Cheat Engine

[Cheetah]

All things equal, a quad will be just as fast or faster in a program that can only recognize 2 cores(the reason being the other cores can still free up the already utilized 2 cores by working on other tasks they'd normally be stuck with.)

The reason quads have the stereotype of being slower in gaming is because they're generally clocked a bit slower. If you have a 3GHz dual and a 3GHz quad, the quad will be equal or better. Even with a slight clock deficiency most quads have, the difference will not be noticeable in games, especially because they're usually bottlenecked by the video card in the first place.

Lastly, games are already being coded for 4+ cores, so even a current quad core will be much faster in gaming in future games.

tl;dr? Get a quad if you can afford it.

[Psy]

Doesn't just go on 'number of cores' though now.
It depends entirely on the 'threaded' capabilities of the software in questions.
Chances are, an industrial app that was coded at the time of dual-core's releases, will run better on a quad-core.
It just depends on whether you want to increase in performance, however noticeable, and what you are willing to pay.

[Tofu]

[Cheetah]

[Tofu]

Thank you cheetah.

I'm outta this topic.. lol