CPU/System Performance Flashcards
What are the key pieces of hardware that effect the performance of a computer system?
The cpu
RAM
GPU
What 3 factors effect the speed of the GPU?
The number of cores it has
Cache size
And clock speed
What is clock speed in a CPU?
It is the number of instructions that a CPU can complete per second per single core, and is measure in Hz.
The higher the clock speed the faster the CPU as the greater the amount of instructions it can carry out
Can overclock the cpu to boost the clock speed so it can work faster, but is dangerous as it can overheat or cause permanent damage to the system
How does the number of cores affect the speed of a CPU?
Each core in a CPU processes data independently to the rest
The more cores the more instructions the CPU can carry out at once, so the faster it can process a batch of data
Most modern pcs have 4 or more cores
How does the cache size affect the speed of the processor
The larger the cache size the more instructions that are often used by the cpu are stored meaning it can execute instructions faster
How can more RAM improve a systems performance?
It allows less data to be stored as virtual memory which is slow, and more to be stored on the ram which is a lot faster
The more ram the more applications or more memory intensive applications it can smoothly run making it faster overall
It’s also a much easier upgrade, just a matter of adding more of it
If the computer has plenty of ram to run a system smoothly adding more will have no difference
Who does a graphics card boost system performance?
GPUs are specialised circuits for handling graphics and image processing. They take a load off of the CPU freeing its resources so it can do other things
All computers have basic GPUs integrated into the motherboard for better graphics performance a dedicated GPU is often used
Adding a high end graphics card usually greatly improves graphics intensive applications performance, like games and design software
