CPU Performance- Dual vs. Quad

[Quadrider10]

hi im just curious.... i was looking through the list of 1st gen intel i7 cpus and i was just curious, what would be better for hardcore gaming, video rendering, HD video editing and watching HD video, and internet. i7 dual core with base frequency at 2.8ghz and turbo up to 3.46ghz or a quad core at 1.86ghz and turbo up to 3.2ghz? also is there any other series of cpu's besides intel 1st gen that support PGA988 socket?


also how would i go about upgrading my ram? like speed wise. i have 6gb of 1333mhz and was looking into 1600 or 1800mhz, but does my CPU have to support it?

 

[JimLewandowski]

Depends on how the software you use is designed. Can it take advantage of "all" processors that are available? Or is it mostly single-threaded? I would guess it's mostly single-threaded.

 

[Quadrider10]

Depends on how the software you use is designed. Can it take advantage of "all" processors that are available? Or is it mostly single-threaded? I would guess it's mostly single-threaded.

adobe premier CS6
windows media center for movies and youtube. and games. i know most games except BF3 only use 2 cores, so i would think that because of this, games would lack because of the lower clock speeds. unless turbo allows the full 3.2ghz because 2 of the cores are not being used.?

 

[Sporkalypse]

To answer your first question, the cores matter when dealing with multi-threaded operations, such as video decoding and some advanced games. Frequency, more often than not, wins in terms of gaming. Because most games use just 2 cores at one time, the higher frequency would result it higher FPS. This isn't true in all cases though, more recent games have support for multiple cores and use them well. And to pick a CPU, I would go with the i7 because of it's overall reputation, frequency, and other features such as logical cores.

As for the RAM, you can get any type you'd like, but the motherboard AND processor both have to support it or else it'll be wasted money. A safe bet would be any of the Kingston HyperX RAM units which can be found on Newegg for a reasonable price.

Best of luck!

 

[Quadrider10]

To answer your first question, the cores matter when dealing with multi-threaded operations, such as video decoding and some advanced games. Frequency, more often than not, wins in terms of gaming. Because most games use just 2 cores at one time, the higher frequency would result it higher FPS. This isn't true in all cases though, more recent games have support for multiple cores and use them well. And to pick a CPU, I would go with the i7 because of it's overall reputation, frequency, and other features such as logical cores.

As for the RAM, you can get any type you'd like, but the motherboard AND processor both have to support it or else it'll be wasted money. A safe bet would be any of the Kingston HyperX RAM units which can be found on Newegg for a reasonable price.

Best of luck!

I'm not planning on. Upgrading anytime soon. But was just curious. Thanks!

 

[Quadrider10]

Also is there any CPU overclocking tools? My bios does not support OC and I have an i5 560m

 

[whs]

Video encoding is about the only task I have seen that uses all my 4 hyperthreaded i7 cores. I don't know about games, but the other 'office type' prograns use only 1 or 2 cores.