How In the Hay am i supposed to compare CPU's?

[trollolo]

So comparing graphics cards is easy, look at the FPS they provide. but when i run up a CPU bench via this site's engine, i get a myriad of different tests that mean absolutely nothing to me. What are the common benches that i should be paying attention to, or is there a better way to compare them? All i know to compare is
-moar cores
-frequency
-cache

 

[lau808]

it probably depends on wat u do with your cpu. cause honestly, i feel the same way as u. none of the specific benches mean anything to me.

 

[greenhawk]

not really way to compair CPUs as they are a very general / versitile thing. Using office related bentchmarks can help as it will remove the effect a different video card would give to a game ect. But when you get down to it, their really is not a lot of difference between the different CPUs of a given family, and when compairing say AMD to intel, then the difference is more noticable, but then you also need to pay more for that performance increase.

currently the choices are the intel 2500K for a excellent all round cpu with overclocking features. If heavly video editing then the AMD's 6 core could be a better choice.

all depends on task as some things do not vary as much between cpus.

 

[dbcooper1]

Here's a good starting place; select the CPUs and the type application you're interested in.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2