If you have been shopping around for computers the past few months, you have undoubtedly noticed that there is an ever increasing number of models which are equipped with quad core processors on the shelves. If you have never found out what a quad core processor is, it basically means that the computer has a processor which can do at least four (and sometimes even more) things at one time. While the speeds per individual processor core might be a little bit slower than the fastest of the single core processors in some other computers, the overall speed is greatly increased by the fact that these computers have more of these “slower” processors.
To put it in perspective, all of the computers selling new on the market today can perform more than a billion simple calculations per second. The fastest human can do about three in the same amount of time. These things are all wickedly fast, when you think of it. However, single core processors suffer from one of the same limitations that our own brains do — they can only perform one “string” of processes at the same time. So no matter how fast they can go, they will not be as fast as a quad core processor. After all, some quad core models have 8 strings, which means they can be performing 8 simple calculations at the exact same time.
Now, as to whether or not a quad core processor is worth the additional cost (which may be three times as much money as a single core), this is a difficult question to answer. For some people, the answer would be “absolutely not,” because all they do is word processing, basic internet browsing and rarely play a video game more complex than Minesweeper. However, if you are going to play any difficult games, you are going to find a huge performance advantage in picking up a quad core.
