should I get a Quad Core?

okay as the title explains, should I? I was think of getting a q6600, but should I, will I see an impormance increase? Or should I just get a core 2 duo?

cheers

-D'artagnan

Simple answer: Only if you frequently multitask or run programs written specifically for multi-processor systems which excludes all but the most cutting edge games (ie Crysis, HL2 epi 2.)

I can give the more complex technical answer, if you really want to know.:D

The thing is, I can afford it, so I was wondering if It would be good for gaming. I am making a new pc, and woas wondering if it was worth investing in. I will probably on be playing new games. Quick question, I am planning to get bioshock, will it slow it down?

cheers

-D'artagnan

The thing is, I can afford it, so I was wondering if It would be good for gaming. I am making a new pc, and woas wondering if it was worth investing in. I will probably on be playing new games. Quick question, I am planning to get bioshock, will it slow it down?

cheers

-D'artagnan

-Dartagnan-

As far as I know, the Unreal 3 engine that bioshock uses is written for multi-threading so you should see a measurable difference.

so you are saying it will go FASTER than a dual core processor, or slower?

cheers

-D'artagnan

So I should buy a faster dual core?

cheers

-D'artagnan

so you are saying it will go FASTER than a dual core processor, or slower?

cheers

-D'artagnan

-Dartagnan-

From a theoretical computer science perspective, 2x faster; but, in reality probably not up to the full 2x faster, I'd be willing to bet that other components like your GPU and RAM will cause slowdowns and bottlenecks, it will still be an improvement though.

Okay, so I SHOULD ge ta quad core, it IS worth it.

cheers

-D'artagnan

Okay, so I SHOULD ge ta quad core, it IS worth it.

cheers

-D'artagnan

-Dartagnan-

It's worth it if you multi-task or play the very short list of games written to take advantage of the additional processors, yes.

Let me put it this way, in games that don't use multi-processing, the faster core 2 duo would be better because the program only uses one of the processors and just ignores the other core; in extremely cutting edge games like bioshock, half life 2 episode 2, and crysis, the quad core is better because it will actually use the other processors instead of just letting them sit there.

okay, and most/all futures games will? all new games will run faster, where as older games will run slower? So in the long run, a q6600 will be better an faster? Gonna go to bed, check post in morning.

cheers

-D'artagnan

okay, and most/all futures games will? all new games will run faster, where as older games will run slower? Thanks for the help.

cheers

-D'artagnan

-Dartagnan-

You're welcome, just keep in mind that by a short list I mean I can think of six games and only 3 engines (and one of the engines is not released yet, and the other won't add multi-processing until October) that will take advantage of it right now.

Ircgjg (or whatever the fack) has no clue what he is talking about. There will be virtually no speed boost in anything except some multi-threaded apps and extreme multitasking. Clock speed matters more than number of cores when it comes to Core 2. Get an e6550 and upgrade when intel releases its real quad cores (these are just two dual cores on one die).imrlybord7

Perhaps not yet. For the short difference in price, that boost will be worth it even today and especially tommorow. And since when did clock speeds matter more than the number of cores! In this age of architexture and overclocking, clock speeds mean practically nothing (well they do matter but not much when you buy a cpu). I realize you're really bored but once you check facts I'd like that Big Macasap.

I don't know about some of your testing but mine as well as others have showed Bioshock utilizing both cores almost fully. The engine was built from the ground up for multithreading. If you do go quad, you won't have to worry about bottlenecking forthe next generation of DX 10gpus either. I own an E6600 myself as I bought it shortly after launch, but nearly a year later, you are probably better off going quad core on the high end. Though if you can wait, you'rereally better off waiting for native quad cores from AMD and Intel.Q6600 at $290 is a very fair price for the package you get.

Go compare a q6600 to an x6800 in any gaming benchmarks and say that.

EDIT: Sorry when I said number of cores I was talking 2 vs 4, not 1 vs 2.

So, a dual core is slower than a q6600 on new games, but no on old games. would it be a notifable difference between a 2.66 dual core, and a q6600?

cheers

-D'artagnan

For a gaming system, I would suggest save $100 and get the E6750... (That extra $100 will do more good on video card improvements than CPU for gaming.) That is my position until I see benchmarks that say different.

If you do lots of video encoding/rendering, photo editing, etc. then you will see a bigger improvement with the extra cores.

First of all, I have a 2.66 pentium 4, I am building a new computer. Second, I am going for the e6750, I can save some good money that way.

cheers

-D'artagnan

Ircgjg (or whatever the fack) has no clue what he is talking about. There will be virtually no speed boost in anything except some multi-threaded apps and extreme multitasking. Clock speed matters more than number of cores when it comes to Core 2. Get an e6550 and upgrade when intel releases its real quad cores (these are just two dual cores on one die).imrlybord7

Um, yea, that is what I said. Read what I posted before you say I don't know what I'm talking about.

So, a dual core is slower than a q6600 on new games, but no on old games. would it be a notifable difference between a 2.66 dual core, and a q6600?

cheers

-D'artagnan

-Dartagnan-

First of all, I have a 2.66 pentium 4, I am building a new computer. Second, I am going for the e6750, I can save some good money that way.

-Dartagnan-

E6750... that's what I would do... more money for the rest of your system. Your video card will make a bigger difference in gaming than your CPU.

If you're upgrading from a Pentium 4 im assuming you don't upgrade too often. Get a Q6600, it can easily be overclocked to 3.0 ghz and is much more future proof. The biggest profile games coming out are multithreaded. Besides, the Q6600 is gunna be slower than dual cores in older games but it really won't matter at all. Either way you're going to have a rock solid framerate. It doesn't make sense to me to get a dual core today unless you upgrade every year.Zaber123

I agree. My Q6600 was easily overclocked to 3ghz.....Now you basically have 2 E6850s for a reasonable price. Imo, I would rather buy Q6600 and overclock it than stay with only 2 cores when games in the future will use 4+.