If a computer is powerful enough, how does it know not to play videos or perform logic for games at a faster speed?

Question

I don’t know if I’m explaining this right…
A computer can run logic at some speed based on how powerful the components of it are, so if it can perform the logic of something, for example, movement in a game, how does it know how much should be done based on its power, instead of essentially running in “fast-forward” or conversely in slow motion?

In: 1307

Answer 1

There is a separate component that tracks time independent of clock cycles. So you can track the time that passes since the last “Update” and perform logic accordingly. For example, in a game you might have movement speed in units/second, so you multiply the seconds that passed since last update * movement speed to get the displacement.