In all honesty, you're probably better off going with the newer dual-core single processor because it probably has a larger cache and less latency between cores.

Dual processors are nice, but it does still take time to send data between them. That's why they went to multi-core before they bothered with multi-processor systems.  

Ahh, that'd make sense. I'll probably switch them out later today.

Thanks a lot.  

Posted by Draenin

A two processor setup is very different from two cores.

For instance, you can run a single instance of a game using both cores, but adding a second processor allows you to process data with however many cores are between both processors.

Oh darn. I figured since Windows seems to treat multiple cores as multiple CPU's that it would be similar. :C  

I always thought 2 processors were better than 2 cores. I would like to know where draenin gets his info.

Edit: nm. Google set me straight. Dual core ftw.  

Recommended settings on most games set Multi-core Rendering on. I don't know if this is a mistake, but it seems to think I have a dual-core processor.  

Posted by hosler

I always thought 2 processors were better than 2 cores. I would like to know where draenin gets his info.

Latency from core to core is pretty much always lower than processor to processor, because information doesn't have to be sent between additional devices.

For instance, sending data between four cores on one processor is easier and more efficient than trying to send the same amount between four processors with only one core each.

Posted by Crono

Oh darn. I figured since Windows seems to treat multiple cores as multiple CPU's that it would be similar. :C

Windows doesn't treat multiple cores as multiple CPUs. Even in the Task Manager, it divides each processor into its own sections with monitoring for the load on each core.

Just a little mockup of what a single and double quad core setup looks like:  

Looks like the same section to me.  

Posted by Newton

Looks like the same section to me.

More often than not, multiple cores will share the load between them which will make it look like both are processing the same amount of information. (And at times, they are.) However, with more cores and less resources being used, sometimes one or two cores will take care of most of the load while additional cores sort out smaller loads of data.