Faster Dual Core .V. Slower Quad Core

Hey,

For around the same price range I can buy a 2.6 ish Ghz Quad Core or a 3 ish Ghz Dual Core (AMD's). What do you think would be the better option? Especially as Windows is always a bit iffy when operating off multiple cores; the last thing I want is poor preformance off a Quad Core!

Thanks,

get the duel core if u want to play games, get the quad if u wanna decode, winzip or do other media. for AMD i would get like the athlon x2 7750 BE and overclock the hell outta it.

The Athlon X2 7750 BE just became available at newegg.At 2.7 Ghz I think that it does a little better than the 3.2 Ghz Athlon 64 X2 6400.So you can't compare Ghz as to performance.It's essentially a Phenom Quad Core running at 2.7 Ghz with 2 cores disabled.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103300

Take a look at Toms' hardware CPU Charts and other charts then decide.
AMD's Quad Cores are fine on games though not as fast as Intels that is until the Phenom II is released very soon
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts [...] ks,31.html
Quads work great in Windows especially Vista 64 bit.

Personally I would wait (about 1-2 months) until the Phenom II 940 (or 920) is released if you have a AM2+ motherboard capable of using it and there is an updated BIOS for your motherboard.
The 2.6 Ghz Phenom X4 9950 is just too expensive for its worth.At 2.5 Ghz the Phenom X4 9850 is a better buy but again since the Phenom II is coming out I would wait as it is suppossed to have a substantially better performance that AMD's current Quad Core CPU's.

about $300 for the 940 or so ive heard....

That is a bit too pricey I think.

What would you choose from the following; bearing in mind that the system will be used for gaming with the latest games as well as other resource intensive tasks. Although I hope my high end HD Video card will take care of that , System running XP or Vista, 32 bit.

• AMD Phenom X4 9950 Quad Core Processor [2.6 Ghz]
• AMD Phenom X4 9850 Quad Core Processor [2.5 Ghz]
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Processor [3.10 Ghz]
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Processor [2.8 Ghz]
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Processor [3.0 Ghz]

Thanks, If there are any ones not on the list that you think are better please say so.

So say I then entered the realm of overclocking and overclicked the 9850, how high would I get it? Would the preformance then increase substancially? I am pinned down by the "Mega Hertz Myth" here, something is making me think that the 2.6 quad or 3.1 dual will preform better than the 9850...