Could someone please explain the difference between and Pentium D 2.8 Ghz and  Dual Core Duo 2 2.4Ghz processor?  These are the choices I have for my new system, and I'm wondering which would be best for rendering as well as playing games.

Thanks :).

why don't you dload sandra sisoft (free version) and do some tests, that'll tell you. are you overclocking???

I don't have the systems yet, I need to know which one I want to buy...

if i'm understanding dual core correctly then that would be the one you want. (if i am wrong someone please point it out!)

From what I've read it seems the Duo 2 2.4Ghz processor would be the better choice. These replaced the Pentium D and run much better and cooler than the Pentium Ds did and has a better clock speed than the Pentium D. As far as rendering and running poser there are mixed reviews as these processors are 64-bit and poser is only 32 bit. There are many threads here on the subject. However, for running every other program duo-core is the way to go. With hope an intel user will answer this thread better than I. I'm and AMD man....shhhhhh! LOL!

yeah, i'm running a hyperthreading p4 2.6 ghz overclocked to 3.1 giving me a 320 fsb. my sled is about 2 years old now and haven't had a problem. heavy 3d applications and gaming...good to go.

you should research your stuff. there's a great site named "austrailia overclockers" (or something like that) and they have a section where peps post their rigs and the overclocks they are getting...or not getting. great way to see if what you are thinking about buying is up to snuff or not.

good luck!

Dual-Core 2, no question.  As you research this more it will become obvious.  Forget about what a consumer program such as Poser is said to run best with.  No program (or game) will be poorer for having a second processor available for handling the forty odd other things going on in the background.  While the Duo Core 2 (and new Xeon chips) will run all 32-bit applications they are of course 64-bit, allowing for huge leaps in memory usage far beyond the 4GB threshold (2GB per application) of 32-bit processors.  All applications (and games) which rely on floating point calculations will of course be greatly improved.  The Core 2 Duo series use 1033MHz front side buses with 4MB of shared L2 cache per processor, very nifty. 

The new Mac Pro uses two of the new Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors (up to 3GHz) each with a 1333MHz FSB.  Very impressive.

Thanks for the help guys...

Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Extreme are the new Intel processors which will leave (according to the reviews I have read) AMD speechless for at least half a year. They have made some benchmarks whith POV-raytracing renderings and the results were two till three times faster than with other processors. I haven't heard of any results with poser but a friend of mine just bought some core2 computers which he uses for Rhino/flamingo rendering and he told me that is was twice as fast. I'm considering to buy a core2 computer but that will be at least over two months.