How exactly do you count a CPU's speed...

[computernewbie]

So, i was on this online game, sort of-ish. And it tells everyones CPU speed, until i saw someone had
7GHz, which then i started asking how'd he get it to 7, what cooling is he using, and such. But ofcourse, someone else explained that the game reads the total amount of cores and there single speeds, so each one of his cores would be around 1.75GHz.

So, when we, on toms forum say "i OC my i7 to 3.6 GHz", does that mean every core is set to 3.6, or is that the total added number off all the cores? (In this case, 4)

 

[dmv915]

All the cores are at 3.6 ghz, and they don't add. What game were you playing?

 

[computernewbie]

Ahh, i've been thinking about that for a whole 2 days, lol, too lazy to post sooner >:]

Its actually an engine, called spring. Very boring, (and the graphics are horrible), but what can you play on a laptop with integrated graphics, (ironically warcraft! lol)

So yeah, the "game lobby" actually shows the persons CPU speed, and for some reason spring counts all of the cores seperately, which got me REALLY confused.

thanks

 

[royalcrown]

Yes, the speeds of the cores never add together...ever. Lots of old magazine adds did this with dual cpu machines, they added the speeds of each one, which is 100 percent snake oil.

 

[computernewbie]

forgot to add, someone hacked into the game and set their CPU speed to 100GHz, a new world record i believe?

 

[royalcrown]

Hmmm, at 200 cores and 512.7 ghz, we can then ask it to open the pod bay doors, to which it will reply, "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that."