i7 quad vs. i5 dual... i7 has four cores vs. i5 two cores which gives it the ability to handle more processing in parallel with programs that support multiple cores. Also... the i7 quad has 6MB L3 cache vs. i5 dual core's 3MB L3 cache. Having much more L3 cache or in this case double the on chip cache means that the processor has more available on board memory to store and retrieve data that it is processing. It means it has less wait states which makes the i7 quad core able to work much more efficiently at the same clock speed compared to the i5 dual core... This also gives the i7 quad an advantage whether it is using a single core or two cores.
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