# Testing your computer's processor speed **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 18, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640 "2005-02-18T02:28:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/1 "2005-02-18T02:28:22Z")
Is there a reliable way to test your computer processor’s clock speed? I have Dell Dimension 8300 with the P4 chip. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/2 "2005-02-18T02:37:14Z")
If by “check” you mean “find out what it is”, just right-click on My Computer and go to Properties, it shows it right there. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/3 "2005-02-18T02:39:34Z")
I mean check as in it says 3.2Ghz and how can I prove that. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/4 "2005-02-18T02:42:07Z")
[Fresh Diagnose](http://www.download.com/Fresh-Diagnose/3000-2086_4-10335349.html?tag=lst-0-1) is a great benchmarking utlity (FREE) that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about all of your system components. It will measure your CPU actual operating speed if that is what you want to know. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/5 "2005-02-18T02:50:05Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > [Fresh Diagnose](http://www.download.com/Fresh-Diagnose/3000-2086_4-10335349.html?tag=lst-0-1) is a great benchmarking utlity (FREE) that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about all of your system components. It will measure your CPU actual operating speed if that is what you want to know. Yep, that’s what I’m looking for. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/6 "2005-02-18T02:55:02Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > I mean check as in it says 3.2Ghz and how can I prove that. You think the CPU is providing false info to Windows? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/7 "2005-02-18T03:42:07Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > You think the CPU is providing false info to Windows? Processors don’t always benchmark the way that they report. For instance, you can overclock or underclock using jumpers on the motherboard or just the BIOS. That can alter the actual clock speed. It certainly doesn’t hurt to check. I built my computer a few months ago. I thought that it seemed a little slow so I benchmarked it and I had accidentally underclocked the CPU. Once that was OK, it still seemed slow so I benchmarked the hard drive and found that its data transfer rate was 1/5 of what it should have been. Once that was fixed, everything worked great. It is very difficult to analyze that stuff in Windows so a good benchmarking utility like Fresh Diagnose or others can be invaluable. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/8 "2005-02-18T04:16:12Z")
If **Mr. Blue Sky** had built his own PC he’d know how to find a benchmark utility. So I suspect it’s not over- or under-clocked. My guess is he’s bought one off the shelf and thinks it is too slow. I’m suggesting, in my elliptical way, that he needs to look elsewhere than the CPU speed - like yours, it’s probably HD speed. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/9 "2005-02-18T04:52:12Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > If **Mr. Blue Sky** had built his own PC he’d know how to find a benchmark utility. So I suspect it’s not over- or under-clocked. > > My guess is he’s bought one off the shelf and thinks it is too slow. I’m suggesting, in my elliptical way, that he needs to look elsewhere than the CPU speed - like yours, it’s probably HD speed. You are probably right but there is only one way to know for sure. That utility and similar ones can benchmark every component in the whole system in a few minutes to let you know where the problem is. That is a pretty fast processor so it shouldn’t seem slow. It could just end up being a virus or spyware is the hardware checks out OK. ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/10 "2005-02-18T06:19:01Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > [Fresh Diagnose](http://www.download.com/Fresh-Diagnose/3000-2086_4-10335349.html?tag=lst-0-1) is a great benchmarking utlity (FREE) that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about all of your system components. It will measure your CPU actual operating speed if that is what you want to know. This is an awesome utility, **Shag** , thanks for pointing it out! A more user friendly (and faster) alternative is [BGinfo from Sysinternals](http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/bginfo.shtml), which is what I usually recommend for questions like this. Five minutes with FreshDiagnose and I was a convert, tho. Interesting - both the Sysinternals tool and Freshdiagnose don’t report my AMD proc as being an AMD proc, but rather as the Intel proc it benchmarks against. Why do you suppose that is? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/11 "2005-02-18T12:12:12Z")
The computer is by no means slow, I’m just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-your-computers-processor-speed/290640/12 "2005-02-18T16:08:40Z")
Here’s another [CPU-Z](http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php) that tells a lot about your system.