GHz explanation pls...

[jonas_kyogre]

so i have an intel core i5 6400 clocked @ 2.70 Ghz and i just started to looking up my performance and noticed its always clocked at 3.20 Ghz... when i googled it, it says its maxing out it's capacity.... so i just want to ask for clarification from the pros here... is it good that my cpu is maxing out even if its just simple everyday task like browsing? should i consider upgrading my heatsink? can you suggest a fairly $10-25 heatsink that can optimize my cpu? THANK YOU

my MoBo is: GIGABYTE GA-H110M-DS2
i got 16 Gb of RAM:
1 is Avexir the other is Gskill

 

[SkyNetRising]

And where exactly do you check this cpu frequency?
Can you show any screenshots?

 

[R_1]

hz = cycles per second
giga = billions
gigahertz means billion cycles per second.
the CPU will vary the clock speed according to the load. if you have a single thread that needs more power the CPU will throttle one or two CPU's the lower power means lower heat, the CPU will then turn up the speed and power on the other two/one for a brief period, this is called the turbo speed, or boost speed.

the dynamic clock speed is a normal feature of the CPU
all is well

 

[J_E_D_70]

Not necessarily “maxing out”, just turbo boosting because two cores are doing a lot of work - your max speed is 3.3ghz with one core under load:
https://ark.intel.com/products/88185/Intel-Core-i5-6400-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

Doubt you have a temperature problem if you’re not experiencing sluggishness or crashes.

To see the actual load, Ctrl+Alt+Del and enter task manager. Select the performance tab, right-click the graph, and select logical cores. You should now see four graphs. Maximize the window.

Now surf for a few minutes then tab to the performance monitor. If none of your cores is pegged at 100% non-stop, then no problems.

If any of them are, it could be something like a background virus/malware scan or Windows update happening.

Can check windows power settings as well. Should be on balanced - if set to max or performance (forgot the name) it won’t let your cpu downclock at idle or low load.

 

[dontlistentome]

The stock heatsink is fine. The CPU has a base clock and a turbo clock. So it's behaving normally.

Some 'every day' tasks can be temporarily demanding, thus triggering the turbo clock. Webpages can be loaded with Javascript and other things that put a load on the CPU. As long as performance is as it should be you have nothing to worry about. There are any number of benchmarking tools that'll allow you to test your CPU. Cinebench is one you could try.