intel quad core vs dual core?

[stitcher]

I want to have a new pc built but I am somewhat confused about what Intel cpu to use.
Is a quad core really needed if all you do is some gaming, a little photo work and primarily basic stuff on your pc?

[gshv]

Dual-cores should be sufficient if you do just some gaming, don't care much whether or not your games played at maximum resolution with maximum AA, and don't want to spend much on the system. Quad-cores are not much faster when playing last/this year games, but they are expected to be much faster in future games.

Gennadiy

[Cobracon]

Two of my computers run fairly "new" hardware. One has an Intel q6700 (quad) running @ 3.55GHz. The other has a brand new Intel e5200 (dual) running @ 3.5GHz. Day to day use shows no descernable difference. Super Pi calculation times are virtually identical. If I use the same video card in either computer, the 3DMark03, 3DMark05, & 3DMark06 scores are extremely close.

The e5200 cost $83 US, and the q6700 cost ~$260 US (but came with a free game).

I agree the quad cores will be faster as more software is written to take advantage of them. Of course, I'm still waiting for all the 64-bit vs. 32-bit driver/software issues to be worked out so I can step up to Vista 64, but I'm not holding my breath on that either.