[X4U] 2 vs 4 cores, iMac?

[Nick Scalise]

---- Joe Sporleder <joe at wacondatrader.com> wrote: 
> 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

If you are going to edit video, the more cores the better.

There are some situations, like rendering DV, that the app will use 90%+ of every core it has available.
--
Nick Scalise
nickscalise at cox.net