Does cpu clock affect gaming, or more cores?

Jyklio

Commendable
Jan 14, 2017
2
0
1,510
I currently have an fx 4300 quad core, clocked at 3.8 GHz. I want to buy a ryzen 7 1700, but it says it is clocked at 3 GHz with 3.7 turbo. Would this effectively be a downgrade, despite it having more cores? Would I achieve higher frames than a 4 core cpu with a higher core clock?
 
Solution
(not real numbers, but this is the concept)

For a single clock cycle, CPU A can do 3 instructions.
For a single clock cycle, CPU B can do 18 instructions.

CPU A has a clock speed of 3.8
CPU B has a clock speed of 3.0.

Which is the better processor?
------------------------
Or, for actual processors:
Pentium 4 @ 3.4GHz. Released in 2005
http://ark.intel.com/products/27482/Intel-Pentium-4-Processor-650-supporting-HT-Technology-2M-Cache-3_40-GHz-800-MHz-FSB
i5-4590 @ 3.3GHz. Released in 2014
http://ark.intel.com/products/80815/Intel-Core-i5-4590-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_70-GHz

Which is better....'faster'?
---------------------------

"clock speed" is but one small identifier.
It would still be an upgrade. What matters more is the IPC (Instructions Per Cycle), which Ryzen has at least 52% more than previous AMD processors. So if they were the same clock rate with the same number of cores and threads, the Ryzen would still be 52% faster.

Some games prefer higher single-core speed while other games prefer more cores. Either way the Ryzen 7 1700 will be faster than your FX-4300 in every respect.

Not only does the Ryzen 7 1700 have 8 cores, it has 2 processing threads per core (simultaneous multithreading). So it has 16 processing threads compared to your FX-4300's 4 processing threads.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
(not real numbers, but this is the concept)

For a single clock cycle, CPU A can do 3 instructions.
For a single clock cycle, CPU B can do 18 instructions.

CPU A has a clock speed of 3.8
CPU B has a clock speed of 3.0.

Which is the better processor?
------------------------
Or, for actual processors:
Pentium 4 @ 3.4GHz. Released in 2005
http://ark.intel.com/products/27482/Intel-Pentium-4-Processor-650-supporting-HT-Technology-2M-Cache-3_40-GHz-800-MHz-FSB
i5-4590 @ 3.3GHz. Released in 2014
http://ark.intel.com/products/80815/Intel-Core-i5-4590-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_70-GHz

Which is better....'faster'?
---------------------------

"clock speed" is but one small identifier.
 
Solution