Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3 GHz vs Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.83 GHz?

[ComputerNovice2]

Hello, I'm trying to breathe a little life into a very dated gaming PC. I'm wondering which of the aforementioned CPU's would give the best performance.
The other specs include:
-8GB DDR2 RAM
-GTX 650Ti 2GB DDR3
Thank you for the help in advance.

 

[Bossyfins]

Well what games do you play? Games like BF require more stronger CPUS..

 

[ComputerNovice2]

Well what games do you play? Games like BF require more stronger CPUS..

I'm looking to play games like Skyrim, Oblivion, and Fallout New Vegas with plenty of mods. I would play more modern titles like BF4 if the machine was able to, but I'm not sure if it would.

 

[Bossyfins]

I think BF prefers more cores, but I am not sure. I'll have a friend look at it.

 

[V1ctor89]

Definitely go for the Core 2 Quad. We cannot compare a dual-core cpu with a quad-core, because it's not really helpful. A quad-core will always be better than a dual-core in every aspect. Just make sure that your PSU can provide enough power to sustain the new configuration.

 

[Abhraneel Roy]

I prefer you to go to Intel Core 2 duo 3.0Ghz

 

[Bossyfins]

Why the dual core? He won't be hit so bad by going .2 clock speed down. Its 2.83 on 4 cores

 

[Abhraneel Roy]

The Core 2 duo has 3000mhz.

 

[Bossyfins]

But the quad core is 2.83.

He will gain more performance in other ares using the quad core.

 

[V1ctor89]

The fact that is 2,83 ghz (0,17 lower) doesn't matter here because the extra 2 cores make it more powerful. I believe that even the single threaded performance is higher on the quad-core. Like i said: don't compare CPUs with different number of cores. The overall performance of the quad-core in your case is double than the dual-core. You can check a CPU benchmark chart if you don't believe me.

 

[ComputerNovice2]

Thank you all for the help, I will go with the quad core.