How many cores do you really need?

[Blairgowrie]

Interesting article at Tom's Hardware:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/multi-core-cpu,2280-11.html

[Catalyst]

BG! How DARE you present data in an attempt to undermine my American point of view that More/Bigger = Better.

[Jabo]

How many can I have?

[Sulky]

while im not going to go into my box and try to prise out the 4th core i do have a little nugget to add this discussion, my mate (lets call him billy no mates) has a 3 core system with exactly the same gfx card and memory as me, now billy and i play arma 2, which actually has programming in it to utilise all the cores in the computer. ..... billy has 3 so i think ill not prise that 4th core out just yet cause its 1 more than he has..like his mates

[Perfesser]

Just a matter of using all the cores. Give it another year for everything to be written use those cores and you'll see either more cores on a chip or multiple chips on a motherboard.

I have a dual core now but I'm waiting for a quad core to get to less than $300 and I'll buy it.

[Kimosabi]

I have a dual core now but I'm waiting for a quad core to get to less than $300 and I'll buy it.

Go get it! Given that you have an Intel system ofcourse....

[Perfesser]

Yes Intel

I have a Core Duo 2.6Ghz now and was hoping for the quad Q9650 at 3.0Ghz. They're still closer to $400

Newegg $359.99

Still a little too much to justify the small performance gain I would see especially with IL2.

[Jabo]

Got the same processor as you Perf. It's fine for now, but I'll need a new mainboard before I think about a new processor.

Jabo

[Kimosabi]

True that Perfesser. I noticed a good increase going from a Duo to a Quad when playing FSX, because it can utilize all four and stuff but you won't see any real gains unless you go i7. That's my next upgrade. I'm thinkin SoW will be alot more demanding than IL-2 so that's when I upgrade TBH. Heck IL-2 runs better on one core with my 4850x2 than with CF. What a waste that card...