What affects the clock speed of the processor? What is a central processing unit.
The performance of the central processor depends on the bit depth, frequency and features of the processor architecture. The operation of the computer as a whole depends on this integral value, which means that when choosing, you will have to pay attention to all the characteristics of the processor. The processor must have sufficient performance to solve certain tasks.
Processor manufacturers
There are two large, leading manufacturers in the processor market: Intel and AMD. Characteristics of processors from different manufacturers are different. Much depends on the perfection of technologies, materials used, layout and other nuances.
Processor clock speed
The clock frequency indicates the speed of the processor in hertz (GHz) - the number of work operations per second. The clock frequency of the processor is divided into internal and external. Yes, this characteristic of the processor significantly affects the speed of your PC, but the performance depends not only on it.
- The internal clock rate refers to the rate at which the processor processes internal instructions. The higher the indicator, the faster the external clock frequency.
- The external clock speed determines how fast the processor accesses RAM.
Processor bit depth
The capacity is the limiting number of bits of a binary number, over which a machine operation of information transfer can be performed at a time. The larger the bit depth, the higher the processor performance. Now most processors have a bit depth of 64 bits and support from 4 gigabytes of RAM. This is one of the main characteristics of the processor, but far from the only one; when choosing, you need to be guided not only by it.
Dimension of the technological process
Specifies the dimensions of the transistor (gate thickness and length). The frequency of the crystal is determined by the switching frequency of the transistors (from closed to open). If the size is smaller, then the area is smaller, and hence the release of heat. The dimension of the technological process is measured in nanometers, the smaller this indicator, the better.
socket or connector
A socket or slot connector designed to integrate the CPU chip into the motherboard circuitry. Each socket allows only a certain type of processors, check the socket of the selected processor with your motherboard, it must match it.
Female connector type:
- PGA (Pin Grid array) - square or rectangular housing, pin contacts.
- BGA ( BallGrid Array) are solder balls.
- LGA (Land Grid Array) - pads.
Processor cache
Processor cache memory is one of the key characteristics that you should pay attention to when choosing. Cache memory is an array of ultra-fast volatile RAM. It is a buffer that stores data with which the processor interacts more often or interacted with during the last operations. This reduces the number of CPU calls to main memory. This type of memory is divided into three levels: L1, L2, L3. Each of the levels is different in terms of memory size and speed, and their acceleration tasks are different. L1 is the smallest and fastest, L3 is the largest and slowest. The more cache memory, the better. The processor accesses each level in turn (from smallest to largest) until it finds the necessary information in one of them. If nothing is found, accesses RAM.
Power consumption and heat dissipation
The higher the power consumption of the processor, the higher its heat dissipation. You need to take care of sufficient cooling.
TDP (Thermal Design Power) is a parameter that indicates the amount of heat that the cooling system is able to remove from a particular processor at the highest load. The value is in watts at the maximum temperature of the processor case.
ACP (Average CPU Power) - average processor power, showing the power consumption of the processor for specific tasks.
The value of the ACP parameter in practice is always lower than TDP.
Processor operating temperature
The highest temperature of the processor surface at which normal operation is possible (54-100 ° C). This indicator depends on the load on the processor and on the quality of heat dissipation. If the limit is exceeded, the computer will either restart or simply shut down. This is a very important characteristic of the processor, which directly affects the choice of the type of cooling.
Multiplier and system bus
These parameters are more necessary for those who plan to disperse their stone over time. Front Side Bus - motherboard system bus frequency. The processor clock speed is the product of the FSB frequency and the processor multiplier. Most processors have multiplier overclocking blocked, so you have to overclock on the bus. It is worth familiarizing yourself with this characteristic of the processor in more detail if after some period of time you want to increase the performance in a software way, without upgrading the hardware.
Integrated graphics core
The processor may be equipped with a graphics core responsible for displaying images on your monitor. In recent years, integrated graphics cards of this kind have been well optimized and run the main software package and most games at medium or minimum settings without any problems. To work in office applications and surf the Internet, watch Full HD videos and play games at medium settings, such a video card is quite enough, and this is Intel.
As for AMD processors, their integrated graphics processors are more powerful, which makes AMD processors a priority for gamers who want to save money on buying a discrete graphics card.
Number of cores (threads)
Multi-core is one of the most important characteristics of the central processor, but lately it has been given too much attention. Yes, now you need to try to find working single-core processors, they have successfully outlived their usefulness. Single-core processors were replaced with 2, 4 and 8 cores.
If 2 and 4-core processors came into use very quickly, processors with 8 cores are not so in demand yet. 2 cores are enough to use office applications and surf the Internet, 4 cores are required for CAD and graphic applications that simply need to work in multiple threads.
As for 8 cores, very few programs support so many threads, which means that such a processor is simply useless for most applications. Generally, the fewer threads, the higher the clock speed. It follows from this that if a program is adapted for 4 cores, and not for 8, it will run slower on an 8-core process. But this processor is an excellent solution for those who need to work simultaneously in a large number of demanding programs at the same time. By evenly distributing the load across the processor cores, you can enjoy excellent performance in all the necessary programs.
In most processors, the number of physical cores corresponds to the number of threads: 8 cores - 8 threads. But there are processors where, thanks to Hyper-Threading, for example, a 4-core processor can process 8 threads simultaneously.
Conclusion
From the article, you learned about the existing characteristics of central processors, now you are aware of what you need to pay attention to when choosing. If the information in the article is no longer relevant, please let us know in the comments, then we will update or supplement the information in the article.
Each user of computer technology often asked this question, especially when deciding to purchase new equipment. But in order to answer the question - the processor clock frequency, what does it affect, you must first understand what it is?
IMPACT OF CPU CLOCK RATE ON PERFORMANCE?
This indicator indicates the number of calculations performed by the processor in one second. And of course, the higher the frequency, the more operations per unit time the processor can perform. For modern devices, this figure is in the range from 1 to 4 GHz. It is determined by multiplying the base or external frequency by a certain factor. You can increase the frequency of the processor by "overclocking" it. World leaders in the production of these devices, some of their products focus on their possible overclocking.
When choosing such a device, an important performance indicator is not only its frequency. This is also affected by the speed of the processor.
Currently, there are practically no such devices that have only one core. Multi-core processors have completely ousted their single-core predecessors from the market.
About nuclearity and clock speed
Let's start with the fact that the statement that the processor has a frequency equal to the total sum of this indicator of each of the cores is not true. But why is a multi-core processor better and more efficient? Because each of the cores produces its own part of the total work, if it allows, processing the program by the processor. Thus, coreness significantly increases the performance of the system, if the information being processed can be divided into parts. But if this is not possible, only one processor core is working. At the same time, its overall performance is equal to the clock frequency of this core.
In general, if you have to work with graphics, static images, video, music, a multi-core processor is just what you need. But if you are a gamer, then in this case it is better to take a not very multi-core processor, because programmers may not provide for the division of software processes into parts. Therefore, for games, a more powerful processor is better suited.
About processor architecture
In addition, system performance also depends on the processor architecture. Naturally, the shorter the signal path from the point of origin to the point of destination, the faster the processing of information. For this reason, Intel processors perform better than AMD processors at the same clock speed.
Results
Thus, the clock frequency of the processor is its strength or power. It affects system performance. But at the same time, it is necessary not to forget that this parameter, in addition to power, depends on the number of cores and on the architecture of this device. Is it necessary to choose a processor taking into account what it will need to work with in the future? For games, it is better to take a more powerful processor, for everything else, a multi-core processor with a not very high clock speed is suitable.
Schematic diagram of the processor
control block- controls the operation of all processor units.
Arithmetic Logic Block- performs arithmetic and logical calculations.
Registers- block for storing data and intermediate results of calculations - internal RAM of the processor.
Decoding block- Converts data to binary system.
Prefetch block- receives a command from the device (keyboard, etc.) and requests instructions from the system memory.
Cache (or just cache) Level 1- stores frequently used instructions and data.
Level 2 cache- stores frequently used data.
Bus block- serves for input and output of information.
This scheme corresponds to the P6 architecture processors. This architecture was used to create processors from Pentium Pro to Pentium III. Pentium 4 processors are based on the new Intel® NetBurst architecture. In Pentium 4 processors, the L1 cache is divided into two parts - the data cache and the instruction cache.
Processor Specifications
The main characteristics of the processor are its clock frequency, bit depth and cache sizes of the 1st and 2nd levels.
Frequency is the number of oscillations per second. The clock frequency is the number of cycles per second. As applied to the processor:
Clock frequency is the number of operations that the processor can perform per second.
Those. the more operations per second a processor can perform, the faster it works. For example, a processor with a clock frequency of 40 MHz performs 40 million operations per second, with a frequency of 300 Mg - 300 million operations per second, with a frequency of 1 GHz - 1 billion operations per second.
By 2003, the clock frequency of processors reached 3 GHz.
There are two types of clock frequency - internal and external.
Internal clock frequency- this is the clock frequency at which work occurs inside the processor.
External clock or system bus frequency- this is the clock frequency at which data is exchanged between the processor and the computer's RAM.
Until 1992, the internal and external frequencies in processors coincided, and in 1992, Intel introduced the 80486DX2 processor, in which the internal and external frequencies were different - the internal frequency was 2 times higher than the external one. Two types of such processors were released with frequencies of 25/50 MHz and 33/66 MHz, then Intel released the 80486DX4 processor with triple the internal frequency (33/100 MHz).
Since that time, other manufacturing companies also began to produce processors with a double internal frequency, and IBM began to produce processors with a triple internal frequency (25/75 MHz, 33/100 MHz and 40/120 MHz).
In modern processors, for example, at a processor clock speed of 3 GHz, the system bus frequency is 800 MHz.
Processor bit depth determined by the capacity of its registers.
A computer can operate simultaneously with a limited set of information units. This set depends on the width of the internal registers. A digit is a storage unit of information. In one working cycle, the computer can process the amount of information that can fit in the registers. If the registers can store 8 units of information, then they are 8-bit, and the processor is 8-bit; if the registers are 16-bit, then the processor is 16-bit, and so on. The greater the bit depth of the processor, the more information it can process in one clock cycle, which means that the faster the processor works.
The Pentium 4 processor is 32-bit.
L1 and L2 cache size also affects processor performance.
In the Pentium III processor, the L1 cache is 16 KB, the L2 cache is 256 KB.
The Pentium 4 processors have 8 KB L1 cache for data, L1 instruction cache for 12,000 instructions in order of execution, and 512 KB L2 cache for instructions.
The processor is perhaps the most important component of the computer, because it is he who performs data processing. One of the most important characteristics is processor clock speed, which indicates the number of operations performed per second. However, such a definition for this parameter is rather poor in order to really understand its importance, so we will try to understand this issue in more detail.
The scientific definition of clock frequency is as follows: it is the number of operations that can be processed in one second and is measured in Hertz. But why, many will say, was this unit of measurement taken as the basis? In physics, this value displays the number of oscillations for a certain period of time, but here, in fact, everything is identical, only instead of oscillations, the number of operations is calculated, that is, a repeating value for a certain period of time.
If we talk specifically about processors, then not identical operations are performed in it, all kinds of parameters are calculated here. Well, respectively, their total number is the clock frequency.
Now the technical capabilities of the processor are at the highest level, so the Hertz value is not used, but here it is more acceptable to use megahertz or gigahertz. This step was taken in order not to add a huge number of zeros, thereby simplifying the human perception of the value (see table).
How is the clock frequency calculated?
In order to understand this, you need at least a little understanding of physics, but we will try to reveal the topic in a “human” language so that this question is understandable to any user. To understand this complex computational process, it is necessary to give a list of processor components that somehow affect this parameter:
- clock resonator - made of a quartz crystal, which is placed in a special protective shell;
- clock generator - a part that converts oscillations into impulses;
- data bus.
Due to the voltage applied to the clock resonator, it generates oscillations of the electric current.
Further, these oscillations are transmitted to the clock generator, which converts them into pulses. By means of the data bus, they are transmitted, and the result of the calculations is already fed directly to the user.
According to this technique, the calculation of the clock frequency is performed. And although everything seems to be extremely clear, many people misunderstand these calculations, and, accordingly, the interpretation is erroneous. First of all, this is due to the fact that the processor has more than one core, but several.
How is clock speed related to cores?
In fact, a multi-core processor is no different from a single-core processor, except that it contains not one clock resonator, but two or more. To work together, they are connected by an additional data bus.
And that's where people get confused: the clock speeds of multiple cores don't add up. It's just that when processing data, the load is redistributed to each of the cores, but this does not mean at all that this will be done strictly proportionally, and the processing speed does not increase from this. For example, there are some games in which developers do not allow the possibility of redistributing the load among the cores at all and the toy works on only one.
For example, consider the case of four pedestrians. They walk as far as possible, next to each other, and one of them carries a heavy burden. If he starts to get tired, the other can take this load so as not to lose speed, but at the same time they will not generally go faster and reach the end point earlier, because everyone is already moving at the limit of their capabilities.
By the way, at , the number of cores certainly plays a role. Yes, and manufacturers began to install more and more of them, but it should be remembered that the data bus can simply not cope and performance can not only increase, but also be significantly inferior to processors with fewer cores. For example, at the moment, Intel is releasing I7 processors, which can accommodate only two cores, while it will process data much faster than even eight cores (as a rule, this company did not release models with such a number of cores, AMD processors really there are also ten nuclear). Developers are simply focusing not only on increasing the clock frequency, but also on the processor architecture as a whole. This may concern how to increase the data bus between the clock resonators, and other aspects.
Different names for the same parameter
Hello dear readers. In the previous article, I talked about where the most basic is described. In this post I will talk about such a characteristic as the base frequency of the processor, which you should also know about, thereby adding information that may be useful to you when choosing.
Explanation and example of his work
Technically, it sounds like this: The base or nominal frequency (this is the same thing) is the indicator at which the computer microprocessor performs the minimum number of cycles.
This means that when the computer is performing a certain number of tasks and does not need to use all its power to complete them, it runs at nominal cycles. Example tasks: maintaining the operating system, viewing photos, listening to music, editing text.
What is measured?
This characteristic is measured in megahertz (1200 MHz) or gigahertz (1.2 GHz). This option is present in both Intel and AMD manufacturers. It can also be found in the product description or in the characteristics.
On many other sites in the description you can find the term "working or permanent" - this is the same thing. Here are all the different names that are on the sites: 
If everything is clear how it works, then you can check yourself. Imagine that you have a CPU with a base frequency of 2 Ghz. In order to watch a video or listen to music, the microprocessor needs to use, for example, 2400 Mhz of its power, and to view photos it will need 1.7 GHz. A riddle question, what frequency will the stone use to view the photo?
You can leave your answer in the comments if you like. Let's do this, after 15 comments left, I'll write the correct answer, agreed? I think yes". Let's go further.
What is the effect of this indicator?
- On energy consumption
- For the released temperature
In modern CPUs, power consumption is getting smaller and smaller in small steps, due to new technical processes, threads, and much more. Despite this, you need to understand that the higher the performance, the more energy is needed, and where there is high power consumption, there is always a high temperature released.
In the next article I will tell you about what is still more important. Interesting information, please read.
- Pentium G4600– constant 3.6 GHz
- Core i3 8100– working 3.6 Ghz
- Pentium Gold G5400– nominal 3700 MHz
And yes, and for those who are interested - in this online store Now there is free shipping. Well, this is it, a small digression.
That's all for me. Comment, express your thoughts, write and. The choice is yours. Thank you for your attention. Bye Bye.
