Ghz vs. Cores for best Performance?

[Maestro77]

hey,

i have to choose between:

3,6 GHz 4‑Core Intel Core i3

and

3,0 GHz 6‑Core Intel Core i5

what is better for audio producion.... more cores or more Ghz?

which one should i prefer and why?

thank you!

[amagalma]

What are the exact model numbers?

[mschnell]

For a new computer I would not start this low.

-Michael

[xpander]

Originally Posted by Maestro77

more cores or more Ghz?
which one should i prefer and why?

I think of it as a balancing act. More cores means being able to distribute the CPU load better. And more core speed means better real time audio performance because real time audio uses only a single core.
CPU Performance vs. Real-Time Performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUsLLEkswzE

[Maestro77]

thank you.
real time performance is more important for me.
the video is very insightful.

one thing i wonder:
the Ghz speed: does each core have this speed?

3,6 GHz 4‑Core = 4x 3,6 Ghz
3,0 GHz 6‑Core = 6x 3,0 Ghz

or is the value the total Ghz speed of the sum of all the cores?

[xpander]

The given core speed applies to all the cores.

Afaik, in desktop computers most applications expect the same speed from all the cores to maintain an even performance. There are ARM designs with a dynamic performance* (ARM big.LITTLE), but that doesn't apply for the regular desktop computers.

*)Dynamic in this case meaning speed differences between the cores, not the usual dynamic fluctuation of all core speeds together.