Single Quadcore or Dual Dualcore?

Question

If you have to choose (everything else being equal) between one processor with four cores, and two processors with dual core, what are the points in favour of each solution?

Answer 1

Physically speaking, the latency between two separate processors separated by centimeters is a knock on multi-CPU configurations in itself. However, these configurations typically have independent cache, which is different than single-die / dual-die multicore system. These shared-cache architectures gain considerable performance increases when the right application is running (e.g. one with few-to-no cache misses, using all the cores), but the cores are still vying for a shared resource which can cause the opposite to happen - terrible cache misses that kill performance.

Unfortunately every board and architecture is different. Your question can be answered or at least guessed at for a given application. As it stands, though, the jury is out when it comes to raw performance.

Cost, however, is another matter. I think it's obvious given the proliferation of multi-core systems that cost is in the quad-core's favour.

Answer 2

One major benefit to a single quad core would be power and heat/cooling savings overall.

Answer 3

I personally would like 1 quadcore, and my reasoning is so that 1 processor can manage the data and work directly with the ram instead of having 2 processors compete for data management. I am sure there are other explanations.