PC gurus, speak to me

[goldorak]

Originally Posted by Wolfehunter

your right but it helps. Windows and other OS can use the multi processors to do stuff while the main processor is reserved for the primary program running. Well I hope the OS's are geared that way?

I'd recommend you take a look at task manager and see just how much the kernel is taking in terms of cpu usage. You'll be surprised it doesn't go beyond 1-2% max.
Now if we talk about having different programs active at the same time (say antivirus, firewall, etc...), then yes multicore cpu can help, but my point was that having a top of the line core2duo + top of the line graphics card will get you more performance in games than buying a quadcore (whose max frequency doesn't scale as well as dual core cpu's) and a mid/top level graphics card.

Crysis (which is the benchmark in pc games) doesn't even scale with # cores !!!
Flight Simulator X is another offender, it scales much more with core frequency than with number of cores.
Falcon 4 AF, scales with 2 cores and with frequency (its a largely cpu bound game). Beyond 2 core you won't see improvement.
Black Shark is not multicore aware (but scales with frequency).
Sh 3 and 4 are not multicore aware (but they scale with frequency)
etc....

you get the gist.

Multicore aware games will of course come out, but not before the gaming development comunity embraces and targets esclusively DX 11 games.
At that won't be the case for at least several years (until the succesor to the xbox 360 comes out).