What is the difference between 2.4mhz AND 1333mhz?

[willyboy1111]

what does 2.4mhz mean and what is the difference between 1333mhz. I thought that 2.4 would be the fastest processor. When I looked for a computer I always looked at the 2.o 2.2 or 2.1 mhz processor speed. What is 1333mhz?

 

[fb39ca4]

2.4mhz means 2.4 million cycles per second. 1333mhz means 1333 million cycles per second = 1.333 billioncycles per second, which is a lot faster. However, you must have had a misunderstanding, as processor speeds are measured in ghz, which is billions of cycles per second. 2.4 ghz would be the fastest out of the speeds you mentioned. The 1333 mhz is probably referring to RAM speed, and is a good speed nowadays. So you would be buying a computer that has a 2.4 ghz processor and 1333 mhz RAM.

 

[GhislainG]

What are you referring to? 1333 MHz should be DDR3 memory, but 2.4 MHz processors are at least 30 years old and 2.4 Ghz processors are not the fastest.

 

[farrengottu]

im assuming you misread the 2.4 mhz and it really means 2.4GHz. otherwise your computer is 30-40 years old and wont have 1333mhz anything.
but i digress.
hertz or the "Hz" in MHz is how many cycles per second. in computing a cycle is going from having a charge to not having a charge or vise versa.
so with kilo meaning 1000, at 1 Kilohertz (1KHz) the device goes through 1000 cycles per second.
now megahertz (MHz) is million hertz and gigahertz (GHz) is billion hertz.
your average stock destop computer now a days has a processor running between 2GHz and 4GHz. people who overclock get higher speeds the record right now is at 8GHz and some change. but that took some crazy cooling to stop it from burning up.

the 1333MHz you saw is most likely your ram, as 1066,1333,1600,1866 are the most common speeds of ram being sold today. RAM stands for Random access memory. its where your programs are stored temporarily while your running them. we do this because RAM is much faster than your Hard drive. making your program more responsive.
this is why some people suggest getting more ram to speed up your computer. for most people 4 Gigabytes (4GB) is enough. but 8GB is so cheap i recommend that now, as its hard to use up 8GB.
for average computing, ram speeds are not that important. you wont be able to sit down at a computer and just from running programs be able to say if its fast ram or not.

 

[willyboy1111]

Best answer selected by willyboy1111.

 

[willyboy1111]

Thanks, and yes I meant GHz, not MHz. Great explanation now I understand what its all about. This will make it easier to purchase a laptop. Bill