8 Myths About CPUs That People Still Believe
by Bradley Nice, Content Manager at ClickHelp.com — online documentation tool
Hey, everyone. Hope you’re doing fine. There are tons of myths surrounding hardware. Unlike urban legends, they are not as SP💀💀KY, but they scare in other ways — with their stupidity and possible harm done to whoever believes them.
And to think about it — it’s 21st century out there! Computers finally took over the world, they can be found in most homes. But there are SO many myths about hardware, and people still believe them! Today I wanted to talk about CPUs in particular — after all, they are the brain of each computer (phones as well, duh) and it seems only logical to talk about them first.
The higher the clock speed, the faster the CPU
This one goes back to 90s, when higher clock speed actually meant faster CPU. But nowadays they are built on many different architectures and the amount of work they can do in one clock cycle differs very much. For example, Apple A7 1.3GHz is somewhat equal to Snapdragon 800 2.2GHz, despite huge difference in clock speeds. But if you were to compare two processors of the same generation and lineup, the ‘clock speed’ rule will be true in this case.
Overclocked CPUs explode
The main thing here is being able to tell the difference between ‘software’ and ‘hardware’ CPU parameters. Clock speed is a software concept: in power-saving mode it can drop down to hundreds of MHz, while during gaming jump back up to several GHz. So just by increasing your clock speed you won’t burn your CPU, but yes — it can perform inconsistently.
While voltage is a whole different area — it’s a hardware concept and the higher the voltage, the higher clock speeds become available for use. But every CPU has a safe voltage range, and if you exceed it — you can ‘cook’ your CPU. It won’t explode, but most likely just cease functioning.
High temperatures kill CPUs
Well, if you won’t put your CPU in a furnace, you should be okay. Technically, if your CPU works under temperature close to critical, it can shorten its lifespan. But you’ll probably change your CPU well before this time comes. Just think about — there are plenty of airplanes with old (or should I say ancient?) Intel 386 CPU, and they are still fine.
What really makes CPU degrade faster is voltage close to critical — in this case you’ll notice that it can’t handle high clock speeds in a year or two.
ARM is better than x86
Comparing architectures is like comparing hatchet to a crossbow — both were used in battles, but in such different ways. You can only compare one particular hatchet to one particular crossbow — maybe one does job better, while other is not so well-made. Architectures are the same in this sense — you can compare particular CPUs, but not architectures.
The more cores CPU has, the better
Just like with clock speeds, higher number of cores != better performance. It highly depends on what you want to do with your PC. If you know for sure, that the app you use will gain benefits from working on a 32-core processor, then you probably need it. But in a lot of cases multithreading can decrease performance in modern apps and games, because they can’t effectively handle so much threads. Photoshop will perform better with couple of fast cores, than with 10 slow.
100% CPU load kills it faster
Not true at all. While some machinery can break down faster if used at maximum capacity, CPU doesn’t have any mechanical parts and degradation (as I’ve said earlier) is a pretty slow process, even at high temperatures.
Liquid cooling is better than air cooling
From the physics point of view, this can be correct — water, like many other liquids, is a better conductor than air. But in most cases liquid cooling will be a waste of time and money (and a source of possible problems in the future) in your PC. If you’re not running an overclocked 32-core Threadripper, you don’t have to worry about water cooling. Most of the coolers, even those that are quite cheap, handle heat rejection pretty well. And if they are not up to the task, you can always buy more powerful cooler.
CPU specifications on official website is a 100% truth set in stone
You gotta understand — there’s always marketing at work. Yes, official websites won’t lie exactly, but they can omit something. Like, i9–9900K TDP says 95W. But in practice, it can go all the way up to 200W. Lie? No. With stock 3,6GHz the processor will dissipate 95W of power. But enable TurboBoost — and here you go.
I know it’s not a complete list, but it’s the most popular ones I remembered. If you know more CPU myths — be sure to leave a comment!
Have a nice day!
Bradley Nice,
Content Manager at ClickHelp.com — best online documentation tool for SaaS vendors
