Table of Contents
Introduction
The Purpose of this article is to provide you with adequate information to select the correct processor (CPU) for your laptop. Choosing a suitable CPU is not rocket science and by reading this article you can educate yourself to make a smart choice.
What is a CPU
We all know that a CPU is the most important part of a computer. It is often referred to as the brain of the computer.
CPUs are silicon chips etched with millions of Transistors. Modern CPUs have several cores, each core being an independent processor in itself. The CPU itself has two parts, the Control Unit (CU) and the ALU (Arithmetic and Logic Unit). The Control Unit is connected to the ALU, Input and output devices, computer memory and controls the functioning of the ALU using the computer memory to receive inputs, store results and give outputs using the control bus, data bus, address bus etc.
The ALU, called the brawn of the computer, does all the hard work of both arithmetic (addition/substraction/multiplication/division) and Logic (comparisons like greater than, less than, equal to).
The CPU also has some registers built into it where the cores store small amounts of data like instruction register, insruction address register, an accumulator register, memory address register, a counter, in a sequence of bits or characters.
In short, the CPU works to execute the commands we give to the computer.
How to check the CPU of a Laptop
There are many ways to check the processor in a system. Windows has provided a tool to get system information called msinfo32.exe, This tool displays the hardware and software environment of your system.
Windows 10 and 11
Type msinfo32 in the Search box in the task bar.
Windows 8.1
On the Start screen, just type msinfo32.
Windows 7
Click Start and then type msinfo32 in the Search box.
You would then see a lot of information on the screen like Operating System, the System Model, whether it is x32 or x64, the processor and the installed system memory (RAM). By clicking options in the left pane, you can see all other information related to the hardware, components and software.
Getting back to the processor, hover your mouse pointer over the processor name and you will see expanded details indicating the processor speed, number of cores and number of threads(Logical Processors).
Intel Naming Convention
Intel has a naming convention of their processors as given below.
AMD Naming Convention
In a similar manner, AMD too has a naming convention as given below.
A brief about Apple Processsors
Apple started the Macintosh series of PCs in 1984 and using the Motorola 68K processor which it continued till 1995. Later, with the rise of RISC based architecture, Apple partnered with IBM & Motorola to design and manufacture PowerPC processors and used them from 1994 till 2006. Since 2006, Apple migrated to Intel processors. Apple designed its own processor, A4 based on ARM Instruction set which it uses in the IPhone. The A4 series progressed upto A14. From Novemeber 2020 Apple has started using its own Apple Silicon M1 SOC for its Mac computers.
So apple has been using Intel Processors since 2006 and migrated to their own M1 SOC recently. Apple does not disclose the detailed technical specs of its processors and the only source of information we can get is through their marketing information.
Diving Deeper to find the Specs of Your CPU
To see detailed processor specifications, just google the processor name eg., “Intel Core i74710HQ Specifications” or “AMD Ryzen 7 1800x specifications”.
You will see the first result from intel.com or AMD.com. Click that link and you can see more details of the processor. We will discuss relevant aspects of these specifications later in this article.
Selecting a CPU that suits you the best
Based on your discovery of the name of the CPU as given above and deciphering the Name, you can now come to a reasonable comclusion as to which processor will suit you based on the Broad and Detailed classifications given below.
Broad Classification for Selecting a CPU
(Detailed Clasification given Below)
| Performance | Typical User Example | Suggested Processor |
| Mainstreame | Stay at home person-School Use-Office Worker, Movie Buff | Intel Core I3 or AMD Ryzen 3 Series |
| High Performance | College Goer, Light Gamer, Amaeture Designer, Media Streamer | Intel Core I5 or AMD Ryzen 5 Series |
| Very High Performance | Serious Gamer-Professional-Power User | Intel Core I7 or AMD Ryzen 7 Series |
| Superlative Performance | Enthusiast for extreme performance | Intel Core I9 or AMD Ryzen 9 Series |
If you are a very basic user at entry Level you may be happy with the budget friendly processors for browsing and MS Office Work. In that case you may consider Intel Pentium Dual or Quad Core. AMD Athalon Procesors or a Chrome Book.
Detailed Classification for Selecting a CPU
Basic User
If you need a laptop for browsing the Internet, checking and responding to emails, using apps like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, watching YouTube video’s, playing low-intensity low- spec games, streaming some movies, doing online shopping, making video calls, checking out your social media, attending online classes, Online Banking, tracking your sales through your cloud-based ERP you would be happy with an i3 dual-core processor. It does make economic sense. Everyday Family use. Not for Gamers or Professionals
AMD RYZEN™ 3 PRO PROCESSORS
Intermediate Users
If you are looking for a processor faster than an i3, and find that an i3 processor is slow in responding to your tasks, and you are a multi-tasker for office, home, or school purposes, you would need an i5 processor. You would typically be a mainstream user willing to spend a little more for the better performance needed by demanding business applications, programming work, limited video editing, media creation, multimedia consumption. This is also suited for college students who need to run specialised software for their courses. You can also play mid-level games with reasonable graphics capabilities. To sum up, users that need to do all the tasks listed for an i3 above and also want to enjoy the computing power for accentuated complex computing applications should go in for an i5 processor.
AMD RYZEN™ 5 PRO PROCESSORS
Advanced Users
Core I 7 is for top-notch users willing to pay the performance price and hate waiting for a screen to load. These processors can do the heavy haul work that needs intensive CPU power. Typically used for media editing, creation tasks, video and graphics content creation and rendering, movie editing work, and such high-level graphics work. They are also ideally suited for serious high-end gaming applications rendering 3D graphics seamlessly without any lag. A Core i7 can perform faster than an i5 while multitasking and can smoothly handle the most demanding and intensive workloads exceptionally well.
AMD RYZEN™ 7 PRO PROCESSORS
Reserved for the Prosumer
Intel launched the world’s fastest processor in October 2017 called the i9 or sometimes referred to as Intel Core X-series processors. The processing power is obtained by increasing the number of cores typically anything from 8 to 18 cores. They use Intel X299 chipset, Turbo Boost, 4-channel DDR4 RAM, Optane Memory which exponentiates the performance to a beast. These are largely available for desktops and are reserved only for the extreme enthusiasts that just want the ‘Flagship Processor’ and nothing less. Such processing power is seldom needed by a lot of normal computer users.
AMD RYZEN™ 9 PRO PROCESSORS
The Basic Thumb Rule
While staying within your budget and other factors remaining constant keep the following thumb rules in mind while selecting a processor.
- Buy a higher processor within the same generation. Eg., an i5 is better than an i3.
- Buy the most recent generation processor to remain future-proof.
- Within the same generation and type, buy a processor with a higher model number. Eg., i5-4071 is better than i5- 4010.
- Buy a processor with more cores. Quad-core is better than dual-core.
- Buy a processor with more threads. 4 threads is better than 2 threads,
- Buy a processor with more Cache Memory, eg, 8 MB cache is better than 4 MB cache.
- Buy a processor with better graphics capabilities.
Processor Characteristics
If you have not yet made up your maind and need to go a little more deeper into the processor characteristics, do spend some time understanding a few terms (Jargon) explained below:
Clock Speed and Frequency Faster May is not the better.
The time difference between two consecutive pulses in the CPU Clock is called a clock cycle. A computer with a frequncy of 1 GHz will have 1 billion cycles per second. Similarly, a computer with a CPU clock frequncy of 3.2 GHz will have 3.2 Billion cycles per second.
Genrally speaking, a CPU with a faster clock speed, can perform better compared to a CPU that is slower. However, while cpmparing two processors clock speed, make sure they belong to the same generation.
Sometimes, we may find a CPU with a slower clock speed but of a newer generation perform better than a faster CPU of an older generation.
(For a Better understanding read our Article on Clock Cycle)
No of Cores
In 2001, IBM introduced world’s first multi-core processor. A core is a processing unit, an IC chip of silicon that can read and process program instrcutions. In a multi core processor, a single integrated circuit holds several cores. They may be two, four or eight cores on a single silicon die. A core can process instructuions with the same speed as a single core CPU and would consume less power. The cores can also share memory wth other cores.
Manufacturers started adding more cores to the CPU making them dual/quad/octa cores etc., A core is a processor in itself which can read and execute instructions having its dedicated cache memory. This increased the speed of the CPU manyfold. One core could handle your browser while the other your MS word document and another play your music, all simultaneously. So now we had, multiple cores running multiple applications increasing the efficiency of the CPU.
More the number of cores in a processor, the better and faster the processor can perform.
Base Frequency
Every computer has a system clock that generates a stream of clock pulses. It is also called the base clock (BCLK) and is generally mounted on the motherboard of a computer. It comprises a quartz crystal oscillator, which when voltage is applied to it, produces an electrical signal at a very steady frequency.
For all components of the computer to work in tune with each other, including the CPU, they need to synchronize their working in step with the pulses of the system clock. Modern motherboards, irrespective of their make and type have a basic clock that produces a frequency of 100 Mhz.
The Control Unit of the CPU synchronises all the activities to the clock tick, much like an army marches to the beat of a drum or an orchestra plays to the stroke of the Leader.
Frequencies of other components are derived by multiplying the base frequency with a multiplier.
(For a Better understanding read our Article on Clock Cycle)
Multi-Threading
A thread is a basic unit of execution in a program or a process. Each process is broken down into smaller threads, which are sequences of instructions, for the computer to execute. By enabling multiple threads to run on a single core simultaneously, the CPU runs more efficiently.
Hyper-Threading
Hyperthreading is a technology introduced by Intel in the year 2002 in their processors. By Hyperthreading, each physical core is made to look like two logical cores to the operating system. This logically doubles the number of physical cores in a CPU as the operating system sees each physical cores a two logical or virtual cores. A dual core would look like it has four cores and a four core as having eight logical cores.
The operating system then can schedule. assign, distribute processes to these logical cores separately and independently. Each virtual core can perform tasks independent of the other virtual cores thereby sharing the workload efficiently and increasing the performance of the CPU. The overall effect being, the CPU can perform more tasks simultaneously and at a shorter amount of time. This reduces the idle time of the CPU and makes the computer run faster.
To get a better understanding on Hyperthreading you may like to see Hyperthreading.
Virtualization
Virtualization is when we have a single physical machine (Desktop/Laptop/Server) and on it, we run multiple virtual machines. On one computer, you could be running Windows 10 and also Ubuntu Linux. In this case, Windows 10 and Ubuntu Linux are two virtual machines running on one physical machine.
These virtual machines use the hardware of a single machine and we get many different computers running inside of it. These virtual machines could be multiple different types of Windows, Linux machines, etc and they’re all using the main machines Hardware.
To get a better understanding on Virtualisation you may like to see Vitualisation
Turbo Boost Turbo Boost is Intel’s proprietary technology to intelligently increase a processor’s clock speed if the application demands it.
Cache
Cache Memory is where the computer stores frequently accesed data. Cache memory is made of SRAM which is upto 100 times faster than DRAM. Ther are three levels of Cache L1, L2 and L3. L1 is the fastest and is dedicated to each core. L2 is slower than L1 and is also dedicated to the core. L1 & L2 are embedded on the CPU core. L3 memory is relatively slower and is shared between the Cores and is hence called Shared Cache Memory.
When the CPU core needs any data, it will get it from the fastest L1 cache, if the data is not there, it will look for it in L2, then L3 and lastely in the slower DRAM, till it finds the data. L1 is 32KB to 2MB. L2 cache 256KB to 8 MB. L3 cache can be from 2MB to 32MB. Your choice of a Processor based on your needs will cater to the required Cache in built in the Processor.
To get a better understanding on the Cache memory you may like to see Understanding CPU Cache Memory
Processor Graphics
We all know that a CPU is the most important part of a computer. It is often referred to as the brain of the computer. In short, the CPU works to execute the commands we give to the computer. The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) too is much like a CPU and is also made up of a Silicon Chip. It differs in architecture as it has several smaller specialised cores. By being able to distribute work across these cores, the GPU can do massive processing and be able to render images at very high resolutions.
A CPU can come with a GPU built on the same chip, sharing the memory with the CPU, it is said that the Graphics are integrated. Integrated Graphics provide a better economy of space and power and as such are used in laptops and mobiles.
When an external Graphics Card is incorporated into the computer, separate from the CPU, by attaching the same to the mother board solely for the purpose of Graphics Enhancement, it is called a dedicated Graphics card. It has its own memory and provides better Graphics quality.
The choice of getting a Laptop with an Integrated GPU or a Dedicated GPU is based on what you would use the Laptop for.
Intel and AMD processors running their own integrated graphics processors offer basic performance. They can do most of your office work well, play videos as also permit some older games to run. Full HD Displays with Integrated HD Graphics provide decent graphic performanc, adequate for daily use.
If you are a Gamer and want to play the NextGen version of Games then you must be very selective of the Graphics Card which for you is a very important component. To get a better understanding on the Grpahics Capability you may like to see this article on Graphics Card. In this article, you can get information on choosing the Graphics card suitable for your need.
Conclusion
Choosing the right CPU for your laptop isn’t just about going for the latest or most powerful option—it’s about finding the right fit for how you use your device. If you’re mostly browsing, streaming, or working on documents, an entry-level processor will get the job done without draining your budget. On the other hand, if you’re into gaming, video editing, or running demanding software, investing in a higher-tier CPU makes sense for smoother, faster performance.
Keep in mind factors like core count, clock speed, and generation—they all play a role in overall efficiency and longevity. And always consider the balance between performance and battery life, especially if portability is a priority for you.
Use this guide as a reference when you’re comparing models or specs. Understanding what to look for in a CPU gives you the edge in choosing a laptop that won’t just meet your needs today, but continue to deliver over time.
