Can someone explain the clockspeed of a Core 2 Duo for me?
Answers:
As others have said, it is the better architecture that allows it to be faster even at a lower clock speed. But let me go ahead and explain a little bit why this is true.
While clock speed is the most widely known measure of a processors performance, it is in reality only one half of the equation, the other half being Instructions Per Cycle (IPC). Here is how the two combine together. Clockspeed tells you how many clock cycles there are per a given amount of time. 2Ghz means 2 billion clock cycles per second, 1.73Ghz means 1.73 billion clock cycles per second, etc. IPC is how many instructions are actually done on each of those clock cycles. The new Core 2 Duos have much higher IPC than the Pentium 4s, meaning they are more powerful. You won't ever see actually IPC numbers listed for a processor, but think of it this way, if a P4 running at 3Ghz only does 2 instructions per cycle, but a Core 2 Duo running at 2Ghz does 5, which does more work in a given amount of time. Doing the math would tell you the Core 2 wins 10 billion to 6 billion. This incidentally is also the same reason AMD processors were outperforming Intel processors for years even though they had much lower clockspeeds. AMD focused on IPC, while Intel focused on clockspeed, but now since we have hit a wall on clockspeeds at around 4Ghz, Intel has started to focus more on IPC as well.
with the duo core processor you have two of them so you'd have 1.73 Ghzx2 running at the same time
No, when you are running a Core 2 duo is does not multiply the 1.73ghz by 2. The way the Core 2 Duo is faster is the way the processor is made. Its architecture is completely recompiled from the Pentium 4. It is true you have 2 cores, but they do not multiply. Each core runs at 1.73ghz. The big difference of these processors, if the architecture.
No, the GHz rating isn't as important anymore. The Core 2 Duo is a completely redesigned processor. Intel actually kept improving the old Pentium III in the mobile CPU market, which eventually became the Centrino (Pentium M). The Pentium M running at 1.6GHz was easily faster than the average Pentium 4 2.2GHz, not to mention more energy efficient.
So Intel expanded on the idea of using the Pentium M in desktops. The first Core Duo was actually two Pentium M cores. The newer Core 2 Duo made some heavy modifications to the Pentium M adding some of the Pentium 4's good side from its architecture. The end result was the Core 2 Duo - which dominates the market today.
You can find more about the history and transformation on Wikipedia and other websites like TomsHardware.com
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