[Martial33]

How can you be sure you have a 3gzh processor?

Under Start/ my computer/system info it says 3g but can’t that be modified?
Is there anyway of checking the processor speed? Device manager Etc?

[telegramsam]

This utility will tell you what speed your CPU is clocking in at.

http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

You can't modify that through the operating system, you'd have to overclock it in the BIOS if your system BUS and cooling system and power supply are rated to handle it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't try it.

[bernardus]

Overclocking is risky. You may destroy your BIOS or blow your CPU. Even your motherboard. The temperature will rise and cooling must be efficient enough. Furthermore I don't like overclocking since it won't speed up your PC much. The speed of the PC hangs on your HD performance. And the memory. Many new CPU's cannot be overclocked since they are protected. Having a good defragmantation program is much wiser and safer.
bernardus

[Martial33]

thanks guys,

I wasn’t planning on over clocking it, only interested to know if we are in fact operating at a frequency of 3ghz -- or does it work like a racecar? eg just because you have 500horsepower, doesn’t necessarily mean that is being transferred to the road -- you loose power through the transmission, differential, tires, suspension etc

[bernardus]

Run Aïda 32 and you see the performance. Another program with benchmarks is Astra.

bernardus

[awoolf]

Originally Posted by Martial33

operating at a frequency of 3ghz -- or does it work like a racecar? eg just because you have 500horsepower, doesn’t necessarily mean that is being transferred to the road...

A better race car analogy would be thinking of GHz as RPM.

The RPM of an engine is only enough information to give you a relative idea of it's power output. Engine "X" running at 3,000RPM is more powerful than the same engine running at 2,000 RPM. Unless you know lots of other info (number of cylinders, gear ratios, etc) you'll have no idea if it is as powerful as engine "Y" at 4,000 RPM.

Back to your CPU - a Core 2 Duo or Athlon 64 does more work per clock cycle than a Pentium 4, so a Core 2 Duo at 2 GHz may be substantially more powerful than a Pentium 4 at 3 GHz. This could be related to a 6 cyl car vs a 8 cyl.

I'm sure other members could illustrate some additional scenarios far better than I, but this should point you in the right direction....

[kiwiguy]

If it says 3 GHZ, then that is a constant, the clock speed is 3 GHz.

When it doesn't need to do much, it is still doing it at 3 GHz, but the task is "idle" (System Idle to be exact)

It is how it allocates each clock cycle to the programs that determines its relative speed, but that is pre-determined by the operating system, the program running and then other constraints such as RAM and HDD speeds.

The car analogy does not really work.