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Will upgrading your CPU make your PC perform better?
Many people assume that if your computer is not fast enough, simply changing one or two components will fix the problem, but this is only sometimes the case. The truth is that your PC components need to complement each other to work together and perform tasks. This is because if your PC components do not have the same level of power, then your system will bottleneck.
Bottlenecking is one of the most overlooked problems for a computer, and any underpowered component in the PC can cause it. That said, if you have a computer with relatively new hardware, then upgrading your old CPU to a new one can greatly improve your PC performance. But if your computer is slowly becoming outdated, then simply upgrading your CPU may cause more problems than it is worth and offer very little yield for its price.
What is bottlenecking?
A bottleneck occurs when a component in your PC is slower than your other components. It can happen in any part of your PC, but some bottlenecks are worse (and more expensive to fix) than others, like if your GPU and CPU don't match. While upgrading your PC is typically a good thing, you need to make sure that your other components can meet the increased demands of your new CPU.
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So, if you only upgrade your CPU but leave everything else as it was, then you might find that your overall performance won't improve very much. If you have an old CPU, but the rest of your components are newer, then it is a good idea to upgrade the CPU as your system is capable of handling the increased performance.
The specific problem with upgrading only your CPU is that you will often need to upgrade your motherboard, too, since they're built for specific CPU generations. You might also need a newer version of RAM (like upgrading from DDR4 to DDR5) or even your HDD/SSD to an NVME drive so that the devices can all communicate at the same speed.
Understanding CPU names and generations
Another confusing aspect of upgrading your CPU can come from how companies market them. For example, Intel CPUs use Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 for their different CPU families. However, these mislead consumers into believing that the higher the model number on the chip, the better the CPU is. This is not technically true because if you use an older i5 chip, it can be slower than a newer i3 chip. The important thing to look for is what generation and chip type the CPU is. You can find out what generation your CPU is by looking at the first two numbers after the model name. A Core i5-12600KF is a 12th-generation CPU, but a Core i7-9700T is from the ninth generation.
The letter at the end of the model tells you what chip type the CPU has. Newer and more powerful Intel CPUs use K, F, or KF. These letters tell you if the CPU can be overclocked (K), if the CPU has dedicated graphics (F), or if it has both (KF). Lower-end models will use T, E, and TE. These stand for lower power usage (T), standard power embedded CPU (E), and lower power and embedded CPU (TE). These letters will be different on an AMD CPU. All AMD processors are unlocked and (X) denotes a more powerful chip with precision boost overdrive (PBO) enabled. Chips with a (G) are APUs with advanced integrated graphics.
Upgrading your CPU can be incredibly beneficial to your PC, but it can also cause many problems if you don’t upgrade other components with it. For instance, upgrading to the latest generation CPU from an eighth or ninth-generation CPU to a 12th-generation one will need a new motherboard, as the chips are different sizes. On top of this, newer CPUs and motherboards may not support the older hardware that you used for your previous CPU. As always, it is important to do a lot of research on the parts you want before you buy them. You might end up wasting money on something that will only offer a minimal improvement over what you're currently using.
