the newer gen intel cpu's have better single core ipc. making them faster for most everything. the clock speed is not as important as ipc. newer one may be "slower" in clock speed but does more with each cycle so still gets more done with fewer cycles. this is why they are still vastly faster than the amd fx cpu's. the fx has crazy clock speed but does so little each cycle that slower intel cpu's easily beat it overall.
I can have Photoshop running, YouTube, the Dashboard of my website, Microsoft Office, all at once. Sometimes I use ITunes for watching another video besides YouTube.