ARCHIVED: What is a computer's clock speed?

Computers use an internal clock to synchronize all of their calculations. The clock ensures that the various circuits inside a computer work together at the same time.

Clock speed is measured by how many ticks per second the clock makes. The unit of measurement called a hertz (Hz), which is technically one cycle per second, is used to measure clock speed. In the case of computer clock speed, one hertz equals one tick per second. The clock speed of computers is usually measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). One megahertz equals one million ticks per second, and one gigahertz equals one billion ticks per second.

You can use clock speed as a rough measurement of how fast a computer is. A 2.0GHz computer will run faster than a 1.4GHz computer with the same processor and the same amount of memory. However, you cannot use clock speed to compare computers with different types of processors or computers with different amounts of memory.