OT Speed of Processor

[Cash]

It certainly did when I last used Windows 98SE Harry.

Cash

[Mr Pounder]

Do you indeed?

>

[JW]

Having the speed the same as the stated speed simply means that your clock is running very accurately. However, I would generally expect to see the actual speed at perhaps a few megahertz higher or lower.

Not sure I understand the CPUZ figures you've posted. Unless your CPU has ramped down to a very slow speed as sitting idle.

HT is Hypertransport. Basically just another bus within the system, which is used to shuttle data between the CPU, memory and a few other devices at high speed.

Obviously AMD, but what processor do you have?

Just ran CPU-Z on mine, and my bus speed varies from 399.9 MHz to 400.1 MHz. The multiplier changes from 6.0x to 8.0x times when more CPU power is required.

The CPUspeed program simply tells me that my CPU is running at 3200.3 MHz. In other words, only half of the story.

[BartC]

I suppose I got the idea that cpuspeed would give me some sort of comparative performance figure.

Just telling me the clock speed (something that Control Panel->System tells me anyway) at first doesn't sound so impressive (until you to think about how exactly it might achieve it, unless it is somehow making use of the real time clock or something).

Did you work that out from my post? Yes, it's an AMD Athlon II I believe.

[JW]

I guess, at the end of the day, what you actually want when considering an upgrade is the stated processor type, and the current speeds. I.e. rather than upgrading an old processor, you may try a simple, and free, overclock before anything else. And a simple view of the memory installed is handy too. I'm not sure many BIOSes show you exactly how the memory slots are populated. And if they do it during POST, you need a photographic memory!

If you want to see a comparison of your machine against similar setups, then SiSoft Sandra is your lady. She will benchmark most areas of your PC, and you can then compare against pre-loaded benchmarks. I know that many people would see benchmarking as a sad hobby. Well, if the only driver is to push the performance of an already capable setup a little more, then it perhaps is sad, but a well rounded benchmark can identify any areas of your setup that aren't performing too well.