Intel Duo Core vs Intel Quad Core

[ionscorp]

Hey Guys,

I decided to create a new rig and get out of the whole pent 4 era =P.

Anyway, I am having a small debate with my brother so I came here to ask for advice.

My two choices are:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB

and

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB

He seems to think the Duo Core would be a lot faster then the quad and I would be a moron to even think about going to quad core

Is this true?

Thanks for the help...

 

[Celegorm]

Depends on what your doing with it.

He could be right, but at the same time he could be wrong. Let us know what you plan on doing with it and we can help you out.

 

[ionscorp]

I just plan to be gaming with it, running crysis and age of conan.. Not to mention future games

 

[ssc456]

ok when you say you will be gaming,

the question is how serious are you.

the wuad will play those games flawlessly granted you wont max crysis lol, but the quad will play any game on reasonable settings if you have to have absolute highest settings the the core2duo is the way to go.

personally i think the quad is a better CPU overall and is still plenty for any gamer.

 

[ionscorp]

well I don't intend to max everything out, but run everything on high settings would be nice... I am a little shocked a duo core would be better 0.o

 

[MooseMan1]

The reason a dual core could be better for your intent of use is because most of the games currently out are single or dual core optimized. So basically, when you have a quad core, only one or two cores are actually being used. Because of this, the way quad cores are built can give them a disadvantage, such as the way their cache is distributed between cores, and other factors. The other reason it may be better to buy a dual core is for the price difference in some of them. Also, I would be inclined to feel that the dual core die is more efficient since engineers haven't had the time to refine the die of quad cores as much.

 

[ssc456]

even still i would still go for the wuad i mean its overclockable to 3Ghz with 2-3 degrres increase which is nothing.

 

[freestyler105]

even still i would still go for the wuad i mean its overclockable to 3Ghz with 2-3 degrres increase which is nothing.

...but then the dual core is even more overclockable.

The reason the dual core is better for gaming is as MooseMan said, the games will only use 2 of the cores. So, it's just like comparing a dual core 2.4 GHz to a dual core 3.0 GHz since the other 2 cores aren't being used in the quad. Clearly the 3 GHz will win.

 

[ionscorp]

thanks for the help guys, guess I am going with the duo core =P I just hope there isn't some major leap in gaming and quad core becomes the must have sort of thing >.>

 

[grahf08]

i have a feeling that QUAD CORES WILL BECOME A MUST HAVE for gamers...
as mooseman said, games currently out are single or dual core optimized.
there is no doubt that games WILL be quad core optimized. and by that time, i'm guessing that dual cores will have a hard time keeping up with quad cores...

think of buying a quad core as an investment for games to come...^.^