Purpose: Ensuring a Responsive and Productive Experience

To ensure your computer operates at a speed that supports your daily work without lags or delays, we perform routine health checks on all devices. The “Processor Speed” check verifies that your computer’s processor (its “brain”) operates fast enough to run modern applications and the Windows 11 operating system effectively.

This check helps us guarantee a baseline level of performance, so you are not slowed down by your tools.

How it Works: The Engine’s Speed

The best way to understand a processor’s speed (also called frequency) is to think of it as the speed of a car’s engine.

• This speed is measured in gigahertz (GHz). A higher number means the engine can perform its work faster.
• A processor with a low speed will struggle and feel sluggish when handling today’s software, just like a car with a weak engine struggles to get up a hill.

Our health check simply reads the advertised speed of your computer’s processor to ensure it meets the recommended minimum of 1.0 GHz. This is the accepted industry minimum for a responsive user experience.

What Your Results Mean

The check determines if your processor’s speed meets this minimum performance standard.

Status	What It Means	What To Do
PASS	Sufficient Speed Detected Your computer’s processor meets or exceeds the 1.0 GHz speed requirement. It is fast enough to handle today’s business applications without performance issues.	No action is required. Your device meets the performance standard.
ACTION REQUIRED(Fail)	Insufficient Speed Detected  Your computer’s processor operates below the 1.0 GHz minimum. This will result in a consistently slow and frustrating experience, with lag during video calls, slow application loading, and general sluggishness.	This cannot be fixed with a software update. Processor speed is a built-in hardware characteristic. Please contact the IT Help Desk immediately to schedule a device replacement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my computer’s speed a problem now? It used to be fine.

• As software has become more powerful and complex, the minimum processing speed required for a smooth experience has increased. A speed that was acceptable five years ago is now a significant bottleneck that can hinder your productivity with modern tools like Microsoft Teams or when using multiple applications.

Can’t you just make my processor faster?

• Unfortunately, no. A processor’s maximum speed is set when it is manufactured and cannot be increased. The only way to improve it is to replace the computer with a device that has a more powerful, modern processor.

How is this different from the “CPU Core Count” check?

• They measure two different aspects of performance.
  • Core Count is like the number of workers you have for multitasking.
  • Processor Speed is how fast each of those workers can think. A modern computer needs both enough workers (cores) and for each worker to be fast enough (speed) to provide a good experience.