The quad core i3-8350K hails from Intel’s most recent (and as yet unreleased) generation of Coffee Lake processors. It has a stock clock of 4.0 GHz, 8MB of cache and a TDP of 95W. The 8350K is the first i3 processor to feature four cores (previous generations of i3s had two cores and four threads). With this eighth generation of processors, Intel has introduced a step change in their nomenclature which witnesses the old quad core i5s become the new quad core i3s. Our benchmarks show a 25% increase in effective speed between generations of i3 8350K vs 7350K and near equivalence between the outgoing i5-7600K and the new i3-8350K. Although the price points of Coffee Lake are not yet known, if Intel keep them roughly in line with the previous generations (i3 ~= $140) this will represent the best improvement in value for money since Sandy Bridge as the 8350K at $140 would be 34.8% cheaper than a 7600K at $215. Cynics among us will see this as an effort to fend off competition from AMD’s new multi-core Ryzen processors. It appears Intel may have been successful with this move as early benchmarks from the 8350K suggest that it beats the more expensive 8 core Ryzen 7 1700 in single and quad core performance by 25%. The 8350K is a great choice for gaming builds, but the budget will also need to factor in a complementary motherboard based on the new 300 series chipset. Expect the quad core i3-8100 which is the 8350K’s little sister featuring a base clock of 3.6 GHz, to follow shortly. [Aug '17CPUPro]
Ryzen 4000 Mobile CPUs offer benchmark busting multi-core performance on the go, but marketing hype aside, it’s unclear how this will translate to real world performance. Sixteen threads are great for beating benchmarks including UserBenchmark 64-core, Cinebench, Blender-CPU and Handbrake-CPU but gamers need performance in the games that they actually play. At launch, the top GPU available in a 4000 series laptop is the RTX 2060. Since the GPU is largely responsible for overall gaming performance, the Ryzen 4000 laptops will offer mid tier gaming performance at best. Pairing stronger GPUs would be suboptimal because the Ryzen gaming bottleneck becomes increasingly severe with more powerful GPUs. Streamers and media producers, who may have historically benefited from high core counts, are better off using the GPU (NVENC or QuickSync) for encoding. Leading media creation applications including both DaVinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere Pro are largely GPU bound. With low power consumption and high core counts, the 4000 range, on paper at least, is a perfect fit for the datacenter. AMD should focus on delivering a platform that offers performance where end users actually need it rather than targeting inexperienced gamers with the same old "moar cores" mantra. From a gamer’s perspective, the best feature of the 4000 series laptops is the absence of the equally hyped 5000 series GPUs. Prospective gaming laptop buyers will find lower latency (and therefore better gaming) CPUs combined with faster GPUs at similar price points. [Mar '20CPUPro]
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.