Please explain difference in CPU Speed for Different & Same Processers

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Peachesbackwards

Member
I'm still a bit unclear on some things regarding CPU speed & would appreciate any clarification to the following, assuming this is for basic use only-Internet, downloading, etc. not gaming or graphics work. Assume I have 3GB RAM.

1. I currently have a 2.3 GHZ Pentium 4 system. It I change the CPU to a 3.2 GHZ Pentium 4, will I notice a significant difference in speed? If so, can I just change CPUs or do I have to get a new fan/heat sink, new RAM & motherboard?

2. Will a 1.66 Dual Core be faster then a 3.2 Pentium 4?

3. What about a 3.2 Pentium 4 versus 1.66 64X2 AMD Dual Core

If there are simple general rules in regards to speed, would appreciate someone post them. Thanks
 
Thanks for the insight Now I know why everyone in your country has such great teeth
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You have been watching too much simpsons Im affraid
The UK has very good dental health. Currently far better than the US, Austrlia has one of the worst dental health care in the world the average Australian will suffer serious decay in at least 10 teeth by their late 30s.
According to the World Heath organistation the US oral heath care is vastly worse than the UK, in the 12 year old catagory its over 250% worse.
http://www.whocollab.od.mah.se/

And that's not just in terms of oral health either it holds true for general health care in every socio-economic group, for instance, the prevalence of diabetes is roughly double in the United States than it is in the United Kingdom. Rates of hypertension, heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, lung disease and cancer are also all higher in the United States. And not just a little big higher. Much higher. So, for example, 2.3 percent of the English have had a stroke, versus 3.8 percent of the Americans.

If you cant be bothered to read the stickies and find the answer to your question then I certainly can't be bothered to spoon feed you the answer.
Everything you wanted to know is in the sticky.
 
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Hey I Deleted the Post & therefore didn't appologize

I apologize as I didn't notice the link and wrote a sarcastic reply which I then deleted & considered this moot which is why I didn't appologize, then. Anyway,
I do apologize.
 
I'll have to reread it again. THe basic thing that I'm confused about is if a lower level CPU (Pentium4) is 3.2 GHZ and an upper level one is 1.66 GHZ (dual core), is the upper level processer still faster even if it has less GHZ?

Thanks for your help.
 
More GHz doesn't necessarily mean better performance. Pentium 4s were designed to do very small steps very fast. The problem was to get them to the point where that would yeild better performance required too much power and created too much heat.

Long story short, a 2GHz Core 2 is better than a 3GHz Pentium 4.
 
Imagine a motorway or whatever with 1 lane open with the vehicles travelling at 50mph. Traffic will be limited but moving quickly so it's your standard Pentium. Then you have cars doing 40mph but with all 3 lanes open; more freely flowing traffic and you can travel at a lower speed, this is like a Core 2 Duo.
 
The IPC, instructions per clock, has been increased in the newer chips, core2's included. It's exactly as pablo described above, More data can be processed per clock, resulting in higher efficiency. I can also add that the fictional road the cars are traveling down have been reduced, representing the new, shorter architectural pipelines in the C2d and others.
 
you need to read that CPU sticky... in addition to clock speed, things like frontside bus and L1/L2 cache etc determine the speed a CPU will run at.

there unfortunately is no easy way to determine the speed of a CPU by looking at one number anymore. it used to be you would just look at clock speed and there was your answer, but things have gotten slightly more complicated nowadays.
 
Peachesbackwards said:
I'm still a bit unclear on some things regarding CPU speed & would appreciate any clarification to the following, assuming this is for basic use only-Internet, downloading, etc. not gaming or graphics work. Assume I have 3GB RAM.

1. I currently have a 2.3 GHZ Pentium 4 system. It I change the CPU to a 3.2 GHZ Pentium 4, will I notice a significant difference in speed? If so, can I just change CPUs or do I have to get a new fan/heat sink, new RAM & motherboard?

2. Will a 1.66 Dual Core be faster then a 3.2 Pentium 4?

3. What about a 3.2 Pentium 4 versus 1.66 64X2 AMD Dual Core

If there are simple general rules in regards to speed, would appreciate someone post them. Thanks
Click to expand...

1. If all you use it for is internet use, then no, you wont.

2. Yes it will be faster, but again, you wont notice a difference if you only use your PC for the internet.

3. Same thing, the Intel Dual-Core @ 1.66Ghz is actually better then the AMD @ 1.66Ghz. (Did they even make a 1.66 X2?)
 
Without question, Omega is right. The new generation procs are designed, and marketed for/to enthusiasts. We require a CPU that can handle multitasking, and the complex instructions/calculations that high performance gaming, media editing, etc. require. In addition, to run a new Intel CPU, you need a socket 775 motherboard. For your situation, speed is dependent on your internet connection; not the speed of your CPU. For the internet, you really don't need to make any changes - yet.
 
The way I see a processors Mhz is the same way I see rpm of an engine. You ask a mechanic whats the better eingine the 6000 rpm or the 8000rpm he can't tell you till he knows how the engines were built.

Core 2 is a new design that is more optimised. Each core has more MB built in than a pent 4 each core has more transistors than a pent 4 just like a V12 8L engine has more power than the tiny V6 2L engine as well as lots of other tech that can improve it.

Same goes for graphics cards the new directX 10 ones are similar Mhz to the old ones but twice the computing power because of all the other extra stuff they have inside.
 
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