CPU Dual Core Vs. Quad core

SteedaYo · #1 20-09-2008, 22:03

What I would like to know is what model of core 2 duo is equal (about) to such and such model Core 2 Quad,
Like at what model point does Core 2 Quad out perform The E8600 or E8500.

Thanks in advance.

Kelainefes · #2 20-09-2008, 22:54

It depends on the applications you will be using. Can you give us a list so we can be more specific?
Generally the Quads give their best with video encoding and 3D rendering, the duals still have a edge on games because of the higher frequencies they work at.

SteedaYo · #3 20-09-2008, 23:30

It would be alot for games and creating movies, a little less amount for 3D cad software. But even for just Games lets say I have a E8400 would q9300 give the same performance or would i have to go higher to like q9500 or more?

Clunk · #4 21-09-2008, 00:19

This is a can of worms.

It's going to be pretty difficult to conclusively say what would be better without actually doing some pretty specific tests.

The bottom line is going to be the software and whether it can make full use of all four cores on the quad, and if it can, then the quad is obviously going to leave the dual core for dead.

Games is another grey area and will depend on the game used and type of GPU, resolution etc.

I would guess that most modern video encoding software can utilise four cores, so in that respect, the quad is the winner.

I haven't used autocad software and have no idea of it's requirements, so can't comment there

What about overclocking? Do you plan on doing any? If so, you can't really compare the chips because a dual core will go much higher and will destroy the quad on software that doesn't use all four cores.

Kelainefes · #5 21-09-2008, 03:03

If you get a quad and clock it to at least 3.2 GHz, you will be fine with games, although you will be able to squeeze a few more MAX frames per seconds with a faster dual in the 3.8-4 GHz range.
When i say max FPS, i mean that the minimum fps that you will get will depend mostly on your video card, expecially if you play at 1920x1080 or higher, while the max fps will benefit more from a faster CPU, but in my experience the max fps is the least important factor, preceded by min fps and average fps.
If you keep your min above 50 and the average above 60 fps, you will be fine, and a quad can give you that if you overclock it a little.
If you want a quad and you're not on a tight budget, i'd get the Q9450, and if you have less money a Q6600 or a Q6700 will be fine and it seems that they are easier to overclock, but they are slightly slower (less than 5% if i recall correctly) at the same clock, and lack SSE4 instructions wich help speed up video encoding and other apps that implement them (not too many at the moment).
To give you a rough idea, with a quad you'd be cutting your rendering times by something in between 30 and 50% over a dual.

GSte · #6 21-09-2008, 03:04

Yeah, as Clunk says the quad is better at certain things.... at the same clock speed they should be pretty much identical in games (as games don't use more than 2 cores yet), but the duals are generally at higher clock speeds for the same price, and can be overclocked much more too, which makes them better for gaming.

Some of the new dual cores, the E8x00 series, can get up to about 4.5GHz when overclocked, which means that they even outdo the quads in some settings where you'd expect the quad to win (i.e. video encoding) due to their clockspeed being so much higher.

SteedaYo · #7 21-09-2008, 04:56

Your answers opened up my eye a little more and made my original question seem elementry.
I do plan on over clocking just cause it is fun to do ...just not so much on my pentium D.
After your answers and seeing that dual cores have their perks I decided to compare how much the price difference would be.
I Just looked on EBay and google and picked the lowest if it wasnt far off the google store prices.
Q9450 2.66 Can be had for $325
Q9550 2.83 Can be had for $310 Which confused me at first, but I figure this just went through a price decilne
Q9650 3.0 Can be had for $549 which puts it out of my price range,
E8400 3.0 Can be had for $160
E8500 3.16 Can be had for $170-190
E8600 3.33 Can be had for 270

So it pretty much comes down to the Q9550 and E8500 I am not really considering the E8600 yet because I feel it is just new and has some deflating to do, and because if I really close the money gap between dual and Quad then I would probably side with the Quad since saving the $120 makes the E8500 look pretty nice. And the Gap is alot Smaller between the E8600 and Q9550.

E8500 3.16 Can OC well...
Q9550 2.83 Not sure how high this can OC too but guessing 3.5-3.8 area.
Man this is a tough choice

Kelainefes · #8 21-09-2008, 05:07

3.8 on air with a Q9550 is a little optimistic, and you'd have to feed it a beefy voltage, so i'd advice against it for 24/7 use, i't say 3.5 is more realistic unless you use a good liquid cooling setup.
You wanna go higher, get a Q6700, they are really cheap now (probably just 20 bucks more than the E8500).
But let me tell you that if you are coming from a Pentium D, even at stock a Q6700 will surprise you, and the lack of SSE4 is not THAT dramatic.

kitfit1 · #9 21-09-2008, 11:25

Like a lot of us, i have 2 rigs. One with a Q6600 and the rig in my sig. The quad i use for video, my sig rig i use for gaming and benching. Although the clocked E8600 i have is a monster, even at 5.1ghz it's not as good as my Q6600@3.8ghz when running 3D06. That is the only drawback, otherwise it blast's the quad straight out of the water. Got to go with Kelainefes as well, 3.8ghz on air with Q9550 is a very tall order. You may well get some suicide shots at that speed, but getting 24/7 stable is going to take some doing.

SteedaYo · #10 21-09-2008, 15:12

OOO No I do not have the balls to try to OC at those speeds on air, only reason I have stock air is because putting water on a pentium D is just kidding myself. I have only toyed with OC'ing when I got my Mobo and quickly found the Pent D to be the weak link, SSE4 just came out at that time but was expensive so I have been bidding my time until now. Just need to decide and then run with it. As of right now i am kinda siding with the duals, since I am still at elementry level and am not entirly sure what programs of video would use the 4 cores.