When reviewing software requirements, should we use the burst speed or normal clock speed

Question

There is a piece of software I'm looking at, which has a minimum requirement of 1.6ghz (Visual Studio 2012)

I'm looking at a new computer, and saw the CPU is described as

1.46 Ghz / 2.39 Ghz with Burst

So, the clock speed is under the recommended speed, but the burst covers it.

I know that software typically doesn't require all that processing power all the time (obviously depending on the software) and as such, how would I know if the burst speed will ensure the software will run without buying it and testing it!

Answer 1

It depends on a lot of things, like you yourself said, the software's processor use.

The main thing is, that burst speed aka turbo mode is not made to run indefinitely, that being said desktops are usually more forgiving on this than laptops are and can run a bit longer at full turbo mode, due to better heat dispersion.

So as a rule of thumb, go for the non turbo as a recommended. But as some programs aren't CPU intensive, this might still not be an issue. The big problem with your choice of program though, is that it is VERY heavy on the CPU while compiling, so the bigger the program you are making, the longer it runs, the bigger the chance of running out of power.

As a whole though, measuring program requirements in Ghz is not advisable, as a 1.6GHz processor can score 10k in CPU mark, where another 1.6GHz processor can score 5k, even though they are both 1.6GHz.

So my actual suggestion is just test it out and see how it runs.