Q: well i found a tri-core processor for a really good deal but i dont know much about them and haven't heard much about them and i was woundering if that was because they were "BAD" or not cuz AMD only makes them i guess and there is only like 2 models for it. so should i buy the tri-core at a good price or get a dual core or a quad core for more??
A: The latest Intel processors are faster than AMD clock-for-clock and core-for-core. The tri-core AMDs are meant to compete with the dual-core Intels. As I understand it, for the time being AMD gives better performance per dollar than Intel. If you want to play the latest games, get an Intel dual core. If you want to play future games or do scientific processing, get a quad-core or wait for the Intel Nehalem processor (coming out in September). If you are doing every day tasks like mail, office, web, media, casual gaming, with a reasonable amount of future-proofing, the tri-core AMD will be fine.