So lets say your processor has four cores, and a boost clock of 3.6Ghz. The boost clock is what speed your CPU is going to run at when under load, and even then not all your processor cores will run at this speed. It could also run even lower than the base clock at time, when it is completely idle. Such as light web browsing or going through folders. The Base clock is speed your laptop processor will run at under most conditions. Base Clock vs Boost ClockĬPU’s often come with two rated clock speeds on there boxes or advertisement blurb. So pretty much whatever laptop you have, this guide should work for it. We’ve put together detailed guides on how to check clock speeds on both MacOS and Windows. At idle you might see it running at like 2Ghz to save both power and battery.

A processor will only hit high clock speeds when under load. If that were the case a CPU would have a much shorter lifespan than it does currently. One more thing to note is that just because the advertisement said that your laptop processor can run at 4Ghz doesn’t mean it will be running at that speed all the time. Perhaps you feel the laptop has been running slower than usual and you want to check if the processors speed has anything to do with it. There could be tirade of reasons of why you would want to check the processor speed on your laptop. Generally the faster the clock speed, the faster the processor will perform. The clock speed of a CPU is the number of cycles per second at which it operates and is able to process information. It could be anything from as low as 1.8Ghz to over 5Ghz on some gaming processors. You’ve probably often seen CPU’s being marketed by their processor speed, or as it is more commonly known their clock speeds.

Before we dive into the nitty gritty stuff lets define exactly what “Processor Speed” is.

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