The Evolution Of The CPU Charts

Offering more value than other tech publications has been a tradition at Tom's Hardware Guide. In early 2003, we released our first comprehensive CPU benchmark roundup, which let you compare 65 processor models running at speeds from 100 MHz to 3.06 GHz. We compiled the technical data for these processors, and concluded with benchmark results in 15 different categories.

With AMD's Athlon 64 processors and Intel speeding up its offering to 3.8 GHz, we updated our benchmark roundup and called it The Mother Of All CPU Charts. Not only did the number of processor setups benchmarked grow to 116, but we also extended our benchmarking suite to 18 categories. Our goal was to cover Direct3D and OpenGL games and software, video editing/rendering/transcoding, audio encoding and graphics rendering. All of this was done to provide the most comprehensive performance comparison charts on the Internet.

In 2004, we turned our CPU Charts project into an interactive version that lines up 106 processors and 30 different benchmark categories, so users can select two processor models that get highlighted in each interactive benchmark result chart.

The last CPU Charts update was in November 2005. We had to drop several old processor models, and lined up 72 CPUs. At the same time, we added the latest dual core models, as well as an updated software suite and multi-tasking scenarios.

With today's update, we take the next step, which we already introduced in our Interactive Hard Drive Charts two months ago. Now there is a price/performance category that allows for the comparison of all current processors, based on a consolidated performance index and real-time processor prices.

For those in the UK & Ireland we will be working on bringing local prices for the charts alongside our own local store. However dollar prices are pretty indicative of prices over here, when converted, and so the Price to Performance comparison is still of value.