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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!

MyDaftQuestions
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    Honetly, VS2012 will run just fine at substantially slower speeds, it is much more sensitive to the memory requirement and storage IO. For your cpu it will be more than ok, it will just compile slowly – Richie Frame Apr 27 '15 at 07:58

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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.

MyDaftQuestions
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  • Additionally you might want to take a look at something like this: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

    Instead of going for the core CPU speed. If you are planing to do a lot of compiling regularly, I wouldn't recommend going below 5000, otherwise 2-3000 should be the bare minimum.

     –  Apr 27 '15 at 08:07
  • So, what if a 1.6ghz scores 1.3k and a 0.8ghz scores 2.5kh (eg, compare Z3775 to M-5Y10C)... can it really be the 0.8ghz is better at perfomance? – MyDaftQuestions Apr 27 '15 at 12:25
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    Yes that is completely correct, the Z3775 is a an Intel Atom processor which is made to be incredibly small, low power and low performance. The M5-Y10C is made to be much the same, but is an ULV(ultra low voltage) version of a more high end processor, it incidentally also uses double the power of the Atom processor. –  Apr 27 '15 at 12:31
  • Thank you for the advice, you've inadvertently cost me an extra £200 on the better laptop :) But at least I understand the CPU a little more as well, so thank you for the time! :) – MyDaftQuestions Apr 27 '15 at 13:02
  • No problem, happy to be of help. :) –  Apr 27 '15 at 13:05