Quad vs Dual Core in Windows 7

[Simmy]

I've just installed Windows 7 and I'm well impressed so far. I'm running it on an e8400 @ 3.6Ghz but I've just remembered my server has a q9450 sitting in it not doing much anymore (it used to do lots of video encoding). I think I'll try swapping them anyway, but am I likely to see an improvement switching from dual to quad core (assuming I can overclock the quad to a similar speed)?

I've heard Windows 7 makes better use of multicore processors, but I've yet to see any benchmarks to back this up or convince me.

 

[Happy]

Difference in what? If you mean general OS speed etc then there will be no difference really.

 

[Simmy]

Yes, I mean a difference in everyday use in general, not specifically gaming/encoding

 

[Servo]

Win 7 reports

E7500 @ 3.95 cpu score 6.9 memory (8 gig) 6.9
E6300 @ 3.80 cpu score 6.8 memory (8 gig) 6.9
Q6600 @ 2.90 cpu score 7.2 memory (8 gig) 7.2


So as you can see the quad is better.

 

[keyser]

so 4.3% better then

 

[ChileanLlama]

The WEI score (if you trust em ) is how powerful the CPU is - for general Windows use itself I doubt you'll see any significant difference.