How to figure the capability of a CPU

[Martin 71]

Hey,
I thought I had this all figured out, when I had a argument with a friend about it ... he says that to figure out the speed of a cpu you need to divide the clock speed by the # of cores... I say that each core runs at the clock speed... so in the case of my Phenom II 965, he says I'd divide my 3.4ghz speed by 4 and thus my speed per core is 850mhz per core... but I say that each core is at 3.4ghz... which is correct?

 

[o1die]

You are. But with amd's cool and quiet enabled, your core speed will vary with some applications.

 

[Martin 71]

Yeah, I dont run c&q... I like the max from my rig... thanks for the quick reply I'll send him a link right now

 

[WR2]

We often hear this going the other way: 4 cores @ 3.4Ghz = 13.6Ghz of processing power which isn't correct either.

Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition: Vitals And Overclocking

 

[Scotteq]

Hey,
I thought I had this all figured out, when I had a argument with a friend about it ... he says that to figure out the speed of a cpu you need to divide the clock speed by the # of cores... I say that each core runs at the clock speed... so in the case of my Phenom II 965, he says I'd divide my 3.4ghz speed by 4 and thus my speed per core is 850mhz per core... but I say that each core is at 3.4ghz... which is correct?

Your friend is full of crap.

If your processor is running at 3.4Ghz, then each core is running at 3.4 as well.

Example: If I have 4 trucks running at 65 miles an hour, that most definitely does NOT equal one running at 260.

What it *does* allow (the computer) to do is to put a different load in each of the four, and deliver them to different places at the same time.

 

[Martin 71]

Great thanks guys I appreciate the help, and yeah, I love to laugh at the guys that multiply it by the # of cores

 

[Martin 71]

Best answer selected by Martin 71.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey