Has cpu power outpaced the user

I run a dual core but in today's gaming world that's just the minimum requirements to really be able to play the game. Literally. Now a days, it's as if company's list minimum PC requirements to play a game at a marginal level (almost 0 - 25+ FPS? lol)...but, it's almost a necessity now to have a quad-core to play a game with good performance. Given your other hardware is up to date

Your average home user doesnt need much CPU power, but your average home user isnt where the PC makers are earning the majority of their money. Large corps and institutions that need solid machines for a wide variety of tasks and expensive work stations are what CPU upgrades are really for. Your average home user right now doesnt need more than an i3, but your average business will want to have something in the i5 range because 5% faster nets them a lot more money.

Never ever ever be deluded into thinking that you are in the segment that is a majority of computer users, there are many things out there that are quite common that need more than what a single i5 2500 could deliver and that is what is really giving us the push for better hardware.

Try anything that requires rendering or compiling and then ask me if you need the processing power  .

Depends on what you do. If you are just a home user that does nothing more than surf the net and write e-mails, then a single core 2.0GHz CPU will be fine.

A fast CPU and dual core CPUs can also improve general performance where Windows will start up faster and programs will launch faster.

You can argue that a netbook has enough performance for most people who do not do anything demanding with their computers.

I know the miniumum I can tolerate is a dual-core with a SSD and Photoshop GPU acceleration support.

Don't need anything more than that. That's why I only use an e-350 APU.