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I'm about to purchase tablet computer. My main purpose will be to browse Internet. So, please tell whether the processor speed has to do anything with the Internet speed. Different tablets have different processor speed like 1GH, 1.2GH, 1.3GH, 1.6GH etc.

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  • The CPU clock alone (assuming same number of cores) is not enough to compare different tablets: you have too look at the whole picture, and consider the amount of available RAM, internal storage, the graphic card, operating system, and so on.
    – and31415
    Feb 16, 2014 at 14:46

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Internet's speed is the rate at which you can transfer data over the Internet. As Jonas Wielicki wrote in his answer, this should not be affected by CPU speed, at least not in a noticeable way.

User experience will be affected, though, because when browsing World Wide Web (which are not the same as the Internet - the former means websites, the latter is a global network used to transmit those, but also to send any other data - file transfers, Skype calls etc.) actual display times are more important than download speed.

Fast Internet connections (either over Wi-Fi or cellular connections) are widely available today and download speeds for most sites aren't that important. Here's a screenshot from Chrome's profiler showing load time breakdown for SuperUser on my current hardware and connection:

Pie chart showing time required for website displaying steps

As you can see, loading takes only 67 milliseconds, while rendering, painting, running scripts and mysterious other tasks add up to one second. Downloading makes only a fraction of entire load time, as clearly visible on the pie chart. Other steps of displaying a website heavily depend on hardware, so CPU will matter when browsing.

So hardware is important if you're going to use that device for browsing WWW. There is no mobile CPU that will be definitely "fast enough". The higher the frequency is, the better it will perform. Number of cores also matters. Other factors may limit the CPU, like amount of RAM, its speed, storage memory's speed, operating system version and modifications applied by manufacturer.

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Not for speeds you currently get via wireless, if you don’t end up having a extraordinary bad wireless chipset.

Machines with about 1 GHz may have problems with gigabit speeds and bad ethernet chipsets (I have heard such reports from people with homeserver systems), but wireless is still some factors away from that.

Mobile internet is even farther away from gigabit speeds, so no issues should occur here.

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    A higher CPU speed will process Javascript better, which may make browser pages more responsive, so it may make your Internet "seem" faster (even though it hasn't actually changed) from the perception of many people.
    – LawrenceC
    Feb 16, 2014 at 14:46
  • This, @ultrasawblade, is a very good point I have not thought about at all. It is a bit unclear what the OP is asking, although the internet-connection tag suggests its indeed about transfer speed. In case it is not, your comment is certainly worth an answer. Feb 16, 2014 at 14:59
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If you are running TCP speed tests it has a lot to do on your CPU.

1: Open up task manager, have a look at your CPU 2: Open up Chrome, have a look at your CPU. 3: Run a speed test and see the CPU rise.

If you have an old CPU and its maxed out at 100% the test would not be able to show you the full speed you could receive. Run on a new CPU and it will show better numbers.

Again this is just when you run speed tests, the internet would always be the same speed as you receive it from the ISP, it just means some computers can not handle the JAVA, Flash downloads.

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CPU makes a huge difference, unless it's my RAM...not sure, but the difference between these 2 machines is absolutely phenomenal, I'm talking up to 4 times fast

Laptop: with 6 Gigs Ram Intel B960 CPU

VS.

Desktop: 16 GiGS ram i5-8400 CPU

Mega difference, now is it the RAM or CPU? Not sure, but it doesn't take ram to open up single pages I think, and I did tests with both machines idling at under 2 gigs or RAM

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I have tested the CPU effect on Internet speed myself. I tested a single core desktop, duo core laptop, quadcore cellphone, and quadcore tablet, same specs on the phone and tablet.

I get 17.1 mb download on the phone and tablet, but only 6mb download on the single core computer. The tablet has even reached 34mb download, when it is in the same room as the wifi router.

The desktop single core had 4 gigs of RAM. The tablet and phone quadcore have only slightly more than 1 gig of RAM, and they are both almost maxed out. So CPU is the only major factor.

As for the duo core laptop, it has similar download speed to the desktop, but maybe about 5 mbs faster.

CPU matters.

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  • You're answer attracted a downvote because it was more rant than answer. As a serving suggestion, we've removed the extraneous commentary to focus on the meat of the answer. You can always roll it back if you disagree, but the present form is an improved answer, and is consistent with the site's focus on the technology aspect.
    – fixer1234
    Feb 7, 2018 at 5:59
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My desktop, laptops AND Smartphones can utilize 98 Mb/sec of my cable's 100 Mb/sec throughput modem, but tablets, and Chromebook (Android ~ but so are Smartphones ?) only obtain 50 Mb/sec download. This is true for 2.4 MHz or 5.0 MHz wi-fi...... Smartphones and Laptops are as fast as hardwired Ethernet on desktop!

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It will definitely affect the download and upload speed as the processor will be required to crunch all that data and process it to be shown to u accordingly using various softwares like Java etc. even the latency affects your PC performance try uploading and downloading while using a data crunching software. And u will get different speeds using different devices at the same location. So even a minor change in the configuration will be reflected. Try testing it on two different devices at the same time and u will see a the difference

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    I am sorry, there is absolutely no truth in this answer, there is no direct connection between your internet speeds and your CPU
    – Ramhound
    Apr 12, 2017 at 0:57
  • If the CPU is the bottleneck, Internet speed would be the least of your problems.
    – fixer1234
    Apr 12, 2017 at 1:49

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