When someone buys a cpu they are gonna want to OC... why the hell would you get a quad and NOT OC it?? Im pretty sure a 3ghz Phenom beats a 3ghz athlon
yeah i'm sure it would.. but the new 9500 phenom quad core only operates at 2.2 ghz
so why would you want something that slow?
if you understand how quadcores and true quadcores operate, you know that games aren't utilizing the full potential of the core.
to break it down for you it's like this.
if you had a stack of books and asked 2 kids to move them to the other side of the room, if each kid took 2 books each, and say it takes them 5 minutes to complete the task. It would equal the same time if you asked 4 kids to take 1 book each.
quad cores currently are running each quater at 512k. 4x 512k = 2048 for L2 cache.
dual cores run each half at 1024mb 2 x 1024 = 2048 L2 cache.
Dual cores actually work your cpu, because before the dual core, single core processors had to simulate real time by dividing the workload of each task in nanoseconds. Like if you were running a virus scan, copying a folder, listening to music, and playing solitare at the same time, the single core would have to work at one task, stop, work at the next task, stop...next task.. and try to simulate real time. Dual cores could split the workload in half by dedicating some of the bus speed to each task at hand. spliting the core into 4 is not improving performance UNLESS you increase the cache size. Much like having a 1000 MHZ FSB is not optimal if your RAM is running at 400mhz.
Thus, Quadcores may be better, faster in the future, however i'm not going to waste money on a quadcore that only runs a 2.2.GHZ - In which the 9500 Phenom operates at.