@captaincranky forgive me for being naive I am pretty sure you explained it well enough for everyone to understand but I am having a hard time understanding. Are you saying a quad core CPU isn't necessary when seeking to building a gaming rig because the software/technology/drivers aren't available to take full advantage of the multi-core hardware or that its just simply useless? Also you said something along the lines of "If you have a powerful graphic card then it can't be bottle-necked by a slower CPU"! As much as I hear the term bottleneck I am beginning to hate it, but its presence seems to be undeniable! Don't laugh, but I don't have the cash to put together the system I want all at one time, and when I can afford to buy a new part then the previous parts I bought seems to be out dated! So with that being said I am running the N680i SLI (A1) Motherboard and currently one GTX 280SC with 2GB of DDR@ Crosair 800Mhz Memory, I have the 3.6Ghz P4/HT Prescott 560J running everything(This CPU has came out of my other 3 systems since 2004 and it still serves well and its all I have until I buy a new one!) Now the system can run any game at 1600x1200 everything set to high even Anti-A enabled at the highest! The issue I see is that no matter what I change my resolution to I always get the same FPS(min18-45max) even running at 640x480 in-game and also on benchmarks. Everyone I come across says it's because my CPU is bottle-necking the system! I was running a 9800GTX+ before I got the current GTX 280SC and the FPS seem to be the exact same with the GTX 280SC as I had with the 9800GTX+! So is that a bottle-necking issue and would upgrading to a quad core qx6850 improve my performance better vs e8600? I bought the motherboard because I wanted something affordable that I could keep for a while, so SLI and CPU upgrade-ability won all hands down! Please tell me if what I'am explaining is what you where referring too. Some of my roommates disagree with you and some agree! I just would like to know if what I'am explaining is what you are talking about.
The term "bottleneck" when used in a colloquial, abstract, or slang manner, directly refers to a restriction of flow. "Because of the overturned truck, traffic was "bottlenecked" down to one lane". A CPU >>generates the flow<< it can't "bottleneck" itself, it can only create insufficient flow! Now contemporary "Geek Speak" calls everything that >>lessens flow <<a "bottleneck". I disagree with many applications of the term. In your example, I would say that your CPU is inhibiting the game, creating insufficient data, not up to the task, something on that order, but not really bottlenecking it.
Now, if your CPU were capable of generating 200 FPS, and your video card was only capable of offloading 50 FPS, then that would be the true or traditional application of the term. Yep, that baby would be "bottlenecked"...!
As to the Quad vs Dual Core issue, more games seem to be able to utilize multiple cores than in just the past couple of years. Wisdom was up until now, that the higher clock speeds that the dual cores (notably the E8XXX Intel Wolfdales) were capable of generating, were more to the benefit of gaming than extra cores. Some of today's quads are approaching the clock speeds of the duals, and offer many benefits in other areas of computing as well. (CAD, Photoshop, movie editing, and transcoding). It's probably time to consider four cores as the optimum.
I'm not a gamer, but those at the forum that are, at least the more experienced, (read "more affluent there") have opted for quads if not the new hexacore issues.
On the other hand, one of our members, not two years ago, opted out of a quad for gaming, and went with a high end Intel dual core for games.
With all that being said, today even the lowest end Intel Core 13-530 will take the measure of most of the E8XXX series, with hyperthreading to boot. (Am I still allowed to use the slang phrase "to boot", without referring to starting up a computer? Gosh I hope so).
With all of that being said, why not check out this CPU report at "The Tech Report",
http://techreport.com/articles.x/18448 With enough Red Bull, this should keep you and your roomies up to the very wee hours of the next day, arguing about whether, "if a CPU burns up in forrest, and nobody's there to unplug it, can you see or hear the forest fire"? (Geek existentialism).
