What advantages do quad core processors offer?
Think of running a program as servicing a car and think of a processor as a pit-crew. A dual core processor is a 2-man pit-crew and a quad-core processor is a 4-man pit crew. In most cases, the quad-core processor will be faster than the dual core because it has twice as many processing cores to work on separate tasks. The only catch is that programs have to be written to take advantage of quad core CPUs if they are to use all 4 cores. Older applications were not written for quad cores but the latest games and applications written today are. Even if a quad core system is running programs written for dual cores, half of the processes will be offloaded to the other two cores. This means quad core processors still increase performance with programs not specifically designed to run on 4 cores. Higher GHz dual core processors tend to excel at older programs and the current generation of games. Lower GHz quad core processors excel at multi-tasking and running next-gen games.
