What exactly does the dual core processor speed mean?

I’m looking to get a new computer in the near future, and have noticed that the most common type of processor is dual core, or some similar variant. My question is, what exactly does the speed label mean? If a dual core processor is labeled at 2.2 Ghz, is that 2.2 total speed, or is that 2.2 per processor? Thanks!

its 2.2 Ghz for the total cpu

each core is @ 2.2 gHz
a common mistake is to add up the cores and get 4.4 GHz, it doesn’t work that way.

but Ghz doesn’t really mean much these days, cache and how efficient the cpu is determines how fast it is.

The best way to compare cpus with each other is to read reviews like those on this site

http://www.tomshardware.com/

or this

http://www.anandtech.com/

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