Not much difference

[i81b4u]

Hi, I am considering buying a new intel quad core cpu and motherboard etc. Recently my Dad upgraded from an amd athlon 64 3500+ single core to a athlon 64 x2 4800+, there is a little bit of difference but not what we expected. Is it worth buying a quad core or is there not much difference between the quad and dual? I'll be using it mostly for gaming. Any input from anyone who has upgraded from dual to quad would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou

[chipcollector]

I switched from something very similar, except from a 3700+ to a quadcore extreme (my brother has the Q6600, and there really isnt much difference in performance at all between the two). Anyways, I saw a HUGE difference, it let me run basically anything I could think of in the background while gaming, and it minimized/maximized the gaming window instantly (something not possible with the 3700+).

bottom line for you: Ive had experience with dual core systems and quad. if you were jumping from 3500+ to quad, it would be worth it. but from dual core to quad, you really wouldnt notice *that* much of difference. In terms of gaming, you need a high end video card to get the speed you need