This article was written in partnership with iBUYPOWER.
As computer technology has evolved over the years to match the needs of modern users, components like CPUs have become more powerful and a little more complicated.
Renowned CPU manufacturer AMD is at the forefront of this technological advancement, pushing what is possible from home computing forward with products like the Ryzen range of CPUs, resulting in more choices and better products for us all.
What is a CPU and how does it work?
The CPU can be thought of as the brain of the computer, where all the thinking is done. It’s often made up of multiple cores, and those individual cores are capable of a process called multithreading. That might sound complicated, but just a little bit of information goes a long way to help develop an understanding of how they work.
If you’re ready to buy a new CPU or gaming PC and are wondering about your new device’s performance, including how many CPU cores it has, if it has multithreading support, the chipset it uses, and the clock speed, then you’re in the right place as these are all very important questions to think about.
The CPU is your computer’s central processing unit. It’s a physical component within the PC that’s primarily responsible for processing signals from other hardware and software. The CPU fetches instructions, deciphers the steps that need to be completed, performs the required task, and then sends the output back, allowing the computer to carry out everything from standard day-to-day functions to more complex tasks. These can be anything from running tax or budgeting software to playing games or watching movies.
The CPU itself is made up of CPU cores. Cores are smaller processing units within the main structure of the CPU, allowing for greater performance, multitasking ability, and efficiency. Imagine a CPU is like a conveyor belt. Information can move up and down the conveyor belt. Now imagine each core can move information on its own and you’ll understand the benefit of being able to send and receive more information by using multiple conveyor belts instead of a single one.
Multithreading is each core’s ability to perform multiple actions at once. The easiest way to think of this is like the human brain. Instead of having a single train of thought, a core can think about different things at the same time. Cores can also share different parts of the same thought, allowing them to reach a conclusion as a group much faster than they could alone.
The chipset is also a very important aspect that should be considered before any purchase. The chipset is the air traffic controller of the PC, where it ensures everything is happening smoothly and that the flow of data between the CPU, memory, drive storage and other computer components is seamless and occurs without incident. It’s vital that the motherboard and CPU both support the same chipset, so if you plan on upgrading your CPU, ensure you get one that’s compatible with your motherboard’s chipset.
Lastly, we have clock speed, which will be denoted in hertz (Hz). These days, modern CPUs like the AMD Ryzen™ 7 7700X are capable of hitting clock speeds of multiple gigahertz, potentially up to 5.4GHz in the case of that particular model. This is essentially a measure of how many processing cycles your CPU and individual cores can perform each second. Every request sent to your CPU needs a number of processing cycles to complete, so the more of these cycles that it can fit into a second, the faster it will be able to finish tasks. Some functions, like gaming, video editing, or music production, can require a lot of processing power, so having a fast CPU is vital.
What kind of CPU or PC should you buy?
Now that we understand the CPU a little better, we can decide if we wish to buy an individual CPU or perhaps a new prebuilt PC. The new PC will ensure all the components are compatible and designed to work together out of the box.
The best thing about buying modern gaming PCs is that there are fantastic prebuilt PC options out there that take all the confusion out of the process. The RDY Slate VALORANT VCTA R001 from iBUYPOWER is an excellent option that includes the AMD Ryzen™ 7 7700X.
This powerful CPU has a base clock speed of 4.5GHz and can hit speeds of up to 5.4GHz when required. It has eight cores, with each core capable of multithreading, allowing for 16 total threads. As detailed earlier, this is a lot of total process cycles each second, meaning it can handle any requirement of modern home computing. The RDY Slate VALORANT VCTA R001 backs up the CPU with a powerful GeForce RTX 4060 Ti graphics card, and 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, all running through an ASUS Prime B650M-A AX6 motherboard.
This all comes housed in an iBUYPOWER Slate 8 Mesh Pro ARGB Gaming case that includes three front fans, three top fans, and a rear fan to ensure smooth airflow through your system. This will help to keep components like your CPU cool, ensuring their efficiency stays high while you’re diving into clutch gaming moments.
The result is a powerful, ultramodern PC that’s capable of running VALORANT at an eye-scorching 490 FPS at 1080P, 345 FPS at 1440P, and an incredible 280 FPS at 4K. As one of the most played competitive shooters on the market, VALORANT has a fantastic blend of approachability for new players and a high skill ceiling for more advanced players. For both, high frame rates will be a boon, allowing them to react faster to the silky smooth action as it plays out on their screens.
In fact, as the official PC partner of the VALORANT Champions Tour Americas, iBUYPOWER provides a range of Official VCT Americas spec-approved PCs designed from the ground up to run VALORANT as smoothly as possible. There’s no other way to get an experience as close to the one the professionals have while playing the game on stage during competitions. As a result, the PCs are put through rigorous testing to ensure they meet the demands of iBUYPOWER’s Performance Guarantee.
Finally, and best of all for discerning consumers who need to know the products they buy will have a long life, the RDY Slate VALORANT VCTA R001 comes with iBUYPOWER’s Standard Warranty, which offers three-years labor and two-years parts for PCs bought after June 1.
So, if you plan on buying a new PC, ensure you check out iBUYPOWER’s range of carefully considered, expertly built, and robustly tested machines to make sure you’re getting quality that’s guaranteed.
