# CPU Frequency & Clock Speed!?



## Lonely_Rider

In CPUs, does Clock Speed mean the same as Frequency, if not what's the difference?


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## Seth

The clock speed is the actually operating speed which is determined by the frequency and a few other factors...


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## apj101

Lonely_Rider said:
			
		

> In CPUs, does Clock Speed mean the same as Frequency, if not what's the difference?


there are a few different clock speeds, and each mean a slightly different thing whether you are talking about core clock, or net clock....
have a read of 
http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=13239


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## WeatherMan

Theres the FSB (Front Side Bus) Which is the frequency in the bios that the ram and CPU run at (unless you have a divider) and then theres the multiplyer which is the number that gets multiplied by the FSB speed.

so say your FSB is 200Mhz and your multiplyer is 11
its FSB x Multiplier = Clock Speed
so
200 x 11 = 2200
so the clock speed is 2200Mhz


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## fade2green514

yes, clock speed and frequency are ultimately the same thing.
i believe fsb stands for front side bus, and mine runs in two channels of 1000mhz. i believe what hes referring to is the LDT clock speed, or the base clock of the computer which every parts bases its clock speed on (not including things such as pci-locks and sata locks).
200mhz fsb + 11 cpu multiplier = 2200mhz cpu frequency.
200mhz fsb + 166mhz memory divider (which is ultimately 166/200, or .83 multiplier) = 166mhz memory speed... or ddr333 speed instead of ddr400....
but lets say you raise LDT speed to 240mhz, what does that do? well... that would raise memory to 240mhz or ddr480... if your ram can't handle those speed then you would want to set a memory divider of 166mhz (240*.83) ultimately making the memory speed ddr400 again. now, if you set that LDT speed and kept your cpu multiplier at 11, that'd be 11*240 which = 2640mhz or 2.64ghz... if you cpu cant handle that speed you may want to set a cpu multiplier of 10, making it 10*240 = 2.4ghz instead.

i know what you're thinking... just raise cpu multiplier to 12 right? nope. cpu companies like AMD and Intel figured this out and they thought that made it too easy to o/c so they LOCKED upward multipliers... it would also be an easy way for retailers to sell off an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 3500+ speeds, so they get more money. AMD did unlock upward multipliers on their FX series of chips, since retailers aren't willing to clock them higher because those chips are extremely fast and therefore extremely hot.

wow i could talk on and on couldnt i?
read that and it'll teach you alot.. or just read cpu 101 or overclocking 101


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