If you typically game the Dual core will be improved. If you do Photoshop a lot or instruct then the quad will be better.Personally I sense a 2.83GHZ quad will cover quite much everything you desire to do on a computer.

I would obtain the quad. Future games will support multi cores. If u run vista your extra cores will be careful of other tasks. Dual core is best with games presently because of higher clocks but the dissimilarity isn’t much? Quad cores can oc to over 3.0 GHz so the dissimilarity between the 2 cpus is like a 2-5fps max. But if you don’t oc the dual core has a slight edge.

Thanks for the huge amount of replies. So I was just marveling how far do you imagine I can oc the quad with a stock fan and heatsink? (I am openness towards the quad). I have no experience doing oc but I’ll form it out you have to begin somewhere. And I realize there were other topics like that but those were last winter and wondered if anything distorted because technology increases faster. Thanks again.

I deduction it counts on the cooling of your case, room temperature, the exacting processor you contain, etc. but I'd be very astonished if you could hit 3.0 with the stock cooler.

No, Get the Quad, as still games that are not optimized for one will advantage from the other cores captivating over windows procedures.

3GHz on the Q9550 would be easy on the stock cooler because it’s not that distant anyways.

I favor the quad core because I tend to do a lot even when I am playing a game. It’s good to be able to alt+tab further than TF2 to check the internet and open some other programs then alt+tab back in without it still slowing down.

Occasionally I will run my anti-virus scan, have some IE7s open and a few other programs while playing TF2 and it just continues going. I have a Q660 OCed to 3GHz BTW.

Get a quad since after a while your service tab will obtain obstruct quite badly particularly under vista. The extra cores that are not "working" can be careful of the background service and let the other cores think on game.

Keep in mind all review done is on a fresh install windows with most service turned off and the dual core excels. In real life you wouldn’t turn all service off and reinstall windows each time you play game! Do you?

Plus the novel 45nm quad don’t overclock as bad they go quite high as well. So there isn’t a main gap in between dual and quad core.

A somewhat lower clocked quad will break higher clocked duals yet in non-quad optimized games, contrary to conservative wisdom. It takes around 200+ MHz dissimilarity for dual to pull in front. This is due to background procedures moving to spare cores in quad, freeing 2 cores devoted for the large program.

Counts on the game, if it’s TF2 which is insanely CPU rigorous since it doesn't support over 1 core, then the Dual is improved. I'm going to suppose that dual you're allowing for on purchasing is the E8600; with a good air cooler you should can hit 4.5ghz which would help in many situations, particularly in today's gaming.