Well then the dual-core i5 would win since it is clocked higher, if those dual-threaded apps only "see" the two cores it is coded with. 

Having said that, if you happen to run other programs in the background along with the game, having more cores give breathing room, but ultimately the frequency will be the keystone of your bridge.

The argument of dual versus quad doesn't change compared to the older generation of Core 2 CPUs, the software is always in control (so to speak). 

Im actually interested in this as well, as I have been looking at upgrading to either a 650 or 750, so Im in the same boat.

(the thing is for me though, both of them would most likely be a nice improvement over what I have.)

I think its odd how the 661 seems so weak on the anandtech comparo, but almost equal to the 750 on the tom's one. I wonder if anandtech didn't have ht on?
 
EDIT: My bad, I read the whole thing, and I didn't know i3 had HT

Oh I have no money, I was just curious. I am doomed to rock my P4 till the dawn of time...

Oh yea nothing like 25 FPS in NFS Pro Street sitting still on an empty track with GFX at min. Funny thing is, its actually easier, because its like racing in slow motion. At least L4D2 and RA3 play ok.

The i3 is a really interesting option, I know jack about overclocking tho, so for me I look @ stock for stock. The best I have ever done is I once got my buddy's PD 2.66 all the way to 2.8 stable on the stock cooler. Whoopty-do. I may fool with it a bit, but I'm more apt to buy a faster stock CPU than try to OC a slower one, mostly because I don't know what I'm doing. I guess it doesn't matter anyways as I don't have any money, I was more just bouncing an idea off you guys, I like to do that from time to time.

P.S. - I suppose I should have said till the end of time earlier, as the dawn of time already happened.

cool 

Depends on what software you're running. Native quad core is always better than dual core hyperthreaded, but if the software you're running is designed for a dual core architecture then the i5 661's are probably your best bet.
However previous posts are correct, the new i3's and i5's are cheaper and have a large amount of overclocking headroom. My only concern is that these chips are 32nm, and are not built to handle high voltages like Hey Zeus' Core i3, 1.364V on a 32nm chip is asking for trouble, unless you're on liquid cooling.
I'd recommend a Core i5 750 or a Core i5 661 depending on what you want to do with it.

The core i5 750 has lower memory latency. On the i5/i3 dual cores the memory controller is part of the gpu so it goes throught the gpu before talking to the processor itself. So the i5-750 would be a lot better simply because of the reduced latency. But then again you would need to have it clocked at the same frequency as the i3/i5 to really compare them.

thetacowarrior

Oh I have no money, I was just curious. I am doomed to rock my P4 till the dawn of time...

I'm still rocking an athlon XP