up on his own; however, this is a rather rare option.

The specific model of the processor installed in the PC, or rather, its index within its series (see "Processor"). The full model name consists of the series name and this index — for example, Intel Core i3 3220; knowing this name, you can find detailed information about the processor (characteristics, reviews, etc.) and determine how suitable it is for your purposes.

The number of cores in a complete PC processor.

The core is a part of the processor designed to process one stream of commands (and sometimes more, for such cases, see "Number of threads"). Accordingly, the presence of several cores allows the processor to work simultaneously with several such threads, which has a positive effect on performance. However note that a larger number of cores does not always mean higher computing power — a lot depends on how the interaction between command streams is organized, what special technologies are implemented in the processor, etc. So, only chips of the same purpose (desktop, mobile) and similar series (see "Processor") can be compared by the number of cores.

In general, single-core processors are practically not found in modern PCs. Mainly desktop chips of the initial and middle level are made dual-core. Four cores are found both in desktop CPUs of the middle and advanced class, and in mobile solutions. And six-core and eight-core processors are typical for high-performance desktop processors used in workstations and gaming systems.

The number of threads supported by the bundled PC processor.

A thread in this case is a sequence of instructions executed by the kernel. Initially, each individual core is able to work with only one such sequence. However, among modern CPUs, more and more often there are models in which the number of threads is twice the number of cores. This means that the processor uses multi-threading technology, and each core works with two instruction sequences: when pauses occur in one thread, the core switches to another, and vice versa. This allows you to significantly increase performance without increasing the clock frequency and heat dissipation, however, such CPUs are also more expensive than single-threaded counterparts.

Clock speed of the CPU installed in the PC.

In theory, higher clock speeds have a positive effect on performance because they allow the CPU to perform more operations per unit of time. However, this indicator is rather weakly related to real productivity. The fact is that the actual capabilities of the CPU strongly depend on a number of other factors - the overall architecture, cache size, number of cores, support for special instructions, etc. As a result, you can compare by this indicator only chips from the same or similar series (see “CPU”), and ideally, also from the same generation. And that's pretty approximate.

The result shown by the PC processor in the test (benchmark) Passmark CPU Mark.

Passmark CPU Mark is a comprehensive test that allows you to evaluate CPU performance in various modes and with a different number of processed threads. The results are displayed in points; the more points, the higher the overall performance of the processor. For comparison: as of 2020, in low-cost solutions, the results are measured in hundreds of points, in mid-range models they range from 800 – 900 to more than 6,000 points, and individual top-end chips are capable of showing 40,000 points or more.

The result shown by the PC processor in the test (benchmark) Geekbench 4.

Geekbench 4 is a comprehensive cross-platform test that allows, among other things, to determine the efficiency of the processor in various modes. At the same time, according to the developers, the verification modes are as close as possible to various real tasks that the processor has to solve. The result is indicated in points: the more points — the more powerful the CPU, while the difference in numbers corresponds to the actual difference in performance ("twice the result — twice the power").

Note that the benchmark in Geekbench 4 is the Intel Core i7-6600U processor with a clock frequency of 2.6 GHz. Its power is estimated at 4000 points, and the performance of other tested CPUs is already compared with it.

The result shown by the PC processor in the test (benchmark) Cinebench R15.

Cinebench is a test designed to test the capabilities of the processor and graphics card. The creator of this benchmark, Maxon, is also known as the developer of the Cinema 4D 3D editor; this determined the features of testing. So, in addition to purely mathematical tasks, when using Cinebench R15, the processor is loaded with processing high-quality three-dimensional graphics. Another interesting feature is the extensive support for multithreading — the test allows you to fully check the power of chips that process up to 256 threads at a time.

Traditionally, for CPU benchmarks, the test results are indicated in points (more precisely, points — PTS). The more points scored by the CPU, the higher its performance.

The type of storage device that is installed in the computer.

Note that many PCs allow you to add a complete drive or even completely replace it, but it is more convenient to buy a suitable configuration initially and not bother with re-equipment. In terms of types, traditional hard disk drives ( HDD) are increasingly losing ground to SSD solid-state modules nowadays. In addition, HDD + SSD combinations are quite popular (including those using advanced Intel Optane and Fusion Drive technologies). But solutions such as SSHD and eMMC have practically fallen into disuse. Let's take a closer look at these options:

— HDD. Classic hard disk. The key advantage of such drives is their low cost per unit of volume — this allows you to create capacious and at the same time inexpensive storage. On the other hand, HDDs are noticeably inferior to SSDs in terms of speed, and they also do not tolerate shocks and shocks. Thus, this type of media is less and less used in its pure form — it is much more common to find a combination of a hard drive with an SSD module (see below).

— SSD. Solid state drives based on flash memory. With the same volume, an SSD is much more expensive than an HDD, but this is justified by a number of advantages. First, such drives are much faster than hard drives; specif...ic performance may be different (depending on the type of memory, connection interface, etc.), however, even inexpensive SSDs outperform advanced HDDs in this indicator. Secondly, solid-state memory has no moving parts, which offers several advantages at once: lightness, compactness, shock insensitivity and low power consumption. And the cost of such memory is constantly decreasing as technology advances. So more and more modern PCs are equipped with just such drives, and these can be configurations of any level — from low-cost to top ones.

— HDD+SSD. The presence in one system of two drives at once — HDD and SSD. Each of these varieties is described in more detail above; and their combination in one system allows you to combine the advantages and partially compensate for the shortcomings. For example, an SSD (which usually has a fairly small capacity) can store system files and other data for which speed of access is important (for example, work applications); and HDD is well suited for large volumes of information that do not require particularly high speed (a typical case is video files and other multimedia content). In addition, the solid-state module can be used not as a separate storage, but as an intermediate cache to speed up the hard drive; however, this usually requires special software settings (whereas the "two separate drives" mode is most often available by default).
We also emphasize that in this case we are talking about “ordinary” SSD modules that do not belong to the Optane and Fusion Drive series; the features of these series are detailed below.

HDD + Optane. Combination of a traditional hard drive with an Intel Optane series SSD. For more information about the general features of this combination, see "HDD + SSD" above. Here, we note that “optains” differ from other SSD drives in a special three-dimensional structure of memory cells (3D Xpoint technology). This allows you to access data at the level of individual cells and do without some additional operations, which speeds up the speed and reduces latency, and also has a positive effect on memory life. The second difference is that Optane is usually used not as a separate drive, but as an auxiliary buffer (cache) for the main hard drive, designed to increase speed. Both drives are perceived by the system as a single device. The disadvantage of this type of SSD is traditional — a rather high cost; it is also worth noting that its superiority is most noticeable at relatively low loads (although it does not disappear completely with increasing load).

— HDD + Fusion Drive. A kind of HDD + SSD bundle (see above), used exclusively in Apple computers and optimized for the proprietary macOS operating system. However, it would be more correct to compare this option with the “HDD + Optane” combination (also described above): for example, both drives are perceived by the system as a single unit, and the Fusion Drive module is also used as a high-speed cache for the hard drive. However, there are also significant differences. Firstly, Fusion Drive has significant volumes and is used not only as a service buffer, but also as part of a full-fledged drive — for permanent data storage. Secondly, the total volume of the entire bundle approximately corresponds to the sum of the volumes of both drives (minus a couple of "service" gigabytes). This type of drive is expensive, but the efficiency and convenience are well worth the price.

— SSHD. The so-called hybrid drive: a device that combines a hard drive and a small SSD cache in one case. Some time ago, this solution was quite popular, but now it is almost never found, having been supplanted by a more practical option — various types of HDD + SSD.

— eMMC. A type of solid-state memory originally developed for portable gadgets such as smartphones and tablets. It differs from SSD, on the one hand, in lower cost and low power consumption, on the other hand, in relatively low speed and reliability. Because of this, this type of drive is used extremely rarely — in particular, in single models of microcomputers and thin clients (see "Type").

— HDD + eMMC. Combination of hard disk drive (HDD) and eMMC solid state module. These types of drives are described in detail above; here we note that this option is extremely rare, and in rather specific devices — monoblocks (see "Type") with a transformer function, where the screen is a removable tablet that can be used autonomously. In such a tablet, an eMMC module is usually installed, and a hard drive is placed in the stationary part. However, another option is also possible — a bundle similar to HDD + SSD (see above), where eMMC is used to reduce cost and/or power consumption.

— SSD + eMMC. Another combination of the two types of drives described above. It was used in single monoblocks and nettops — mainly to reduce the cost; Today, this variant is almost non-existent.