How To Use CPUAgent To Find The Right CPU

By CPUAgent Staff

Searching for a CPU

You can use the search bar to find a specific CPU and review its specs and average FPS performance on different resolutions.
Within any CPU’s page, you will find the name and description, along with a percentage rating for the price, speed, productivity, and gaming performance. The higher the percentage the better.
Below that, you have the options to change or compare the CPU to another one with respect to the selected GPU, resolution, and settings quality. In effect, the results of the benchmarks will change according to the settings you selected.
You also have the Table of Contents to find different relevant tests such as bottleneck analysis, streaming benchmark, individual game benchmarks, or overclocking performance, among other things.

The Compare CPUs section allows you to compare up to 8 different CPUs against each other.
Open the list to search and select the CPUs you want to compare.
Click Compare to see the CPUs put against each other, with each one having a different color distinguish them.
- While at the comparison page, you can add more CPUs to the comparison, or remove/reorder one of the already added CPUs by hovering over it and clicking the respective button (move left, move right, or remove).
- On every benchmark, relevant processors are shown to provide you with an idea of where the current CPU sits in the competition, and to compare it against the best-performing CPU available.
Use the Table of Contents to navigate to different sections. The benchmarks show the results based on the selected GPU, resolution, and settings quality. Some items of interest include:
- Bottleneck Analysis: To see the average bottleneck percentage between each CPU.
- Streaming Analysis: Same as above but with benchmark done while streaming with OBS x264.
- 80+ Gaming Benchmarks: To see the FPS performance averages, including the relative and 1% low, on multiple games at once.

The Compare PC Builds section allows you to add complete PC builds and compare their performance.
You must select a CPU and GPU, RAM Size and Speed, Resolution, and the Settings Quality for each build before you can add it to the comparison.
Note that 8+ GB RAM is considered to be 2 RAM sticks running in dual-channel mode, i.e. 8GB = 2x4GB.
Once you add a build, it will show up below in the comparison list, and you have the options to remove or move a build up or down.
Click Compare Now to see the results, which include Bottleneck Analysis, Streaming Analysis, 80+ Gaming Benchmarks, and more.

The CPU Hierarchy is a useful list of the best 125 CPUs ranked by their scores within each category (gaming and productivity), and all other CPUs are scored relative to it.
- Desktop/Laptop Gaming: Where the highest score is given to the best-performing CPU in desktop/laptop gaming performance, and should have little-to-no bottleneck effect on the GPU.
- Desktop/Laptop Productivity: Where the highest score is given to the best-performing CPU in desktop/laptop productivity programs and is based on performance in multi-threaded application like rendering and video encoding.
The value of a CPU is scored based on the price versus the 3 other categories’ score (Speed, Productivity, or Gaming). If it performs very well in all 3, then its price is justified for that performance and is given a high value percentage.
- Several CPUs do not include a cooler with them, which also affects their value.
Some CPUs may get a score above 100% in a category (Value, Speed, Productivity, or Gaming), which means that this specific CPU improves your performance above what is expected and is kind of an overkill for that category.