The Intel Core i3-4160 is a dual-core four threaded 4th generation (Haswell) processor. It was released in Q3 2014 and scores a respectable 91 for effective speed. With its base frequency of 3.6 GHz, the 4160 is fast enough to run the vast majority of applications smoothly and it’s very reasonably priced for its performance which make it a sensible choice even when considering building a gaming PC. Although the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400 are absolutely fine for general desktop use such as web browsing and word processing they may bottleneck a gaming machine. A 20% price premium would buy the slightly older i3-4350 which has a 33% larger (4MB) cache but its only about 1% faster (full comparison here). Overall the i3-4160 represents the best value for money I have seen outside Intel's Pentium and Celeron range of CPUs. [Nov '14CPUPro]
The AMD Phenom II X6 1055T was the second in a long line of X6's, each successive revision received a small clock speed boost. The 1055T was clocked at 2.8 GHz base and 3.3 GHz turbo. The 1100T was the fastest X6 and has a base/turbo clock of 3.3/3.7 GHz. Comparing the 1055T and 1100T shows that the two processors have a very similar performance profile, both excelling at multi-core workloads and both showing relative weakness in single, and dual-core workloads. In todays market the bar has been raised several notches especially for single and dual core workloads but the 1055T still puts in a relatively strong multi-core performance which is roughly on a par with an Ivy Bridge i5-3570K. [Mar '14CPUPro]
We calculate effective speed which measures real world performance for typical users. Effective speed is adjusted by current prices to yield a value for money rating. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top CPUs. [CPUPro]
Welcome to our PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best value for money upgrades.