CPU-Z is a free program for displaying technical information about a computer.

CPU-Z is a free software that allows you to view information about the installed motherboard, processor, video card, RAM and other computer components. The program works with operating systems of the Windows family of 32 and 64 bits, starting with Windows 98, and a version is also available for mobile devices running Android.

What information can I get with CPU-Z?

The program window contains tabs with detailed information about the following components:

• Processor - model, architecture, family, number and frequency of cores, multiplier, cache memory data;
• Cache – sizes and parameters of components L1 D, L1 I, L2;
• Motherboard - manufacturer, model, chipset and southbridge, BIOS and GUI settings;
• Memory - type, size, synchronization parameters;
• Video card - model, manufacturer, amount of memory.
• Depending on the version, there may be additional tabs (SPD). The last tab contains information about the program itself.

CPU-Z download free

CPU-Z for portable devices contains information about the device model, OS firmware, display type and screen resolution, internal storage, RAM and battery, sensor characteristics.

Additional Features

The program occupies about 5 MB on the hard drive and has an interface in English. The CPU-Z Portable version is Russified, which makes it easier to collect information about various parameters. The utility does not provide data on hard drives and a number of other connected external devices.

Users can save computer data to a database containing statistics about common configurations. Reports are saved in txt and html format files. Computer configuration information is uploaded to the CPU-Z Validator website. Data about various machines from this list can be exported to a view suitable for the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet editor.

Using CPU-Z allows you to get comprehensive information about the hardware configuration. The utility is suitable for craftsmen who assemble computers with certain characteristics and repair them, and ordinary users. It will be useful if you need to find drivers or when overclocking (increasing performance by overclocking the processor or graphics adapter). The latest version of the program with index 1.81.0 was released in autumn 2017.

CPU-Z main features: defines the following processor parameters: name, architecture, socket, manufacturing process, core voltage, family, stepping and revision, supported instruction sets, clock frequency, processor multiplier, cache size of all levels, physical organization of the cache, number of processors and processor cores; determines the following motherboard parameters: manufacturer, model, chipset and its revision, southbridge, BIOS version, graphical interface and number of lines (for PCI-Express); sets the following RAM parameters: type, size, clock frequency and timing, number of memory channels, full information contained in the SPD; defines the following video card parameters: video card name, stepping and revision, manufacturing process, type and amount of video memory, frequencies of the video chip, video memory and shader domain.

Why does the CPU frequency change?

In the CPU tab of the CPU-Z program, you can see that the value of the processor clock speed (Core Speed) is constantly changing. It may seem that this is some kind of failure, because the displayed clock speeds do not correspond to the technical characteristics of the processor itself.

Actually, this is not a failure. The reason for the clock spikes is that Windows uses a power-saving mechanism. This function lowers / increases not the clock frequency itself, but the processor multiplier (Multiplier), on the basis of which the clock frequency is calculated.

The power saving mechanism changes the multiplier depending on the current load on the CPU. If you run some resource-intensive game, then the value of the multiplier will be maximum, as well as the value of the clock frequency.

Many users may be surprised to see in the CPU-Z program the value of the RAM frequency that does not correspond to the actual operating frequency of the RAM. So, RAM strips, on which it is written that their operating memory frequency is 1600 MHz, can give out a frequency that is half as much - 800 MHz.

In fact, such frequency indicators are normal. It's all about the technical features of modern DDR RAM sticks. The abbreviation DDR (Double Data Rate) says a lot. Roughly speaking, modern RAM for 1 clock signal transmits not one, but 2 commands at once (on a positive and negative synchronized signal).

Programs like CPU-Z seem to only read/display the positive signal, omitting (or missing) the negative one. Thus, the frequency of 1600 MHz "turns" into 800 MHz, 1333 MHz into 667 MHz, and so on.

Why doesn't CPU-Z show the graphics card?

In some cases, the CPU-Z program does not display information about the graphics adapter. Either displays, but not the one (usually on laptops with two types - discrete and integrated - video cards on board). In the case of desktop computers, the problem may only be an incorrect installation or lack of a video card driver. CPU-Z can display only the name of the video adapter, not showing either the amount of video memory, or the frequency of the memory and video core. To solve the problem, you can only try to completely remove the old one, and then install the new driver.

With laptops equipped with integrated and discrete graphics cards, things are a little more complicated. The fact is that such a computer configuration allows the system to use one or the other graphics adapter, depending on what exactly the user is doing - just using a browser or playing a resource-intensive 3D game.

Based on comments from various forums, we will give the following recommendation: it is better not to use the CPU-Z program to read information about video cards, because this utility is still designed to work with the processor and a little with RAM. Use the GPU-Z utility instead of CPU-Z - it specializes specifically in video cards.

Why does CPU-Z show 2 cores instead of 4?

The problem with displaying fewer processor cores than it actually is is not with the CPU-Z program, but with the system. Firstly, some assemblies/distributions of Windows operating systems (for example, Windows 7 Home), due to restrictions from Microsoft, block the work (or rather, ignore) half of the processor cores. Secondly, the lower number of cores used may be due to system settings.

If the reason for the display of fewer cores in the CPU-Z program is due to system settings, try the following:

• Press the "Win + R" keys on your keyboard.
• In the Run window, type "msconfig" without quotes and click OK.
• In the window that opens, go to the "Download" tab.
• At the top of the window, select the operating system you are using (if you have only one installed, then you do not need to select anything).
• Click on the "More options…" button below.
• See if the "Number of processors" option is checked. If so, uncheck it, click OK, then restart your computer.
• In the previous step, you told the system to detect the number of processor cores automatically. Open the CPU-Z program and look in the "CPU" tab opposite "Cores" for the number of processor cores.
• If CPU-Z again shows 2 cores instead of 4 (or even 2 instead of 8), reopen the "msconfig" system application. This time, check the "Number of processors" option, expand the list below and set there the number of cores that your processor has. Click OK and restart your computer.

A more radical way to solve this problem is to install the latest version of Windows without any restrictions (the "Professional" distribution, for example). You can simply try to reinstall or roll back to the factory settings an already installed version of Windows (perhaps some kind of failure has occurred).

Why does CPU-Z show x8 graphics bus and not x16?

Incorrect display of the number of so-called. PCI-E bus lines in the CPU-Z program may be due to incorrect BIOS or video card driver settings, as well as to the operation of the system power saving mechanism.

The CPU-Z program itself cannot be excluded from the list of reasons for incorrect display of bus information. Perhaps it just shows erroneous data. Many users have the following picture: when viewing information about the system, for example, through the "NVIDIA Control Panel", data on the PCI-E bus is displayed correctly (that is, as it should be - "x16"). If the video card is from NVIDIA, You can see these data ("NVIDIA Control Panel" is not available if the driver was installed through some driver manager):

• Right-click on an empty area of the desktop and select "NVIDIA Control Panel". • In the lower left corner of the NVIDIA Control Panel, click on System Information. • In the "Display" tab in the "Video card information" block, find the line "Bus" and see what is indicated opposite it.

What else you can do is start some game, and then check the readings of the CPU-Z program again. If the reason for the incorrect display of the number of PCI-E lanes is the operation of the power saving mechanism, after starting the game you should see the actual characteristics of the bus. The reason is that this mechanism can automatically programmatically lower/increase the number of PCI-E bus lines depending on the current load on the video card. If it "is in a calm state", the number of lines is halved (ie, to the parameters of the previous generation PCI-E).

Another possible solution is to reinstall or update the video adapter software (driver).

If the problems are related to the BIOS, you can try (not always possible) to find and change the parameter in it that is responsible for software changing the number of PCI-E bus lines. Updating the firmware of the BIOS itself can also help, but it's best to do this as a last resort, making sure that other methods do not solve the problem.

Why does CPU-Z show the RAM frequency?

In most cases, the display of incomplete information about the RAM by the program is due to the fact that CPU-Z, for one reason or another, does not support the RAM strips installed in the computer. It is also possible that the current CPU-Z program is outdated - download the latest version of it and check the frequency readings again. It is advisable to use the installable rather than the portable version of CPU-Z. Be sure to run CPU-Z as an administrator, otherwise it may not have the rights to read such technical information about the computer.

CPU-Z - software for obtaining information about the computer

CPU-Z is a program for obtaining information about the status of computer components: processor, motherboard, video card and RAM.

CPU-Z main functions:

• Definition of PC processor parameters: name, architecture, category, technical process, number of cores and core voltage, socket, cache information (capacity and structure).
• Determination of motherboard parameters: what model, where it is produced, chipset and others.
• Video card characteristics: name, manufacturer, family, volume, stepping, frequency parameters.
• Data on the type, volume, number of channels and slots, clock frequency and timing of the RAM.
• Validation and monitoring of system information.
• Obtaining information about the temperature of the computer and its components.
• The information received in CPU-Z is provided both in the program interface and in report files in txt or html format.

CPU-Z is easy to use and compatible with all current versions of Windows, including Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. The utility works on 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

Download CPU-Z:

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Download CPU-Z Portable

Download CPU-Z Android

CPU-Z is one of the most famous free programs for viewing technical information about system devices. The utility collects data from sensors of various components and displays them in a convenient format. The application is suitable for laptops and desktop PCs. There is also a separate version of the utility for viewing detailed information about Android devices.

The program is in demand among computer repair specialists, engineers, enthusiasts and gamers.

Processor screen

The main tab of the program displays detailed information about the central processor. In real time, users can track changes in the core frequency, the current core voltage, and the multiplier that affects the increase and decrease in the processor clock speed.

The following processor information is displayed on the screen:

• size of transistors or process technology (nm);
• thermal package (TDP);
• specification and full name of the model;
• revision and stepping;
• bus speed;
• supported instructions (SSE2, SSE3, AES, AVX and others);
• cache of the first, second and third levels;
• code name for the product line;
• number of cores and threads.

It should be clarified that the max marker is indicated near the TDP parameter, but in practice it turns out that the utility displays the minimum value, and not the maximum allowed. More detailed information about the limiting values \u200b\u200bof the thermal package is usually indicated on the official website of the manufacturer.

For motherboards that support multiple CPUs, you can also select an active socket to view information about each processor separately.

In addition, when clicking on the model logo, the user will be redirected to a site with a rating of the fastest instances of the selected processor for the current year. The table will show the records of the maximum frequency, as well as the revision number of the CPU and the models of motherboards and memory on which such indicators were achieved.

It is important to note that CPU-Z does not read data from temperature sensors. For this purpose, it is recommended to use the OCCT and HWiNFO utilities, which provide the necessary tools for monitoring the temperatures of various components: processor, video card, chipset, drives, and others.

Video card screen

The Graphics tab shows the specifications of the video adapter:

• model name;
• core and memory frequency;
• revision;
• thermal package;
• technical process;
• type, size, bus width and video memory vendor;
• code name of the chip.

You can also select data display modes: main (Base), current (Current) or overclocking (Boost). To view more detailed information about the graphics adapter, it is recommended to use the GPU-Z utility and programs for checking the temperature of the video card.

Motherboard and memory screens

The Mainboard tab displays all information about the motherboard, including the model name, current BIOS version, chipset revision number, PCI Express bus specification, and other parameters.

In the Memory section, you can determine the number of installed RAM modules, its frequency and basic timings. The SPD screen provides extended information on each memory slot, indicating the manufacturer's brand, chip serial number, release date, operating mode (standard or XMP profile), rank, voltage, and other parameters.

Additional tools

Additional options are available on the Tools tab. So, through the Clocks context menu, you can display the frequency parameters of all virtual cores, the graphics core and the system bus in a pivot table format. Timers specifies the frequencies of various timers, including real-time clocks and power interface devices.

In addition, there is a built-in program for checking for new driver versions, as well as buttons for saving reports in text format and the current BIOS version for the video card and processor. In turn, the Validate function allows you to publish system data on the developer site. In this case, the best results will be entered in the table of records.

As an alternative to CINEBENCH and Geekbench, the utility offers a built-in benchmark for testing processor performance in multithreaded and single thread modes. If desired, you can compare the test results with other models that are available in the Reference menu.