MIPS

Stands for "Million Instructions Per Second."

MIPS is a unit of measurement that indicates the raw processing speed of a CPU. It quantifies how many millions of instructions a processor can execute in one second.

While MIPS is a straightforward, objective measurement of computing power, it is too simplistic to measure the actual performance of a processor. Factors like processor architecture, memory bandwidth, and I/O speed all affect the computational power of a CPU. For instance, a processor rated at 400,000 MIPS might outperform another rated at 500,000 MIPS in certain tasks due to differences in architecture and efficiency. As a result, MIPS alone is generally not a reliable indicator of processor performance.

MIPS vs Clock Speed

Modern processors are typically rated by clock speed rather than MIPS. Clock speed, which measures processing cycles per second, provides a better gauge of CPU power. However, some processors use fewer instructions than others to complete the same calculations, so clock speed is not a reliable performance metric. The best way to measure processing performance is not in MIPS or megahertz but with benchmark tests, which measure actual calculations.