
What sort of CPU is best for music and audio production? Will your DAW benefit from more cores or a higher clock speed? Read on to find out. . .
The CPU, or central processing unit, is at the heart of every computer. It’s the bit of your computer that does most of the actual, well, computing. Getting the right sort of CPU for the sort of work you’re doing is therefore really important. But music and audio production puts some very particular demands on a computer, and not every CPU is right for the job.
There are some really powerful CPUs out there these days. Between Intel’s Core and Xeon processors, AMD’s Ryzen and Threadripper chips and Apple’s new M1 system-on-a-chip, we are spoiled for choice. But it’s not uncommon for people in our profession to spend a lot of money on a super-expensive CPU that actually performs worse in an audio context than many cheaper alternatives.
So in this article I’ll explore how a CPU works and what to look for when buying one for audio work. In a follow-up article, I’ll be looking at the suitability of several types of CPU for audio production workflows, and explain why we at OPUS 101 have chosen (SPOILERS) AMD Ryzen™ 5000 series processors to power our machines.
Table of contents
CPUs: the Basics
The CPU’s job in any computer is to crunch numbers, perform logic operations, control disk I/O (input and output) and tell the other hardware in your system what to do. Software and hardware devices are constantly sending instructions to the CPU. … Read more