System Administration

Excellent System Utilities: CPU-X – system profiler tool

Last Updated on December 24, 2022

In Operation

CPU-X’s interface is a faithful reproduction of CPU-Z.

The utility displays information in a series of information tabs: CPU, Caches, Motherboard, Memory, System, Graphics, Bench, and About.

Let’s take a look at a few of these tabs: CPU, Memory, and Graphics.

CPU-X - CPU tab
Click for full size image

In the CPU tab you get information about the system’s processor name and number, code name, specification, family, instructions, as well as information about the clock speed, and cache of the processor. The CPU usage % shows an averaged figure across all the CPUs’s cores.

As you can see from the image, the system running CPU-X sports an elderly Core i5 processor.

You’ll notice there’s a “Start daemon” button at the bottom of the window. This is ever-present on all the tabs. Running the daemon offers full information about the system. You’ll need elevated privileges. But if you haven’t got elevated privileges you can still run the program albeit with some information omitted.

CPU-X - Memory
Click for full size image

On the right hand side, there’s a screenshot of the Memory tab.

The image shows that the motherboard offers 4 RAM slots of which 2 are populated. We are told the size of the RAM together with its DRAM frequency. Information is retrieved using the dmidecode utility.

Whereas the CPU tab of CPU-X is a pretty faithful reproduction of the information offered by CPU-Z, this isn’t the case for the Memory tab.

We’re missing lots of information such as the type of RAM, CAS latency, and more.

CPU-X - Graphics
Click for full size image

GPUs have sparked an AI boom, become a key part of modern supercomputers and continued to drive advances in gaming and pro graphics.

The Graphics tab is shown in the image to the left. It shows that our system is using a NVIDIA GTX 950 graphics card.

There’s information about the usage of the GPU, together with clock speeds.

The utility also reports in realtime the temperature of the GPU which is retrieved by accessing the nvidia-smi utility.

The software also offers a couple of simple benchmarking tests which you can run on a configurable number of threads.

Next page: Page 3 – Text-based user interface

Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Installation
Page 2 – In Operation
Page 3 – Text-based user interface
Page 4 – Summary


Complete list of articles in this series:

Essential System Tools
AlacrittyInnovative, hardware-accelerated terminal emulator
BleachBitSystem cleaning software. Quick and easy way to service your computer
bottomGraphical process/system monitor for the terminal
btop++Monitor usage and stats for CPU, memory, disks, network and processes
catfishVersatile file searching software
ClonezillaPartition and disk cloning software
CPU-XSystem profiler with both a GUI and text-based
CzkawkaFind duplicate files, big files, empty files, similar images, and much more
ddrescueData recovery tool, retrieving data from failing drives as safely as possible
dustMore intuitive version of du written in Rust
f3Detect and fix counterfeit flash storage
Fail2banBan hosts that cause multiple authentication errors
fdupesFind or delete duplicate files
FirejailRestrict the running environment of untrusted applications
GlancesCross-platform system monitoring tool written in Python
GPartedResize, copy, and move partitions without data
GreenWithEnvyNVIDIA graphics card utility
gtopSystem monitoring dashboard
gWakeOnLANTurn machines on through Wake On LAN
hyperfineCommand-line benchmarking tool
inxiCommand-line system information tool that's a time-saver for everyone
journalctlQuery and display messages from the journal
kmonManage Linux kernel modules with this text-based tool
KrusaderAdvanced, twin-panel (commander-style) file manager
NeofetchSystem information tool written in Bash
NmapNetwork security tool that builds a "map" of the network
nmonSystems administrator, tuner, and benchmark tool
nnnPortable terminal file manager that's amazingly frugal
petSimple command-line snippet manager
PingnooGraphical representation for traceroute and ping output
ps_memAccurate reporting of software's memory consumption
SMCMulti-featured system monitor written in Python
TimeshiftReliable system restore tool
QDirStatQt-based directory statistics
QJournalctlGraphical User Interface for systemd’s journalctl
TLPMust-have tool for anyone running Linux on a notebook
UnisonConsole and graphical file synchronization software
VeraCryptStrong disk encryption software
VentoyCreate bootable USB drive for ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD(x), EFI files
WTFPersonal information dashboard for your terminal
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Brian Holmes
Brian Holmes
3 years ago

inxi is much better to be fair for sharing system information with others.

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
3 years ago

It’s what people usually recommend as far as I’ve seen. I’d have to check out how CPU-X differs before making any claims though.