Processor combinations
bryantm3 said:
[FONT=LucidaMAC, Lucida Grande]why do they say dual 2.5 Ghz processor when they could say somthing like 'with the power of a 5 GHz processor'.
are these not the same thing?[/FONT]
I do believe that I've seen this in at least one thread here, but I don't recall when or where it was. My understanding is that my original dual processor G5, for instance, has a combined
maximum processor output of 4 GHz (2 GHz per processor), but really operates far closer to 2.4 GHz or so, with each processor saving some energy and running at, say, 1.2 GHz. If a processor-intensive task comes up—a 3D game, advanced mathematical computation (although I advise everyone who can to do Folding, as it doesn't use very many resources at all), DVD encoding, and the like—the processors will ramp up somewhat and, if enough power is needed, one may hear some of the internal fans start to spin much more quickly, loudly, and annoyingly.
In short, if every processor were operating at full capacity all of the time, the computer would be both noisier and hotter. As the actual frequency at which the processors typically operate tends to vary a bit, it's hard to pinpoint another acceptable measure of the computer's operating speed.
I consider it somewhat analogous to a car's engine. One may hear, for instance, '700 horsepower,' but that's simply a maximum output that the engine can produce when operating at peak efficiency in the perfect ambient conditions (temperature, altitude) and on the purest gasoline.