TECH ONLY(CLOCK SPEED WHAT IS THIS??)

In general, a higher clock speed means a faster CPU. However, many other factors come into play.

Your CPU processes many instructions (low-level calculations like arithmetic) from different programs every second. The clock speed measures the number of cycles your CPU executes per second, measured in GHz (gigahertz).

A “cycle” is technically a pulse synchronized by an internal oscillator, but for our purposes, they’re a basic unit that helps understand a CPU’s speed. During each cycle, billions of transistors within the processor open and close.

 CPU with a clock speed of 3.2 GHz executes 3.2 billion cycles per second. (Older CPUs had speeds measured in megahertz, or millions of cycles per second.)

Sometimes, multiple instructions are completed in a single clock cycle; in other cases, one instruction might be handled over multiple clock cycles. Since different CPU designs handle instructions differently, it’s best to compare clock speeds within the same CPU brand and generation.

For example, a CPU with a higher clock speed from five years ago might be outperformed by a new CPU with a lower clock speed, as the newer architecture deals with instructions more efficiently. An X-series Intel® processor might outperform a K-series processor with a higher clock speed, because it splits tasks between more cores and features a larger CPU cache. But within the same generation of CPUs, a processor with a higher clock speed will generally outperform a processor with a lower clock speed across many applications. This is why it’s important to compare processors from the same brand and generation.

How Does Clock Speed Affect Gaming?

Before the advent of multi-core CPUs, clock speed was viewed as the key spec for comparing single-core processors. Today, it’s taken into consideration alongside number of cores, CPU cache, and power consumption.

The impact of clock speed on an individual game depends on the game’s engine and the tools used to create it. Benchmarking sites like Tom’s Hardware have found that some game engines, like Far Cry: Primal’s Dunia, benefit more from strong single-thread performance than multithreading.3 On the other hand, many newer AAA games, especially in multithreading-friendly engines like Unreal Engine 4, can benefit both from extra cores and increased clock.4

Specific benchmarks are the best way to assess CPU performance in a particular game engine, but clock speed is a good general guide to the relative performance of processors within a product family.

SO NEXT TIME BUY HIGHER CLOCK SPEED PHONE OR  COMPUTER