The fact that the near three year old Intel i7-3960X still tops the speed charts reflects just how little competition there is in the CPU market. Intel have dominated for so long that there is simply no economic incentive to push the speed boundaries at anywhere nearly the pace of improvement we saw in previous years. The i7-3960X has 6 cores and 12 threads which is two cores more than the vast majority of Intel's other top end processors. The extra two cores explain why the 3960X still performs so well compared to the majority of the 3960X's newer siblings. This processor will offer little more than a far cheaper i3 to regular desktop users but for server orientated workloads it is still one of the best processors available. [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.