What is better in terms of GHz ?

Question

I always see PCs that advertize 2.4 GHz, or 3.2 GHz. But I can never understand what is better. Is a higher number better in terms of GHz, or a lower number ??

Answer 1

well in terms of ghz yes the higher the better but only ghz wouldnt do u need the ram thats high speed often ram is a critical factor in the speed of computer there is got to be a best of both.Have a nice day

Answer 2

The previous poster has ranked the Pentium-D too highly- I'll explain that later.

Generally speaking the higher number is better, however when looking at different manufacturers, the marketing people do things differently. Since AMD processors perform more efficiently at lower clockspeed than their Intel counterparts, AMD advertises their chips with a number, such as 3500+ or 3800+ etc.

Suppose you're considering two computers and one says Intel Pentium-4 3.2 Ghz and the other says AMD Athlon 3800+ 2.4Ghz. At first glance you'd think 3.2Ghz beats 2.4Ghz by quite a margin. Not so!

For AMD chips, it's the number before the plus sign which is important, not the Ghz clockspeed. In this case, 3800+ means its performance is equivalent to an Intel Pentium 4 running at 3.8Ghz. A 3200+ is equivalent to a 3.2Ghz Intel, etc.

Now there are other considerations- for example some chips are dual-core, like Intel's Core 2 Duo and AMD's X2, but in terms of reading the numbers that's how it breaks down.

A final word on dual core- the primary benefit of dual-core chips are when you're doing multiple tasks at once, i.e. compiling in one window or decoding a DVD while doing something else in another window. If you only run one program at a time, the benefits of dual-core aren't in play. So for gaming, a 3800+ Athlon 64 or 3.8Ghz Pentium-4 will outperform a 3.6Ghz Pentium-D. Once core handles all the processing, while the second core just sits idle...

For the top-of-the line Core 2 Duos, it's absolutely worth it- they are about 30% faster than single-core chips of the same speed.

Answer 3

a CPU's performance is not always determined by its frequency (in GHZ or MHZ)

there is also the number of instructions per clock (IPC) a CPU can process at one time.

currently, Pentium 4's have the highest frequencies, but the lowest IPC's.

the Pentium 4's are about to be discontinued by Intel, in favour of Core 2 Duo's, which have a higher IPC, and don't need as high frequency to perform better.

basically, the best CPU's from top to bottom (right now) are:
Core 2 Duo
Athlon 64 X2
Pentium D
Athlon 64
Pentium 4
AMD Sempron
Intel Celeron

if you want to look at actual performance, look for CPU benchmarks.
performance is often calculated using FLOPS (floating point calculations per second) or MIPS (mathematical instructions per second)

there's also the fact that CPU's can have two cores now. this includes Core 2 Duo's, Athlon 64 X2's, and Pentium D's

two cores means it can process two things at once. this doesn't necessarily mean double the performance; that depends on how well the programs can handle two cores.
but it does mean you can run more than one program simultaneously a lot easier

Answer 4

In this case your talking about "clock speed" in a CPU. The higher the clock speed the faster the CPU processes information. So, the higher the number, the better.

Answer 5

Of course higher GHz more speed, new processors are Duo that means that have two processors in one.