Upgrade E6600 to Quad?

[Gin0rm0]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if I would be likely to see any increase in gaming performance if I upgraded my E6600 to a quad core? I play a lot of Source games and also Crysis/Grid/COD WAW.

Also, how much performance difference, FPS wise, would there be between a Q6700 and a Q9550, assuming they're both clocked in the region of 3.4/3.6 ghz? Which would you choose out of the two?

 

[ben90]

For gaming i would prefer the 6600. Quad isn't supported in many games.

 

[EsaT]

Kentsfield is same generation Core2 as Conroe so clock to clock it doesn't have any advantage and as quad core it's lot hotter so overclocking it to same speed will be harder.
Yorkfield is faster clock to clock and as 45nm model runs notably cooler than old quads and very good overclocker without power hogging temperature rising overvolting.
(running mine at 3.7... undervolted)

Most games barely utilize second core halfly so if you want advantage you have to go for better clock to clock performance and overclocking capability.