CPU TrueSpeed will calculate the actual speed (frequency) of the microprocessor (CPU) in your computer. The speed of the CPU is rated by how many cycles it runs per second. This speed is measured in Hertz (Hz). 1 Hz is one cycle per second. A Pentium III computer, for example, with a CPU rating of 500 MHz has a speed of 500 million cycles per second.

Actual CPU frequency is not the same frequency which is reported by CPU manufactures. The reported frequency is the clock frequency for which CPU is designed. The actual frequency, on the other hand, is the frequency at which the processor works under particular hardware and software configurations on a particular computer. Reported frequency you can get directly from a CPU vendor (Intel, AMD, etc.), but the actual can only be measured by running special tests designed to calculate the real speed of a CPU.

The CPU TrueSpeed utility will run a frequency calculation algorithm (speed test) to determine at what internal speed the processor is actually running.