Advice needed on PC upgrade

[gumby6371]

I've just replaced my dead 8800gt card with a Gigabyte GTX460 super overclocked graphics card as I do a bit of PC gaming.

Next thing is a CPU upgrade, currently have an AMD AM2 2.7 dual core and I want something to keep up with the new graphics card.
Sticking with AMD as I can fit an AM3 CPU in my existing board and upgrade bit by bit.

However I can't decide how many cores to go for on the new chip. In my budget I can go with a 3.4 Quad or a 3.0 six core, read loads of benchmark review type things but which is quicker in the real world ?

Any suggestions on whether to go for the higher clock speeds or more cores ?

[FarmerPug]

the processor power is measured in ghz

[Gary406]

why upgrade ? i run AM2 CPU 2.4ghz dual core and its spot on ?

are you sure your board can take am3 because boards are usually for 1 socket only

[steve_earwig]

That's probably a pertinent question - What motherboard is it?

[gumby6371]

I've checked on the gigabyte website and my board 'GA-MA74GM-S2', supports AM2, AM2+ and AM3 chips, the pin configuration is the same for all, the AM3 just requires a BIOS flash on my particular board.

I'm upgrading for better gaming and video encoding performance so the more power the better, once it's complete the old bits are going into a media centre pc.

All i need to know is which is best day to day, higher clock speed or more cores?

I know that multi core processors only work well with multi threaded applications but the majority on newer games and video encoding software utilises the technology so it's worth the upgrade for me.

[FarmerPug]

a higher clock speed would be useful.