Practically speaking, what does processor speed affect?

[Yougotcarved]

So I've been deciding which iMac to get and it brought me to a question about the processors the iMacs use. Now what would be the practical benefit of paying for a faster one?

From what I understand processors affect operations per second, but from what I understand this is pretty much never a bottleneck in anything other than the most intensive mathematical tasks?

So going from a base to a higher end model would make little to no difference to most users? Is that fair to say or is it worth chipping up a few hundred for a better processor

 

[GGJstudios]

So I've been deciding which iMac to get and it brought me to a question about the processors the iMacs use. Now what would be the practical benefit of paying for a faster one?

From what I understand processors affect operations per second, but from what I understand this is pretty much never a bottleneck in anything other than the most intensive mathematical tasks?

So going from a base to a higher end model would make little to no difference to most users? Is that fair to say or is it worth chipping up a few hundred for a better processor

Most average users never push their CPU to the limits and wouldn't notice any substantial or measurable difference in performance between the available processors. RAM and drive speed are more impactful on real-world performance than CPU speed, for most users. It's pretty much a case of "if you have to ask, you don't need the faster CPU", as those who do will already know why.