Take Processor for a Spin to See What It Can Do
Windows has never been able to provide an accurate picture of a computer’s central processing unit, or CPU. To see for yourself, bring up System Properties by clicking Start, Settings and Control Panel.
Double-click the System icon and look at the information available in the Computer: section of the General tab. Or, if your keyboard has a Windows key between the Ctrl and Alt keys in the bottom-left corner of the keyboard, press and hold it as you press the Pause/Break key on the top row of keys all the way to the right.
The CPU will be described as either a “GenuineIntel” or an “AuthenticAMD” processor.
If your computer uses an Intel processor, go online and point your browser to https://support.intel.com/SUPPORT/processors/tools/frequencyid. Click “Download Utility,” then click “Download Windows version of the utility.”
Note that you can also download a bootable version of the software product and save it to a bootable floppy disk. In that case, the utility will run every time you boot the computer from that disk.
Select the English version of the file and then click “fidenu13.exe.” Click the North America download location. In the File Download box, with “Save this program to disk” selected, click OK.
The Save As window will open and offer to save the file to your desktop. Click OK. Click the new icon on your desktop to install the utility, and then follow the on-screen prompts.
When you run the utility, it displays both the expected and the reported processor and system bus speeds. Click the CPUID Data tab for more information.
If your computer is powered by an AMD processor, go online and open https://www.amd.com/products/cpg/bin. Download the file AMD CPUID by clicking Web Only, the first entry in the second column.
Once the file is downloaded, run it from the desktop. It displays a single window containing information on the CPU speed, Level 1 and 2 cache, the presence of MMX, extended MMX, 3DNOW and extended 3DNOW.
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Jeff Levy hosts the “On Computers” radio talk show from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on KFI-AM (640).
