• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

CPU - Quad or Dual?

AngusM

AngusM

AngusM

Associate
Joined
10 Oct 2006
Posts
10
I'm currently running an Intel Core 2 Duo 6300 1.86Ghz and looking to upgrade.

I was looking at an Intel Quad Core Q6600 2.4GHz but I can also get a Dual Core 3.0 Ghz for the same price, and a 2.4Ghz Dual Core for considerably less. (I'm not made of money!)

I was wondering whether to go for a higher clock speed with less cores or a lower clock speed with four cores. What will make the most difference to games? How much faster will the Quad be for how many different games/apps. Are games optimised for Quad cores these days?

Cheers,
DM
 
At the moment, Dual Core for gaming, Quad Core for video/image editing, however if you want something to last for a while, get a Quad which eventually will support more gaming in the future :p
 
Why, does a quad not play games?

Go whatever what you can afford, Quads tend to overclock highly too and can process twice as much with the right programs. The whole argument of choosing dual over quad depends on running the dual faster than the quad. If you don't then get the Quad, it's better.
 
Last edited:
Personally i'd go with the Quad.

More stuff is starting to use quads well now, and if you arn't going to be changing the CPU for a while it is deffinatly the better option.

Plus a Q6600 will run at 3Ghz out the box on stock volts (or at most a very minor increase in voltage).

For example look at the UT3 benchies on Anandtech, Quad core CPU's are a fair bit faster than dual cores.

That kind of scaling will only increase with more modern games.
 
I never said quad's can't game, what i meant was that from the perspective of not Overclocking, then a Dual Core would be a better option wouldn't it for most current games.
 
I'll just point out that I use my PC for gaming mostly, the occassional university essay and checking email/facebook. ^_^ Nothing too intense like video editing etc.

I've never tried overclocking, am afraid of damaging my components since I haven't the first idea how to do it.

I am selling my old CPU to my friend, and getting a new one, so if I know how to overclock them both then we could both be happier?

I currently have my eyes on a "Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66GHz 6M Cache S775 1333MHZ" for just under £120.
Is a good CPU with potential for (safe) overclocking? I believe it is a Penryn, which is new and better(?).
 
The Wolfdale's are brilliant overclockers!!
If i were you i'd go for either an E8400 or a Q6600 and OC them, they are really good OC'ers the new Wolfdales so you could easily hit bout 3.5GHz or 4GHz+ with an E8400/8500
 
an extra 2 cores always comes in handy I find, whereas an extra 500mhz (3.5Ghz Vs 4Ghz, Q6600\E8400) isn't quite as useful when you've already got a rocket, not much point going any faster at the moment...

Whereas, encoding your videos and multitasking will show a dramatic improvement with 4 cores...

I dunno thats the way I looked at it and got a Q6600.
 
I would only change if you were getting a quad, if you already have a Core2 Duo. Even though the newer Wolfdales are very very good looking, i feel that in general an true upgrade would be to a Quad.
 
Quad will play games as well just not many games can take full advantage of all 4 yet so in most games the performance is similar to E6600 2.4Ghz. So if you don't overclock and all you do is game then a wolfdale E8000 series will do you nicely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom