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Quad or Dual CPU for Gaming?

So I'm getting this laptop for college. It has to be pretty bad ass since it'll be the only one I'll have access to. I'll be using it for regular college grunt work and some serious gaming. I've decided to go with a Falcon Northwest TLX2 (www.falcon-nw.com).

Here's where the problem comes in.

I don't know much about CPUs. As far as they go I've always thought that the number of GHz was the only number that mattered. I've just taken that number and multiplied it by the number of cores and "shazaam" I have a GHz rating for the processor. I now believe this is simply a false statement haha.

I'm given the choice between two different CPUs. Both are Intel mobile processors and both are within my price range, but I'm not sure which would be better for me.

T9600
Cores: 2
CPU Speed: 2.80 GHz
Bus Speed: 1066 MHz
L2 Cache: 6MB

OR

Q9100
Cores: 4
CPU Speed: 2.26 GHz
Bus Speed: 1066 MHz
L2 Cache: 6MB


What's the main difference between these two (in layman's terms if you don't mind) and which would you recommend I choose?

BTW: My graphics card would be a 9600M GT and I'd have 4GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM
8 answers Last reply
More about quad dual gaming
  1. Laptop + gaming = oxymoron

    What matters the most in gaming is the GPU, the CPU is of 2ndary importance. And 95% of laptops of piece of sh*t graphics cards.


    Do yourself a favor and get yourself a gaming desktop and a netbook...cheaper and you'll get much better performance.
  2. Either will be fine tho I suspect the dual @ 2.8 will best the quad at 2.26 for most of the FPS type of games as very few are yet optimised for more than two cores.

    There are plenty of benchies up the top under charts.

    Hard core gamers don't generally like laptops for gaming but I imagine it will be fine at lower resolution ... plus you are going to be spending lots of time using it to do assignments anyway ...

    Look up the 9600M under the graphics charts too ... a tad bit slower than the discrete 9600GT roughly.
  3. Bluescreendeath said:
    Laptop + gaming = oxymoron

    What matters the most in gaming is the GPU, the CPU is of 2ndary importance. And 95% of laptops of piece of sh*t graphics cards.


    Do yourself a favor and get yourself a gaming desktop and a netbook...cheaper and you'll get much better performance.

    Exactly...

    Have a netbook with 5+ hour battery life and a nice desktop...by the time you add up the expenses you'll probably spend about the same for several times the performance yadda yadaa
  4. As others have stated, laptops are usually held back by the graphics card when people try to play games on them. However, seeing as you want to game on the laptop, and judging from what you said, all other tasks that will be performed on your laptop will be mostly school work, I'd go with the dual core cpu.

    The quad core would be overkill for most games as well as for anything else you seem to be doing. Above all, in older games where they are not hindered by the graphics card and are in turn cpu bound, the higher clock rate would help you achieve a higher frame rate. It's also worth noting that the dual core would probably take less power and therefore give you more time away from an outlet.
  5. My vote goes to the dual core. You'll have better framerates and you'll have less heat.
  6. build desktop + find laptop on www.slickdeals.net

    problem fixed.
  7. yea you can build a nice gaming rig and get a decent notebook. i have both for that reason myself. even tho i have a lenovo with a 8800 gt its still nowhere near my desktop in gaming. its like having a ps1 and a ps3.
  8. If you are going to go laptop route then go with the dual core as right now the clock speed will be better in almost all games over the quad core, but still your best bet is good gaming desktop and netbook.
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