Another couple of semi-newb questions about CPU's

[Puzzlemaker]

Alright, here goes.

How the heck do you measure a CPU's power? I know, GHz. But, for AMD, they dont use GHz to measure it or something? Or they use a number that is based on comparing it to intel, or some strange thing like that? And yes, I googled it. A lot of the stuff that popped up didn't really help me too much.

I looked at newegg, and I couldn't really get what all those CPU stats mean.

Operating Frequency 2.0GHz

Whats an operating frequency?

HT 1GHz

Whats an HT?

For a duel core processor, is the GHz shown the total, or the seperate power of the processor?

 

[Barney Fife]

Hold on I will write you an Assay.

 

[NeptuneUK]

good man

 

[Puzzlemaker]

Hold on I will write you an Assay.

Thanks.

 

[NeptuneUK]

anyway. please correct me if im wrong... the operating frequency is in hertz (like all frequencies) 1 hz means once per second. so a 100mhz cpu will perform 100,000,000 cycles per second... a 2ghz cpu will perform 2,000,000,000 cycles per second or has an operating frequency of 2000mhz (ie 1 ghz is 1000mhz, 1 mhz is 1 million hertz) the frequency of the CPU determines how many threads the cpu can process at any one given moment of time. so in laymans terms a higher clocked cpu can do more 'stuff' than one clocked lower
theres also the L1 and L2 caches, dual core and 64 bit processing which complicate things moreso.....

in a dual core processor clocked at 2ghz, there is two cores in the CPU die both operating at 2ghz. this doesnt necessarily mean a total of 4ghz performance. (more like 3ghz) both the cores can process two different things at once (if dual core processing is utilised properly)
think of dual core like SLI with GPUs, 2 SLI cards doesnt give the same performance as 1 card which is twice as powerful.

i hope it helped a lil bit. im no CPU brainiac. barney may explain things coz im no good

 

[Puzzlemaker]

anyway. please correct me if im wrong... the operating frequency is in hertz (like all frequencies) 1 hz means once per second. so a 100mhz cpu will perform 100,000,000 cycles per second... a 2ghz cpu will perform 2,000,000,000 cycles per second or has an operating frequency of 2000mhz (ie 1 ghz is 1000mhz, 1 mhz is 1 million hertz) the frequency of the CPU determines how many threads the cpu can process at any one given moment of time. so in laymans terms a higher clocked cpu can do more 'stuff' than one clocked lower
theres also the L1 and L2 caches, dual core and 64 bit processing which complicate things moreso.....

in a dual core processor clocked at 2ghz, there is two cores in the CPU die both operating at 2ghz. this doesnt necessarily mean a total of 4ghz performance. (more like 3ghz) i hope it helped a lil bit. im no CPU brainiac

So a dual core with 64 bit processor that has a 2 GHz processing frequency would be how much more powerfull then a single-core 32-bit processor that has a 2GHz processing frequency?

 

[NeptuneUK]

probly 50-75% more depending on what your running. but definately much more powerful.. alas i have a single core 32 bit penty 4. nowadays more and more programs and games are supporting dual core and 64 bit processing.

 

[Puzzlemaker]

Hmm, alright, cool.

 

[Cole]

Intel can do things faster.
AMD can do more at once but slower.
In the end AMD has turned out to kick all out major ass. Intel is also going back with there newer processors and going an AMD route with slower but can do much more at once.

 

[Puzzlemaker]

Intel can do things faster.
AMD can do more at once but slower.
In the end AMD has turned out to kick all out major ass. Intel is also going back with there newer processors and going an AMD route with slower but can do much more at once.

I thought it was the other way around?

 

[NeptuneUK]

me too, but you cant rly say one processor manufacturer is 'better' than another. they both have a whole range of processors for different requirements

 

[Barney Fife]

OK am gonna write you this report without going to a detailed research and from the top of my head, so this is open for corrections, if needs to be.

The CPU clock speed frequency is measured in Hertz.
Meaning 1 Kilohertz is 1000 hertz, 1 Megahertz is 1.000.000 hertz and 1 Gigahertz is 1.000.000.000 hertz.
It refers to the clock speed of the CPU, the faster the clock can tick in second cycle, the higher the hertz; the higher the hertz the faster the computer CPU can process data and instructions.

Now that we got this out of the way, lets go to your second questions:

Sometimes retailers, packagers or AMD will post CPU speed in way of megahertz, which is something like this “AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2000MHZ” the 2000MHz is abbreviated short for 2.000.000.000 hertz, which you can actually make it short and just say “2GHz” and same as saying “AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.000.000.000Htz”.

HT stands for the CPU front side bus or (FSB) Sometimes is showed as (HT) or Hyper transport. This is where AMD usually beats Intel at, by having a larger FSB. The system board or Motherboard is made of nothing but bays, buses and chip controllers, that look similarly to our brain, interconnecting and communicating with each other by system bus or FSB and port controllers, you can say this is “That they’re your MOBO’s super highway”.
The larger the FSB the less traffic congestions. Usually Intel MOBO FSB is 800MHz when AMD start at 1600MHz or 1.6GHz.

Oh! and dual core is literally packing two silicon chips into one CPU chip, but if you're just a gamer you don't need dual core CPUs as they're no use to you, thats why FX 57 single core is faster (In single task) than FX 60 dual core AMD. Here I found you a more details at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_core


Oh! That was easier than I thought. Let me know if I left out something.


Good Luck.

 

[Alexferris]

Alright, here goes.

How the heck do you measure a CPU's power? I know, GHz. But, for AMD, they dont use GHz to measure it or something? Or they use a number that is based on comparing it to intel, or some strange thing like that? And yes, I googled it. A lot of the stuff that popped up didn't really help me too much.

I looked at newegg, and I couldn't really get what all those CPU stats mean.

Operating Frequency 2.0GHz

Whats an operating frequency?

HT 1GHz

Whats an HT?

For a duel core processor, is the GHz shown the total, or the seperate power of the processor?

AMD 3000+ is similar to a 3 ghz CPU.

AMD 3000+ runs at 1.8ghz, but the architecture is more effecient, thus more calls alotted.

HT is Hyper-Threading, a feature which allows for multiple CPU calls to be made in a single call.

 

[Dancingwllamas]

When something says "HT 1Ghz" it is not referring to Hyper-threading (which is a technology Intel uses). It refers to the Hyper Transport speed, which is similar to the front side bus used by Intel.

Operating frequency is the amount of cycles a processor can go through in one second. Generally, Intel processors require higher clockspeeds than AMD processors to do the same amount of processing in one second, which is why you see many AMD processors being named "xx00+" to indicate that they have similar performance to the Intel processor with that speed (in Mhz). A "3000+" is said to have similar performance to a 3000Mhz (or 3Ghz) Intel processor while having a lower actual clockspeed.

 

[sinkoman]

Alright, here goes.

How the heck do you measure a CPU's power? I know, GHz. But, for AMD, they dont use GHz to measure it or something? Or they use a number that is based on comparing it to intel, or some strange thing like that? And yes, I googled it. A lot of the stuff that popped up didn't really help me too much.

I looked at newegg, and I couldn't really get what all those CPU stats mean.

Operating Frequency 2.0GHz

Whats an operating frequency?

HT 1GHz

Whats an HT?

For a duel core processor, is the GHz shown the total, or the seperate power of the processor?

Frequency is cycles per second.

1 Hertz is 1 cycle every second

2 Giga Hertz is about 2,000,000,000 cycles every second.

Usually, a processors frequency is a good measure of speed "IE it can do this much in this much time", but with AMD processors that's not the case.

In laymans terms, they do more each cycle than your average processor. So, for example, while an Intel processor makes 1 pizza every time it goes through its cycle, and AMD processor would make 1,000,000 pizza's every time it goes through its cycle.

Quite clearly, AMD processors pwn.

And HT is Hyper Threading. You don't need to know what that does. It's been rendered kinda useless for everything but bussiness applications.

 

[sinkoman]

When something says "HT 1Ghz" it is not referring to Hyper-threading (which is a technology Intel uses). It refers to the Hyper Transport speed, which is similar to the front side bus used by Intel.

I'm pretty sure that's for motherboards, and not processors. Motherboards have thier HT speeds locked, which is why it'd tell you what it was locked at.

EDIT: Sorry, double post. Could have sworn I hit edit :/

 

[Puzzlemaker]

Okay, so a single processor is better at gaming then duel processors? Wouldn't the OS and other things be able to run in the backround (Like if you liked IM systems in the backround) while you ran your game on the other one?

 

[Alexferris]

Multiple CPUs are a double edged sword, and for most things, not as productive as just a better single CPU.

 

[Puzzlemaker]

Multiple CPUs are a double edged sword, and for most things, not as productive as just a better single CPU.

Hmm, I was told diffrently. I will take this into account.

 

[Barney Fife]

Okay, so a single processor is better at gaming then duel processors? Wouldn't the OS and other things be able to run in the backround (Like if you liked IM systems in the backround) while you ran your game on the other one?

Yes, single processor is better at gaming than dual core processors, because you have one program running at this time, and no other interruption to CPU is needed as multitasking software do, and no need for second core for second execution.
Everything that was running before the game was executed will come to a state of suspension, and either stay on RAM idling (If enough RAM is available) or move to Windows file swapping area of your PC, giving the CPU an absolute freedom to execute/load and run the game. Also your CPU has a library in windows folder called "Windows Prefetch" it is a way of XP making things easier for CPU that every time you load a program there are pits and pieces left in the Windows Prefetch folder, so that the next time you load the same program only some of it will be loaded and not all, since some of it were already loaded when windows started, thus making things look faster, but the truth is some of that program was loaded at windows start-up.
So yes your IM and MS messenger are running and again yes they are not running, that's why whenever a programs tries to check the Net for an update or some one says "Hi" at IM, game starts to stutter and you start to lag, those programs start to come out of their stage of comma and start to bother CPU.
Those programs running in the background are already loaded and are residing in the RAM, They won't need the CPU until you start to use them or they interrupt CPU, because they would like to check for update and stuff.
BUT when we talk about a game, it is different: Game is running and being executed throughout the entire play, game needs the power of the CPU at it's disposal and the attention of the CPU the entire time game is being played, The CPU is executing game the entire time game is being played.

Good Luck.

 

[Dancingwllamas]

I'm pretty sure that's for motherboards, and not processors. Motherboards have thier HT speeds locked, which is why it'd tell you what it was locked at.

EDIT: Sorry, double post. Could have sworn I hit edit :/

If it were for hyper-threading, it would not be giving a clockspeed. That would be like having "SSE 1Ghz." Processors also have limited bus speeds, which is why they would list the Hyper Transport speed on the processor as well as the MoBo.

 

[NeptuneUK]

sorry but the xx00 no. of aprocessor doesnt mean shit, its just the product name. theyre used to compare performances of CPUs in the same range. ie a 2800 wont be as good as a 3000 whatever cpu in the same range