Dual core / quad core with games

[Vancha]

Hey everyone, I am hoping to build a gaming rig soon and i am wondering:

With quad cores, can all 4 cores concentrate most of their processing power on one application. eg a game. or does 1 core concentrate on the game, and the others concentrate on any other programs that are running?

I'm not sure if it would be better to get a quad core at 2.66Ghz or a dual core at 3.16Ghz. I'm not interested in overclocking as the wikipedia page makes it seem very dodgy, and i wouldn't really know how to. (Although I'm sure this site would help).

Also from what i've seen, motherboards compatible with dual core CPUs only have 2 slots for RAM, and i was hoping to get 6 gig of RAM (unless 3gig sticks are available, i havn't seen any.)

Any responses much appreciated

 

[farinha]

Well, it depends on the game. If the game supports multicore then the quadcore will be better, if not the dualcore will perform better since it has a higher clock speed. On the other hand I believe in the future games will support multicore.
If I were you I would check for benchmarks of the games you're planning to play and see if there is a major difference between quad and dual cores. If not, and you have the money to spend, I would buy the quad core.

 

[Nubbleet]

To make things easier what's your budget? Your most likely gonna wanna get a quad-core if you can afford it.

 

[Vancha]

Thanks very much, I think both of your answers sums it up for me, nice one

 

[farinha]

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