What is GHz (Gigahertz) and MHz (Megahertz) in Computer?

The oscillating circuit offers a pretty small amount of electric current to the Quartz unit every second which is always measured in kHz, MHz, or GHz. Here, “k” stands for ‘kilo’ and “Hz” stands for ‘Hertz’, “M” in MHz is the abbreviation for “Mega” and “G” for ‘Giga’. 

What is GHz (Gigahertz)? 

The term GHz is the abbreviation for the word Gigahertz. It is the measurement unit for AC Current or alternating current and EM or electromagnetic frequency which is exactly up to 1-billion Hz or Hertz. 

Whilst talking in terms of a computer’s microprocessor or its CPU, the term GHz is taken or considered as the cyclic frequency of time, which is also called clock frequency, clock rate or clock speed, etc which all means the same. 

One of the maxima often ticket-touted and acclaimed estimates about the processor’s overall performance is a given chip’s pace in gigahertz or GHz. CPUs having better GHz rankings can, practically, do extra and are seen to offer much better performance in a given unit of time than other CPUs with lesser GHz rankings.

Nevertheless, the processor’s speed score is simply one of the many elements that affect how rapidly it absolutely procedures set of information and data. Provided, a few dedicated packages may be very reckoning and challenging, selecting the quickest PC is extra crucial than shopping for a system with the very best clock speed or clock rate. 

The earlier gen computers as well as the very first segment of the computer processors that was launched in the commercial market used to operate in kHz frequency. The Intel 4004 microprocessor used to work at 740 kHz frequency.

Since this technology was not up to the mark of practicality and used to consume a lot of power, the new processors were designed in a different manner to make them work in Megahertz (MHz) frequency. For instance, you can consider the example of Intel’s Pentium range of processors that were available at 60 MHz and 300 MHz options. 

As GHz stands for the number of cyclic revolutions done by the CPU in every second, so it must be clear that the more the GHz (Gigahertz) frequency of the CPU, the faster it will be in terms of usage and performance. 

The very first and one of its kind processor that used to run on 1 Gigahertz of frequency was launched in the commercial market at the starting of the year 2000, It was AMD and Intel who launched their first 1 GHz processor.

Well, now the figures have changed a lot and the processor are touching a base-clock-frequency of 3.8 GHz and even more with the support of those set of multiple cores 

However, the processors (CPUs) that you see today operate in the GHz frequency range. 

What is Clock Speed?

Clock speed is the measurement of the cyclic revolutions the CPU or processor does the number of times and to more simplify this it is the number of complete cycles a microprocessor does in every second of time. 

It is also termed as clock rate, clock frequency, etc. Clock speed is measured in GHz (Gigahertz). 1-GHz symbolizes 1-billion cycles per second. 

Every manufacturer of the computer gives a label on the CPU about the clock speed of the processor. 

Despite the fact that this number gives minimal importance as far as estimating the speed of certifiable exercises, it gives a benchmark to examination. Between two also fabricated CPUs, the one with a higher clock speed will work quicker. 

What is MHz (Megahertz)? 

The term Megahertz, which is written in small as “MHz”, is also a unit of alternating current (AC) or electromagnetic (EM) wave frequency, just as same as we discussed in the case of Gigahertz frequency (GHz). It is exactly the same as a Megahertz (a million hertz).

The term megahertz is typically used to explicit microprocessor’s clock rate and the standard unit that is sometimes utilized in the measurement of bandwidth for high-pace virtual data, linear, and virtual video patterns, and unfold waves. 

An electromagnetic wave (EM) with a minimum frequency of 1 MHz is quite close to meet the actual standards of AM broadcasting band, AM stands for Amplitude modulation and the EM of 1 MHz frequency having AM broadcasting capability has a wavelength frequency of nearly 950 to 980 feet. 

Whereas an EM wave having 100 MHz of frequency is ready to combine with the mid-standards of frequency modulations, that is FM broadcasting. 

The EM signal of 100 MHZ frequency gets up to a wavelength of 3 meters or more which looks much lesser as compared to the previous case. 

Many of the Radio and FM communications are developed at a frequency range of many thousands of MHz.  

Computerbin
As the founder and owner of this website, I am an enthusiastic computer software and hardware enthusiast who takes pleasure in troubleshooting and solving computer-related problems. With MTech & BTech degrees in Computer Science & Engineering under my belt, I have worked in this field for over 12 years now. Through my career I have acquired a vast amount of knowledge regarding various computer topics such as software, hardware, and programming - knowledge which I love sharing with others to help people gain more insight into this exciting world of computers!