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Most software provide a minimum and/or recommended spec of hardware in order to the software. Within this list, we're usually informed of a clock speed for the CPU.
For example, Visual Studio has, as part of it's spec
1.6 GHz or faster processor
MS Office
1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster x86- or x64-bit processor with SSE2 instruction set
QuarkXpress
CPU with two cores
Adobe Photoshop
Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor (2 GHz or faster)
So, it means that if I run Visual Studio, which requires a 1.6Ghz processor with a 0.8Ghz processer (half the clock speed) then I'm likely to experience issues. However, the M-5Y10C is clocked at 0.8Ghz but according to CPU Benchmark's passmark, it scores 2590 where as something like Intel Atom 230 @ 1.60GHz scores only 230! Does this really mean that out of the 2 that only the Atom is 'guaranteed' to work?
Now, with Adobe Photoshop, it provides the model's makes so we can at least look them up and see the benchmark and get some idea of performance and make a decision based upon that.
I get the impression that the clock speed is fairly meaningless but, they still show the clock speed as a min spec meaning there must be something valid about it.
When companies show X ghz, or even CPU with two cores
(so no Ghz are displayed), how can we be sure the CPU we choose will suffice?
Either your overthinking it or they are underthinking it. Most people look at the minimum specs and make an assumption , and just know if thier smaller or mobile device will survive, or be having a terrible time running it or not. no other information is needed. Indeed the actual processing (and any GPU) capabilities are more important than the clock numbers, but most people realise this. – Psycogeek – 2015-04-29T07:59:09.367
@Psycogeek, I agreed to a point but I think your comment is saying "you (anyone) don't know if the hardware will suffice based upon the clockspeed alone". I also think you comment "most people realise this" may not be correct. People like yourselves yes, but us normal folk (he he) often don't! I didn't and I've been a programmer for the last 10 years so feel I am fairly IT literate – MyDaftQuestions – 2015-04-29T08:02:44.110
I just do not desire to see a 20 page list or a 3 page analisis when minimum requirements are listed. They are loose, fast , guesstimates of about what you need to use the program, and a good excuse for all the times someone says it runs poorly. Anything else we would hope that persons buying a weak (efficient) computer had read at least the first review or user info about what they were buying. – Psycogeek – 2015-04-29T08:09:32.657