When I’m shopping for a desktop computer, I hear two numbers constantly: Clock speed (usually in GHz) and core/thread count. What else is there to CPU performance besides these two numbers? What makes a modern CPU more performant than a CPU from years ago, assuming the same core count and clock speed?
Other people answered how it’s measured, but if you’re just shopping for a CPU I’d recommend skipping straight to benchmarks. There’s a lot of technical stuff involved but if you look at Geekbench/Passmark scores you can easily compare which ones are more powerful.
If you’re shopping for a laptop with a specific CPU I’d also look into how much power it uses (in Watts).
This is the best answer. In 2025, CPUs are extremely complex. There are so many ways to measure a CPU’s performance now, a spec sheet isn’t going to tell you which one is faster (even if you’re very educated in this stuff).
At the end of the day, what matters is: How well can the CPU perform the tasks you need it to?
This means, look at benchmarks that closely resemble the types of tasks (rendering, code compiling, gaming, etc) that you’d want to use the CPU for. Different CPUs often come out on top depending on the type of workload, so find the one that best does what you need it to do.