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Dual or Quad Core?

Last response: in CPUs
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Hey all! I'm looking at upgrading the processor in my laptop sometime in the near future, but I am stuck between two processors. I am debating between a quad core that is .1 ghz slower than my current dual core, but it does have more cores and a processor that is .8 ghz stronger, but is still a dual core. They both also have triple the cache of my current processor.

So my question is, will I see bigger performance gains with the much quicker dual core, or the slower quad? I do a lot of virtual machine work and programming, but no video editing or anything of that nature.

Any thoughts or experiences?

More about : dual quad core

yes, you are being vague. you need to tell us which processor models. GHz is meaningless. Cache can also be meaningless under certain circumstances.

For VM work, you might benefit more from what quad. What VM work do you do?

Q9000 quad: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... or http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=40480

and

t9600 Dual Core: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... or http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=35563

As far as VM work goes, I use virtualbox to use OS X to do some XCode developing.

They're both socket P and pga478. Does that mean they're compatible? Or does the fact that they're 35W and 45W make them incompatible? I merely assumed that it was just the socket type.


By the way, this is what is in it now: http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42841
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I'd choose the quad, even the dual has higher clock. It's an extra 2 processor threads. Well, if you run many applications at once, quadcore shines here because more process can be handled at once. If you only run 1-2 applications at once, choose dual.
I see you run Virtual Machine. VM uses separate process as 'virtual processor' so quadcore is more stable here, also when you alt-tabbing to your programming.
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