What affects the speed of a computer more: Cores or CPU Speed?

Processing speed also includes RAM which affects the speed when doing videos or other heavy processing items.
Daily activities ( internet browsing or word processing ) don’t need speed. Number of cores allows more items or calculations to be processed at the same time. The speed in gigahertz is number of items transaction per second, may be different but not significant in performance for daily activities.

as with everything, it depends on what you want to do and if the programs you use can use multiple cores.
If you want to do video/3d rendering, you will want more cores (and RAM).
Some computer games also benefit from multiple cores.
However many games and programs can not use more than one core, so in those cases, clock speed is more important.

But, in everyday use, like office stuff, watching movies, playing music, or watching porn on the internet, it is pretty much irrelevant which you choose.

One thing to add that will make your decision even more confusing, ghz are not a comparable measurement across multiple types of processors. Figuratively speaking, There are 2 core 1.2ghz processors that will run circles around 8 core 3.7ghz processors, simply because they are different processors.

I think the only time you should compare ghz/cores is when they are in reference to the same processor type.

If the two processors you are looking at are different manufacture/models, then the only true way to compare real world speed is by looking at benchmarks of the two.

Well, both…um yes…and…no. The number of cores increases the amount of parallel processing. The biggest jump comes from simply adding one core. As you add cores you get smaller and smaller improvements. Right now the sweet spot is around 4. You also need software that can take advantage of the hardware. As you increase clock speed you hit a power barrier because if the I^2R losses. At some point it’s just not practical to increase clock speed any further because of the power consumption. The pipeline architecture matters also but then so does buss speed and the amount caching. Other tasks can be greatly improved by adding peripherals such as video cards. The amount, type and speed of your ram matters too…. So, you will need to look at benchmarks which is a set of calculations and tasks that each system is tested with because there is no straight answer to this question. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

I don’t game and I don’t do much video work. I have a 3.4GHz i5 and I barely ever come close to maxing out my CPU. In fact, I upgraded from a lowly i3 and noticed no difference.

Pretty much any computer sold today is great for Facebook and Word.

For normal people the CPU isn’t the bottleneck anymore. If you want a faster computer get a SSD (mind-blowing) and more RAM. A SSD is is the biggest leap in computing in the last few years.

@johnpowell Yeah, that’s true it’s usually the hard drive that is the largest bottle neck. For 90% of computer users just about any mid-range machine will do just fine and it would be silly to spend piles of cash on the latest and greatest. I still have an 8 year old desktop and I see no reason to upgrade. I use my i5 dual core laptop mostly and it’s not speed that is most important it’s battery life. Modern processors will usually clock down to reduce power and increase battery life. It’s all just one large trade-off.

@johnpowell and @ARE_you_kidding_me Definitely good points. I similarly have a very functional 8 year old desktop. My problem seems to be from years of use that running multiple processes (Like netflix + a few websites + a word processing program like Scrivener) seems to slow down the entire thing. Just really want to be able to do those sort of multiple actions at once.

If it was a low end machine 8 years ago when you got it it’s probably time for a new one. If you have never cleaned up all of the bloatware or reloaded the O.S. then you may try that first.

@ARE_you_kidding_me It actually was the opposite. Custom made (with the help of a friend) with high end gear. No bloatware. I recently wiped it and it runs better, but my worry is my next machine may suffer a similar fate of just slowing down over the years. I guess I’m wondering how to avoid the reload for as long as possible. Or should I just expect it with age.

it depends on what you want to do and if the programs you use can use multiple cores.

@sushilovinfun If you were running vista or an older version of windows simply loading win7 can make a big difference. Much less overhead when you look at all the processes running in the background. I can’t speak for 8 though but I’d guess it’s comparable. Loading it on a fast new drive can be a big difference too. What you have now is probably close to what is offered on the low end new these days. Since it was a build easiest thing to do may be to get a new cpu,board,ram and drive and re-use the case and whatnot. That’s what I usually do.