Twice the power ?

[movingtables]

for the first time in my computer hobby i've fallen behind in my processor power knowledge.

to cut a long stor short:

Q) does a dual core processor meen double the power?
for example is a dual core pentium 3 gig the equal to 6 gighz power in real world terms ?

and a dual core pentium4 3 gig is faster than my single core pentium4 (3.4 gig) processor ?

 

[movingtables]

On average it is like 1.5x the power for the reasons above. Hardly ever will you get double, and on things that are supposed to be coded, it is closer to 1.5x than 2, though some programs are better than others. It really is hit and miss.

BTW movingtables, loving the sig - we all know what today is .

aww poor mr kent popped his cloggs lol..

on topic. from what you guys have said. that 2 X 3gig dual processor is faster than my 1 X pentium4 3.4 gig processor.
not doubly fast but on the whole around 1 ½ times faster than a single processor. still faster i guess. so is dual processors here to stay ???