Fast task execution speed is the goal of every active user who has decided to upgrade his/her personal or gaming PC for 500 dollars. Regardless of preferences, both gamers and video editors, designers, copywriters, and artists need good hardware.
Many people buy new memory chips to increase performance. Yet, they forget that another component – the CPU – is responsible for the speed and quality of tasks. To buy a suitable processor, it is important to pay attention to all the characteristics. But in the first place, there comes clock speed. One needs to understand what it is and how to determine it before buying a computer.
It is possible to increase its indicators in the future, but you should buy a modern model at once. Saving a couple of thousand, you reduce the relevance of the processor by a couple of years.
What is the Clock Frequency
The number of commands (clock cycles) that the processor executes in 1 second is the CPU clock frequency. Hertz (abbreviated “Hz”) is used as a unit of measurement for this characteristic. The number of clock cycles per second in modern processors exceeds the value of 2-4 million hertz, so more often, you can find models with a clock frequency of 2-4 GHz (Gigahertz).
In professional language, the term CPU clock frequency means the number of clock pulses that come to the CPU to synchronize its operation. This concept is more accurate since operations on a modern computer may not just consist of a few clock cycles but sometimes take up to dozens of clock cycles. Therefore, it is better to have several million hertz rather than exceed the norm.
What Does Processor Frequency Affect
The value of the clock frequency is equal to the system bus FS and the multiplier in the CPU settings.
Thus, even after figuring out what CPU frequency is, the average user can not fully understand what exactly this indicator affects. According to the developers, the number of hertz determines how fast the CPU performs tasks using the processing power. In short, this indicator affects the performance and, therefore, the quality of the user’s work.
How to Find Out the CPU Clock Speed
There are several ways to find out the characteristics of the processor. The standard ones are usually indicated in the description of the processor’s model and on the processor itself. Information about the CPU can be found in the “System Properties” section by opening the “Control Panel of the OS.” But these two methods give information about the default values.
You don’t need any utilities to get basic data about your PC.
But even the preset CPU parameters may give different clock speed characteristics. Therefore, to fully analyze your computer, you need to use information from the BIOS and various utilities. Modern processors have three varieties of CPU frequencies when the CPU is on:
- Normal – the nominal state, which allows the CPU to work without loads, keeping its allowable heat dissipation values without lowering its performance.
- Active – the state of the CPU, which uses the necessary performance for the system at the moment.
- Maximum – in some conditions, such as running games or software, where you need the speed of the PC, the processor may significantly heat up and increase the number of clock cycles for a comfortable user experience.
Each of the clock varieties can be lowered. It is possible to determine the CPU clock speed by using such programs as CPU-Z, AIDA64, HWInfo, etc. You can also find it in your BIOS. To get the information, you need to open it (press “F12” or “Del,” depending on the motherboard model), then open the “CPU Info” section.
Clock speed is a good indicator of CPU performance. Although multicore is important in video editing, streaming, and other similar applications, many new video games still perform best on the processors with the highest clock speeds.
