when I see a computer ad and it says something like "Intel®Pentium® dual-core processor E2140 (1MB L2,1.60GHz,

Question

when I see a computer ad and it says something like "Intel®Pentium® dual-core processor E2140 (1MB L2,1.60GHz,800 FSB)", what's the actual processing power? 1.60 Ghz or 3.20 Ghz?

Answer 1

You have 2 cores each running at 1.6Ghz. So if you have two programs running, each has its own core running at 1.6Ghz, instead of a single core system which would leave the two programs sharing one core. Most programs cannot use both cores at once, but more and more will as time passes.

Answer 2

This is a complicated question with a complicated answer.

The simple answer is:
With dual cores you actually have 1.5 times the overall speed of one core so with 1.60Ghz. You loose performance with context switching and resource management which is why its not actually 2.0 times. I hope this helps

Answer 3

1.60 GHZ , there isn't a core 2 duo that goes over 3.0 , and , the one that is at 3.0 is 1,500 dollars.

But , this is all with out over clocking.

-Joe