Where on the processor is written how many cores. How to enable all processor cores. Using Task Manager and Device Manager
The speed of a central processing unit (CPU) is determined by its frequency. However, it has been almost 15 years since the CPU frequency values have reached those values when its further growth is economically unprofitable. That is, to increase the CPU frequency by 10%, you would have to increase its power consumption by 100%.
The way out of this situation would be a new technology for the production of chips, however, none of the promising areas has been developed. As a result, chip designers took a completely different path: if we can’t speed up one CPU, we’ll try using several CPUs. This is how the idea of multiprocessor was born - the use of microcircuits, in which not one CPU, but several, is located in one case - the so-called. nuclei.
These days, a CPU's speed is determined not so much by its speed, but by the number of cores. In addition, for a more correct characterization of the CPU, they operate not with the concept of a core, but with the concept of a thread - the smallest unit of processing that can be assigned by the operating system (OS). Very roughly speaking, the number of threads and processes running simultaneously on one CPU is the same.
It would be logical to assume that there are as many cores as there are threads, since each CPU solves its own task. However, it is not. The fact is that in high-speed systems, peak loads on the CPU are mainly used, while its average load rarely exceeds even 30% of the maximum.
This was taken into account by Intel engineers, who proposed HyperThreading technology - conditional, or logical splitting of the processor into two, each of which is capable of processing one thread. Each thread had its own set of registers and its own interrupt vectors, and the OS could easily switch between them.
Important! The difference between a thread and a task is quite significant. A thread is a small set of executing CPUs that exists within no more than one large task. The number of threads inside a task can be dozens. All possible hardware resources of the processor are assigned to the task, while the thread uses only a small part of them.
Thus, the processor could switch between tasks already at the hardware level. And since then, all the “insides” of processors with HyperThreading technology have been considered “one for two”. That is, logically, instead of one CPU, the system uses this device as two, while in fact only two different records of the state of a process are used, and the hardware is used by the processes “in turn”.
What does this procedure affect and how does it increase performance? There really is a practical benefit from such a "virtual multi-core". It represents a 5% to 30% increase in computing power.
Therefore, in order to evaluate the performance of a particular system, it is necessary to know exactly the following parameters of the microprocessor:
- its clock frequency;
- how many cores it has on a crystal;
- how many threads are supported by this processor.
Let's take a closer look at how you can find out how many threads are in the processor. In fact, if we are talking about CPUs produced in the last 7 years, then we can say that the number of threads is twice the number of cores.
How to find out how many cores a processor has? This issue can be resolved in several ways. Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages, and is applied depending on the circumstances. Let's take a closer look at how this can be done.
Studying documentation
How to determine with maximum certainty how many cores are in the CPU? There is only one way - to look into the documentation. Any hardware product produced by modern electronics manufacturers has technical documentation that is publicly available.
It is enough to accurately find out the name of the CPU, and then find information about it, for example, using a search engine or on your own by going to the manufacturer's website. The site will list all the technical information about the CPU: its frequency, number of threads, etc.
To answer the question of how to find out the number of processor cores, it is enough, for example, to launch the task manager or system monitor in Windows 7. Information about your processor can be found in the task manager without any problems. By opening the “Performance” tab and counting how many graphs in the area called “CPU Usage History”, we find the number of logical processors. If the processor uses HyperThreading technology, the actual number of cores will be half as much.
To find how many cores a processor has on Windows 10, you should also start the task manager, but you don’t need to count any graphs. In the "CPU" section, both the number of real CPUs and the number of threads are separately indicated.
System Monitoring Utilities
You can also determine the number of processor cores using special programs for monitoring the system. The Windows operating system has two built-in programs for this purpose:
- device Manager;
- resource monitor.
Let's figure out how to view the information we are interested in using these programs. To do this, you need to go to the "Processors" tab in the task manager, and open the CPU panel on the right in the system monitor.
In the first case, we will see how many logical processors are in the system, in the second, the number of graphs will also give us the number of logical CPUs. Both should be divided by two to find the real number of cores.
That is, of all the existing tools in Windows, it is possible to correctly determine the number of cores in a CPU only with the help of the Windows 10 Task Manager.
What to do when this program is missing in the OS? To do this, use third-party software for system diagnostics, for example, the following programs:
- AIDA;
- Speccy;
- CPU-Z.
In the first two, you should go to the "Processor" section, and full information about how many physical processors in the system and how many threads they have will be displayed there. The latter displays all the necessary information on the main screen immediately after launch.
The impact of the number of cores on performance
To understand what the cores in the CPU affect, you should understand that all modern computers were created to work in a multitasking environment created by one OS or another. In this vein, the creation of multiprocessor and multithreaded systems is a further logical continuation of multitasking.
Initially, this was relevant only for platforms based on server solutions, however, the hardware implementation of such ideas was quite expensive. Roughly speaking, a two-processor system cost about one and a half times more than two single-processor systems, since the distribution of application priorities in it and switching between their execution occurred more correctly than in two single-processor systems.
The workstations of ordinary users are idle most of the time, waiting for the reaction of their owners. And this is not a figurative expression, but a literal one. Indeed, most of the time, home (and sometimes work) PCs simply wait, because when entering information into a PC in any form, the input speed is very low compared to the speed of the CPU. In addition, most programs running on such PCs do not require too much power. If the set of such programs running simultaneously expands, then it is necessary to increase the computing power of the PC.
Here you can choose two possible options - either increase the frequency, or increase the number of threads, that is, cores. What the user chooses depends, of course, on his preferences, however, do not forget that the frequency limit has been in place for a long time. Any time you make a choice of hardware, you should understand that a newer CPU can and does have a higher frequency, but its number of threads is less than the one that works now. Therefore, before choosing one or another solution, you should weigh all the pros and cons.
In any case, you should remember a simple rule: there is no direct correlation between the number of CPU cores and performance. Performance today is the result of the interaction of many different hardware and software factors, depending on different circumstances. Roughly speaking, if the program supports a maximum of 6 threads, then there is no point in buying an 8-thread CPU for it.
Ideally, of course, the more cores a CPU has in a PC, the better. Since with proper optimization of the OS, the speed of the computer will only increase with an increase in the number of threads.
In addition, lately more and more developers in their applications themselves optimize the code to improve the performance of their applications for multiprocessor PCs, not trusting the level of optimization provided by the OS. Therefore, if possible, you should purchase a CPU with a large number of real physical cores.
For modern operating systems such as Windows 7 or the new Windows 8.1, one or two processor cores in the system unit is no longer enough. Therefore, manufacturers strive to add as many cores as possible to modern PCs. but also save on price. Basically now they produce two, four nuclear laptops and four nuclear processors for computers.
Sometimes, in the process of mastering a personal computer or laptop, the user has a question R12; How many cores are in his computer? Many want find out how many cores processor in his computer.
How to find out? It is very easy to do this. There are programs with which you can find out many system parameters, such as a video card, sound card, RAM, temperature, and so on. For these purposes, the Everest program, or as it used to be called Aida, is very well suited. There are separate programs with which you can find out only about the video card or only about the processor. But in our case, none of this is required. We will find out how many cores are in our computer using the built-in Windows tools.
So, let's begin!
METHOD 1.
To do this, go to the "Start" menu and in the right side of the menu look for the "Computer" item and right-click on it
Thus, we call up a window where you need to select the "Properties" item.
We get into the properties of the computer, where we can view the size of RAM, the type of processor, but not the number of cores, but to find out how many of them are in the processor, we need to find the line “Device Manager” on the left side.
We go into the device manager and find the line "Processors". To expand it, click on the small triangle opposite the item "Processors"
And we see the number of cores in the processor. I found out that I have four cores. You can have two and three or four and six.
METHOD 2.(even easier)
We need to launch the task manager, for this we right-click on the quick launch bar and in the window that opens, select the item "Start task manager"
In the top panel of the manager, select the "Performance" tab and look at the chronology of loading the central memory. Each separate window shows the kernel loading. That is, I have 4 windows and therefore four cores.
Now you know how easy find out how many cores on your computer!
The processor handles all the tasks on the computer, responsible for the performance of the system. Important parameters when choosing it are the clock speed and the number of cores. But an increase in the second value does not always cause a proportional increase in performance. Let's figure out how to find out how many cores are in the processor of a computer or phone, and what this parameter affects.
The core is the part of the microprocessor that executes a single instruction stream. The more such parts, the more tasks the PC solves per unit of time. Multi-core processors are faster at transcoding video, archiving files, and playing games. But this only works for applications that support multi-core and can parallelize a task into several threads - otherwise only one core will work. And then a processor with fewer cores, but with a higher frequency, will be faster.
What affects the number of cores in your phone: in mobile gadgets, you can notice the work of the processor in complex games or graphics processing applications. Keep in mind that increasing the cores is considered negatively affecting energy efficiency - you will have to charge a multi-core smartphone much more often.
Determined on the computer
To determine how many cores are in the processor, you can use the built-in Windows tools or third-party programs.
To open the "Task Manager", right-click on "Start" or hold down Ctrl + Alt + del and select the item of the same name in the list. Go to the "Performance" tab, if it is not visible - expand the window by clicking on "More ...". In the left list, select "CPU", below the load graph, the main characteristics of the processor, including the number of cores, will be displayed.
In Windows 7, the appearance of the window is slightly different - there is no enumeration of parameters, instead of one graph - several, according to the number of cores. Therefore, recalculate the diagrams to find out the desired value.
Computer Properties
Right-click on the "My Computer" icon and open the "Properties" sub-item. You will see basic information about the PC, including processor specifications. In Intel models, the desired number is usually written in words, where Dual-core corresponds to a 2-core, Quad - a 4-core CPU.
This method does not work on all motherboards, sometimes you will only see the name and frequency of the processor.
From the previous "Properties" dialog, launch "Device Manager" from the left menu. It can also be opened by clicking on the "Start" by selecting the item of the same name in the context menu. In the list of devices, find "Processors" and expand this item. A list will appear, where the number of lines is the number of possible threads.
This method may give erroneous information if Hyper-threading technology is built into the processor. It allows you to divide one physical core into two independent threads. The dispatcher displays exactly the number of threads, and the cores can physically be 2 times less.
For extended system information, see the System Information utility. You can open it through a search in the "Start" or among the programs in the "Administrative Tools" folder. You will see the desired value in the "Processor" item.
Third Party Programs
More complete information is given by third-party applications for PC diagnostics. One of them is CPU-Z, which is small and free. How to find out in CPU-Z how many cores are on a laptop: run the utility, on the first tab “CPU”, look for the “Cores” field below - it contains the desired value.
Another similar utility is Speccy. In it, click on the "Central Processing Unit" on the left, all information on the CPU will be displayed on the right.
We determine on a smartphone
Additional applications will help to see the number of cores in the phone, most often they use the same CPU-Z. After installation, open the first tab "Soc" and look at the line "Cores" - the desired parameter is shown there.
You can find out how many cores an iPhone has by looking at the characteristics of the model on the Internet - iPhone versions are much smaller than Android devices. Do not be afraid that the quantity will be small - Apple takes not quantity, but quality. iPhone processors traditionally turn out to be faster than more multi-core competitors in business. On iPhone 4 and earlier models, there is only 1-core, from 4S to 6S - 2, and only 7 and 7 Plus received 4-core CPUs.
Conclusion
We figured out how you can find out the number of cores in a smartphone or PC processor. In Windows, it’s easier to always go into one of the system utilities, but if you have additional diagnostic applications installed, use them. You will also need to download a special utility to your smartphone, and iPhone owners can quickly find the characteristics of their model on the Internet.
The times when the processor had one core are long gone, and today we will tell you how simple and easy it is to find out how many cores your processor (Cpu) contains.
On the Windows operating system, this can be done in the following ways.
The first. Call the task manager. This can be done by pressing one of the key combinations "Ctrl + Alt + Delete", or "Ctrl + Shift + Esc". Next, go to the “Performance” tab and there, depending on the operating system, we will either see screens, the number of which is equal to the number of cores, or simply their number will be indicated in words (this is in Windows 10).
The second way to go to the "Task Manager", you can get there by clicking on the properties of my computer and selecting the appropriate menu item. In the "Task Manager" we go to the processor branch and open it. There we will see lines with the same names, the number of lines and will be equal to the number of cores.
Method three. Press the key combination "Windows + R" and enter the command "msconfig" in the command line. A window will open in front of us where we need to go to the "Download" tab and select "Advanced options" in it. At the top, check the box "Number of processors" and open the drop-down list, which will indicate the number of cores.The advantage of this method is that here, if necessary, you can disable any core on your processor.
These are the three easiest ways to find out the number of cores on your processor; these methods work on Windows operating systems from the seventh version and higher.
Instruction
If you have a Windows operating system installed, you can find out how many cores are in your processor through the properties. To do this, select the "Computer" icon on the desktop, press Alt + Enter or right-click and select "Properties" in the context menu.
A window will open with information about the operating system, processor, RAM, and computer name. On the right there will be links, among which you need to find the "Device Manager".
The manager will list the hardware you have installed. In the list, find the item "Processor" and click on the arrow next to it. A bar will expand showing the number of processors you have.
You can launch the task manager using the Ctrl+Shift+Esc combination. Open the tab called "Performance". The number of windows in the "CPU History" section corresponds to the number of cores in your processor.
If the computer has multi-core simulation enabled, then Task Manager will show the number of simulated cores. This can be determined if all the cores show exactly the same load. Then the free CPU-Z utility may come in handy. The CPU tab shows all information about the processor. At the bottom there is a Core window, where the number of cores is indicated.
You can use another free PC Wizard program. It can be downloaded from the developer's website. Install the program on your computer. Run the PC Wizard.exe file, click the Hardware tab, then the Processor. On the right, find the "Element" section, and in it the Number of core item. The Description section displays the number of cores.