Found a
pretty extensive article on Tom's Hardware which pretty much concludes what a lot of enthusiats
kinda already know. Its a lot of info to digest, but its worth it.
Once again the CPU vs GPU debate takes centre stage. What's interesting here is the results from using the 'lowly'
E2160 CPU at its stock speed (1.8 GHz), and comparing it directly with results at 2.4 and 3 GHz.
As usual, Tom's goes the extra mile here with a lot of charts, graphs and tables, so try not to skim through too much.
This statement s very telling, but the article puts it all in perspective:
There is no obvious advantage to quad cores over dual cores, at least according to the graphics-based benchmarks. In order for the Q6600 to compete with the dual core E6750, the same clocking rate is recommended. If you wish to combine an E2160 with a Geforce 8800 or Geforce 9, you will need to overclock. Without a clock rate of at least 2400 MHz, you will lose a considerable amount of graphics performance, because the card is not fully loaded.
