How to understand how many cores are in a laptop. How to find out how many core processors cost in a computer? Determining the CPU model using the Everest program

The processor is one of the key hardware devices that affects the overall performance of a computer. Back when processors were single-core, key characteristic was clock frequency - maximum quantity operations performed per second. However, since the advent of multi-core processors, ideas have changed somewhat, since such processors make it possible to distribute the load of running programs between different cores, which makes it possible to achieve more high performance at a lower clock speed of each core individually. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the question, and in this article I will consider 3 proven methods.

Note: It is worth knowing that the expression how many cores are in a computer is not entirely correct, since the processor has cores. However, due to universal laziness, sometimes you can hear something wrong.

Note: Please note that, among other things, you can simply look for the specification for your brand of processor.

How to find out how many cores are in your computer using Device Manager

The very first way how to find out how many cores are in a computer implies the use standard tool Windows called " device Manager", thanks to which you can find out information about all the devices on your computer.

To open Device Manager, you need to open the Start menu and type “Device Manager” in the search bar, and then select the appropriate item. When the window with the manager opens, you need to expand the “Processors” item on the left side of the window. The number of sub-items will represent the number of cores in the processor. However, it is always useful to know alternative methods.

How to find out how many cores are in your computer using Task Manager

Another method find out how many cores are in the computer is to use a dispatcher Windows tasks, which allows you to view a lot of useful system information, such as running programs, services, processes, network, etc. The most in a fast way open task manager is the keyboard shortcut " Ctrl + Shift + Esc". But you can also simply type its name in the search bar of the Start menu.

After you have opened the manager, you need to go to the "tab" Performance"and see how many graphs are displayed in the block" CPU Load History". The number corresponds to the number of processor cores in the computer.

This method can be called the fastest, however, over time, more complex technologies for creating processors and their use may appear, so it is always good to know several methods.

How to find out how many cores are in a computer using CPU-Z

There are special programs for collecting computer characteristics, and one of these is CPU-Z. This program I chose it based on the fact that it is very simple, easy to install, it displays all the main characteristics of the computer (RAM, video card, processor, etc.), a user of any level can handle it, and there is a portable version.

Download and install the program, and then run it. Make sure you are on the " tab CPU", and then pay attention to the lower right corner of the window. In the cell called " Cores"The number of processor cores will be displayed. Agree, it’s incredibly simple and convenient.

Now, you know at least three methods that allow you to find out how many cores are in your computer, and you also know about some of the nuances of use.

In our progressive times, the number of cores plays a dominant role in choosing a computer. After all, it is thanks to the cores located in the processor that the power of the computer, its speed during data processing and issuing the result are measured. The cores are located in the processor crystal, and their number at a given moment can reach from one to four.

In those “long ago” times, when four-core processors did not yet exist, and dual-core processors were a rarity, the speed of a computer’s power was measured in clock frequency. The processor processed only one stream of information, and as you understand, until the resulting processing result reached the user, a certain amount of time passed. Now there's a lot nuclear processor, with the help of specially designed improved programs, divides data processing into several separate, independent threads, which significantly speeds up the results obtained and increases the power of the computer. But, it is important to know that if the application is not configured to work with multi-cores, then the speed will be even lower than that of a single-core processor with a good clock speed. So how do you find out how many cores are in your computer?

The central processor is one of the most important parts of any computer, and determining how many cores it has is a completely feasible task for a novice computer genius, because your successful transformation into an experienced computer geek depends on it. So, let's determine how many cores are in your computer.

Reception No. 1

• To do this, click computer mouse on the right side by clicking on the “Computer” icon, or the context menu located on the desktop, on the “Computer” icon. Select the “Properties” item.

• A window opens on the left, find the “Device Manager” item.
• In order to expand the list of processors located in your computer, click on the arrow located to the left of the main items, including the “Processors” item.

• By counting how many processors are in the list, you can say with confidence how many cores are in the processor, because each core will have a repeating but separate entry. In the sample presented to you, you can see that there are two cores.

This method is suitable for Windows operating systems, but on Intel processors, characterized by hyper-threading (Hyper-threading technology), this method will most likely give an erroneous designation, because in them one physical core can be divided into two threads, independent of each other. As a result, a program that is good for one operating system, this will count each independent thread as a separate core, and you will get an eight-core processor as a result. Therefore, if your processor supports Hyper-threading technology, refer to a special diagnostic utility.

Reception No. 2

There are free programs for those curious about the number of cores in a processor. So, the unpaid program CPU-Z will completely cope with your task. In order to use the program:

• go to the official website cpuid.com, and download the archive from CPU-Z. It is better to use a version that does not need to be installed on your computer; this version is marked “no installation”.
• Next, you should unpack the program and cause it to run in the executable file.
• In the main window of this program that opens, on the “CPU” tab, at the bottom, find the “Cores” item. This is where the exact number of cores of your processor will be indicated.

You can find out how many cores are in a computer with installed system Windows, using the task manager.

Reception No. 3

The sequence of actions is as follows:

• We launch the dispatcher by right-clicking on the quick launch panel, usually located at the bottom.
• A window will open, look for the item “Start task manager” in it.

• At the very top of the Windows task manager there is a “Performance” tab, here, using the chronological loading of the central memory, you can see the number of cores. After all, each window represents the kernel, showing its loading.

Reception No. 4

And one more opportunity to count computer cores; for this you will need any documentation for the computer, with full list components. Find the processor entry. If the processor is AMD, then pay attention to the X symbol and the number next to it. If it costs X 2, it means you got a processor with two cores, etc.

In Intel processors, the number of cores is written in words. If it is Core 2 Duo, Dual, then there are two cores, if Quad there are four.

Of course, you can count the cores by logging into the motherboard through the BIOS, but is it worth doing this when the described methods will give a very clear answer to the question you are interested in, and you can check whether the store told you the truth and count how many cores are in your computer yourself.

P.S. Well, that’s all, now we know how to find out how many cores are in a computer, even four methods, and which one to use is your decision 😉

A small and instructive article for those who want to find out how many cores their processor is. Some people in common people can simply call it “How many cores are in my computer” or in system unit.
If we are talking about correctness, then the question should sound like this: how many cores are in my processor"because these same cores are located in the processor, and it, in turn, is in the processor, and it is in the system unit, but in general, the whole assembly is a computer. Although some people omit these concepts and call them as written above (in a block or computer). On the one hand, this is also true. But the question will sound completely wrong. How many cores are there in windows?", because this is an OS, not hardware. Here, if we are only talking about . But I got a little distracted, so I return to the very topic of the article.

So, you can find out how many cores you have in your computer using the Windows OS itself.

You can also open it in a tab Performance(or Fast action) You will see this picture (if you are watching under Windows 7):

Pay attention to that. what is highlighted. If there are two “squares”, then there are two cores. If 4, then it means 4 cores in the computer.

This is easier on Windows 8. It's already written there:

You can also open Device Manager (RMB To my computer - Properties):

Well, now a nuance this method. The fact is that nuclei have such a characteristic as " Threading". I will not go into details because the topic is not about it. So. Very often the Windows OS confuses this and shows both in the Device Manager and in the Task Manager exactly Threading, and not the number of cores.
A living example is the one in the screenshots above. The laptop has 2 cores, but they are 4-threaded. That's why Windows shows everywhere that there are 4 of them.

Yes, this does not happen with all processors, but this fact is worth taking into account so as not to mislead yourself.

It is much better to find out the number of cores in a computer, use third party utilities. There are many similar utilities on the Internet. Their purpose is to show all the characteristics of your computer.
These are programs and utilities such as HWInfo, Everest, Aida, PC Wizard, Speccy, CPU-Z, etc.

I will not describe them all, but will show only a screenshot of the Speccy () program, which clearly demonstrates what Windows OS is doing wrong when it shows how many cores:

And finally, I’ll give you one more method, which is provided by the Windows OS itself. To do this, you need to follow the path Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information.

The core is computing unit processor. Accordingly, the more there are, the more command streams the computer can execute simultaneously. This has a positive effect on productivity with many at the same time running processes, as well as in multi-threaded applications (for example, in “heavy” games or video editors). Therefore it is necessary to know this important characteristic your processor.

Determining the number of cores on a computer

Using the device manager

You can find out the necessary information standard using Windows. To open utility:

As a result, you will receive a list consisting of the types of installed devices. There is also a point “ Processors" Click on the arrow to the left of it, or double-click on its name. As a result, a list of several positions will expand, each of which corresponds one thread commands If your CPU supports hyperparallelism (“ Hyper Threading"), then to find out the number of real cores, you should divide the number of these positions by 2. If there is no such technology, there is no need to divide.

Via task manager

This famous application also allows you to find out some information about the CPU. Click to start right click along the unoccupied space at the bottom of the screen, where taskbar. A menu will pop up where we are interested in the item “ ” or “ Launch Task Manager».

Windows 7. In the program window, go to the “ Performance».

At the top right you will see several graphs titled “ CPU Load History" If there is only one chart, go to the menu "" set " According to schedule for each CPU" As a result, the number of these graphs will reflect the number of threads. If the processor supports hyperparallelism, then to find out the number of physical cores, the number of graphics should be divided by 2.

Windows 10. In the program window, click on the “ Performance».

In the lower right corner you will see the main characteristics of your CPU, including the number physical cores and streams (" logical processors »).

We use the Everest program

Everest - not free utility, but, nevertheless, its functionality trial version enough to find out basic information about the system.

You will see many icons in the program window. Click on the icon that says " System board ».

From the icons that appear, click on “ CPU" In the list of properties that opens, pay attention to “ CPU type" Here you will find the information you are interested in.

Determining the number of cores using CPU-Z

This application is very convenient due to its compactness, free and simple interface. Immediately after launch, a tab opens in front of you with all main properties processor, including number of physical cores(in English version " Cores") and threads (" Threads»).

Let's look at the documentation

All main characteristics of the CPU are also indicated on its packaging and in complete documentation.

The processor is the brain of the computer, without which it would be unthinkable to perform even the simplest operations. However, many of the users have no idea what processor is on their “iron friend”, and yet it is very necessary to know such information. You may be faced with the need to find out the type and characteristics of the processor installed on your computer when updating drivers, replacing components, overlocking, and finally, when installing software, which places non-standard requirements on hardware components.

Fortunately, getting information about the CPU is not difficult even for a novice user. Below we will see how to find out what processor is on your computer in different ways, ranging from the most accessible to the most “advanced”. In the examples given, we will use both the built-in tools of the computer and the operating system Windows systems/10, and specialized third party applications, deserve special attention. So let's begin.

How to view processor characteristics without special programs

System properties

This is the simplest and most obvious way, allowing you to see which processor is installed on Windows computer 7/10. Open with command control /name Microsoft.System section of the Control Panel "System" and pay attention to the data opposite the line "Processor". The manufacturer will be indicated there, trademark(V in this example Intel Core) and CPU clock speed.

In Windows 10, the same information is available in the “About” subsection, in the “Device Characteristics” block of the “Settings” application.

Standard utility "System Information"

If the information displayed in system properties is not enough, use the built-in System Information utility. In addition to the brand and clock speed, it allows you to see how many cores are on a Windows 7/10 computer. The utility is launched with the command msinfo32 in the “Run” window. The manufacturer, brand, frequency and number of cores will be indicated next to the “Processor” item.

Task Manager

To obtain information about the CPU, you can use the most common Task Manager. Open it in any way convenient for you, switch to the “Performance” tab and click on the CPU icon. The manufacturer, brand and clock frequency of the component under study will be indicated in the upper part, and in the lower part, under the graph, the number of cores, logical processors, sockets (sockets), as well as data on resource use.

device Manager

Now let's see how to find out which processor is on your computer using Device Manager. Call him via context menu Start button and expand the “Processors” item in the window that opens. Here you will get an idea not only of the manufacturer, brand and frequency of the CPU, but also of the number of logical cores on Intel processors using Hyper Threading technology. Pay attention to the number of entries - these are not processors or even physical cores, these are logical cores, of which there are 2 times more in Intel processors than real physical ones.

U AMD processors the number of physical and logical cores is the same. The same picture is observed if a specific processor Intel lines does not support Hyper Threading technology.

DirectX

The next tool that allows you to get basic information about the CPU is the tool DirectX diagnostics. It is intended, by the way, to determine the version of the DirectX API set, but it is also capable of displaying other useful information. To open the diagnostic panel, run the command in the Run (Win + R) window dxdiag and look at the data indicated in the “Processor” line. Using the DirectX diagnostic tool, you can easily find out how many cores an Intel system has Windows processor 7/10, for this the CPUs value must be divided by two.

Command Line and PowerShell

The source of information about the processor can be the regular command line, or more precisely, the command executed in it winsat cpu –v. The winsat utility is used to evaluate the performance of components, displaying, among other things, basic information about them. Launched with the parameter CPU and the key –v, it shows various information, including data on the manufacturer, brand, frequency, number of physical (Number of Cores) and logical (Number of CPUs) cores.

You can also use the command to get information about the processor systeminfo.

If command line If you prefer the PowerShell console, use WMI classes. Open the console and run the following command in it:

Get-CimInstance -ClassName CIM_Processor | fl Name, Description

As a result you will get brief description, manufacturer and clock frequency data.

BIOS

The basic technical characteristics of the processor, of course, are also available in the BIOS. Since this method can hardly be called rational, it only makes sense to resort to it when the computer does not boot or does not have an operating system. Entering the BIOS is usually done by pressing the Delete, F2 or F10 keys when turning on the PC. Information about the processor and other hardware components should be found in the main section “Main” or in a separate section “System Info”.

The best programs to view processor information

An alternative way to obtain processor data is to use special third party programs. There are quite a lot of such applications, among them there are both paid and free ones, in addition, they may differ in the amount of information provided. Here are four of the most popular and in-demand viewing utilities technical characteristics computer.

CPU-Z

Simple free program, designed to display information about the processor, motherboard and some other key components. How to find out which processor is on a Windows 7/10 computer using CPU-Z? Very simple. All required information is located on the “CPU” tab. Here you will find data such as manufacturer name, brand, socket type, clock speed, number of cores (Cores) and threads (Threads). CPU-Z also shows voltage, information about external frequency, cache and multiplier.

A free utility for obtaining information about PC configuration from the developers of the popular CCleaner cleaner. With its help, you can find out the name and code name of the processor, its design, model, instructions, bus frequency, and also see how many cores there are on a Windows 7/10 computer. Speccy also displays data on threads, temperatures, multipliers, processor cache, cooler speeds and other even more specific information. All these indicators are located in the “Central Processing Unit” section.

AIDA64

Most powerful software product for computer configuration information. Supports mass additional functions, among which testing of the disk, monitor, RAM And graphics card. To view processor data, in the menu on the left you need to expand the “Motherboard - CPU” item.

The name and alias of the processor, clock frequency, instruction sets, number of cores, cache data (not available in the trial version), stepping, etc. will be indicated here. More information can be obtained in the “CPUID” subsection.

HWiNFO

The HWiNFO utility, designed to view information about the computer hardware, is not so popular, but, like AIDA64, it has an impressive set of analysis tools. In addition to comprehensive information about the processor, HWiNFO will show memory characteristics, motherboard, video cards, network adapters and other important components.

As for the CPU, you can view its specifications, find out the number of processor cores, etc. in the main window. Among the listed data you will find the name and code name, socket, number of physical and logical cores, voltage and clock frequency.

Bottom line

We think we should stop here. It’s up to you to decide which of the above means you should use. If you only need basic information, you can get by with the built-in functionality of the operating system itself or the BIOS, but if you require maximum information about the CPU, it is better to give preference special utilities. Again, see for yourself which one to choose. We like Speccy better, it is free, simple and has well-designed usability.