Quote - Here's the stats for the P5 test scene at 1600x1600:

1 core 4 threads:277.68 seconds
2 cores 4 threads: 173.72 seconds
4 cores 4 threads: 101.62 seconds.

So a quad core WILL render faster than a dual core at the same frequency.

 

What is the difference between your dual and quad core setups? Supposedly the poser rendering engine can't use more than two physical cores. (I suppose that the other load on the system would be shifted to the unused processors, but I wouldn't imagine that it would make that big of a distance.)