Quad CPU?

[Justice101]

I'm kinda a newbie to CPU stuff and I've been wondering, if you have a quad core CPU running at 2.8 GHz, does that mean that all 4 cores are running at that speed or all 4 cores combined equal this speed. I'm guessing not because atm i am on a computer with a single core running at 3.0 GHz.
thanks for any answers

 

[red1776]

Hi Justice,
It means that each individual core is running at 2.8Ghz

 

[Justice101]

Ok thanks, thats what i thought

 

[IvanAwfulitch]

Just in case you need some more interesting info, here's a piece to chew on.

A lot of people who are new to processors automatically assume that 4 processors running at some speed....say...2.5...means that their total power is 2.5 + 2.5 + 2.5 + 2.5 for a total of 10 gigaHertz. This is in fact totally false, if you couldn't tell by my example. Each individual core may be running at 2.5ghz, but having 4 of them simply means that the work is divided amongst those 4 cores. Having less stuff to process makes things quicker and more efficient.