[X4U] 2 vs 4 cores, iMac?

[Joe Sporleder]

There are some nicely priced previous generation 27" iMacs on Apple's online store, refurbished section (see below). Unless one is doing a ton of video encoding, 3-D modeling, etc, will the 4-core iMacs offer much extra in performance? Does Photoshop take advantage of the extra cores? We do not do much with filters in Photoshop - color correction is our Photoshop's primary function. Although we area media company, a print publisher and a radio station, we are getting more and more into audio and video online through our websites, such as Youtube and Blip.tv, etc (iMovie for now, but would be open to Final Cut Express or Pro).

Refurbished iMac 27-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
27-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
1TB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics with 256MB memory
Built-in iSight camera	
$1,269.00
Save $430.00
25% off

Refurbished iMac 27-inch 3.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
27-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
1TB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics with 256MB memory
Built-in iSight camera	
$1,439.00

Refurbished iMac 27-inch 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
27-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
1TB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics with 512MB memory
Built-in iSight camera	
$1,529.00
Save $470.00
23% off