Core 2 Duo vs Core 2 Quad

[Melei]

I am customizing an Alienware currently, and I'm having trouble making my mind up about two processors. One is the Core 2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz with a 6MB Cache and 1066 FSB. The other processor is the Core 2 Quad Q9000 2.0GHz with the same Cache and FSB as the forementioned CPU. I've heard that most games and applications cannot utilize a quad core processor, so there is no point in the quad core if my main concern is gaming. Thanks,

Alex

[Russel]

While running crysis on a Q9650 quad core, all for cores are working. This is with Win 7 64 bit or Vista 64 bit. I haven't run crysis on any other OS.

[Atomic Rooster]

Of the two processors mentioned, the C2D T9600 with it's slightly higher clock speed will be faster than the C2Q Q9000 in most of today's games. But that may not be the case with future apps and game releases as they are being designed with multi-threading in mind.

[rohan23]

Dual cores are beginning to turn obsolete. They will be phased out soon enough. The majority of newer games are utilizing quad core processors.

[Cabbs]

Originally Posted by rohan23

Dual cores are beginning to turn obsolete. They will be phased out soon enough. The majority of newer games are utilizing quad core processors.

Eventually that is how it will go. If you have a dual-core now, you can hold out for a while, since most games aren't threaded for quad-cores quite yet, but quad-core will be the standard soon.