Which component determines how quickly data can travel within a computer?

The component that determines how quickly data can travel within a computer is bus width. Bus width refers to the number of bits that can be transmitted simultaneously over the data bus, which connects various parts of the computer's architecture, such as the CPU, memory, and storage. A wider bus can carry more data at once, leading to increased data transfer rates and overall performance. This directly impacts how efficiently data moves between components, which is critical for the speed of processing and overall system performance.

In contrast, CPU clock speed affects how many cycles per second a CPU can execute, influencing the speed at which it can process instructions but not the actual data transfer rates. RAM capacity has to do with how much data can be stored and accessed at a time, rather than the speed of transfer itself. Cache size helps with data retrieval speeds by storing frequently accessed data closer to the CPU, but again, it does not affect how rapidly data can be transmitted across the system's bus.