a question about quad-cores!

an example: INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q9550 2.8GHZ
can I say that this cpu is 4*2.8= 11,2 GHz (in total) or not?

no

Well, you can call it what ever you want. But you have 4 cores, each one running a 2.8ghz. Look at it this way. You have a job that needs to be done. You have 4 people doing it, each one has there own part of the job to complete. So you cant say you have one really big person doing it.

StrangleHold said:

Well, you can call it what ever you want. But you have 4 cores, each one running a 2.8ghz. Look at it this way. You have a job that needs to be done. You have 4 people doing it, each one has there own part of the job to complete. So you cant say you have one really big person doing it.

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good way to explain it

but no you dont realy add all the cores GHZ up together and say ohh wow i have a 11,2 GHz cpu.

ok got it! thanx!
but which one is more important?
number of cores or the speed of a core?

Both but depends on how the program is wrote, if its multi threaded or not. If it can use 1 or 2 cores 3 or 4.

For most current games, a higher clocked dual core will run better than a quad. But as more and more apps make use of more cores, the quads will be faster for sure.

so you mean in the future more and more games will run better with more cores?

so you mean in the future more and more games will run better with more cores?

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Yes.

The way games work is most of the game code runs on one CPU and then other jobs are run on the other CPUs like sound, shadows or glows. So you cant say its like one big processor really.
One core can bottleneck the whole system if it cant cope with the job its been coded for even if the other three cores are not maxed out as CPU 1 code will not run on the other cores .
On the other hand 3D software does rendering with upto a few thousand processors in use one acts as a master and sends the others an area of the screen to render and al the processors are maxed out and fully used.

When buying a new gaming rig you really need to be sure you got a very fast one core in there if you can afford the fastest dual core but not the fastest quad core then buy the fastest dual core. Their is one PC Quad core game on the way called Alan Wake coded for three cores as its co coded for Xbox 360.

The way games work is most of the game code runs on one CPU and then other jobs are run on the other CPUs like sound, shadows or glows. So you cant say its like one big processor really.

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Actually, those are handled by the GPU. CPU handles stuff like Physics, AI, File Streaming... and sound, of course.