How to Check CPU Specifications on Windows

Everything on this page applies to Microsoft Windows PCs and uses free CPUID software: CPU-Z for CPU information and HWMonitor for hardware monitoring.

CPU specifications describe what your processor can do. Windows shows only a short summary, while CPU-Z shows the full specification sheet read from the processor itself.

Specifications CPU-Z reports

• Cores and threads.
• Base clock, multiplier and live core frequency.
• L1, L2 and L3 cache size.
• Manufacturing process and package.
• Maximum TDP.

Comparing two PCs

Run CPU-Z on both machines, open Tools > Save Report and compare the text files. The report also includes mainboard and memory pages, so a specification comparison covers the whole system, not just the CPU.

Benchmark context

The Bench tab runs the built-in CPU-Z benchmark for single-thread and multi-thread scores, which gives a rough performance reference next to the raw specifications. Read more on the CPU-Z page.

Related guides

• CPU information on Windows
• Processor identification