What type of application does a larger cache benefit?

[rip]

My new build will be E8400/E3110 (6MB cache) or Q6600 (8MB cache). O/S will be 64bit Vista Ultimate. I mostly run Sonar (audio multi-tracking) and play games online and off-line. Home theater is a future option. My vid card is 9600GT. RAM will be 2X2GB.

I ask this question because I recently got a screamin' deal on a Q9450 w/ 12MB cache and wondered if it would be worth it to come up with the extra $$$ in my budget or just turn it over like originally planned and stay with the $200 chip.

 

[PCTC2]

Extra cache is beneficial for programs with a lot of memory reads and writes. It allows the system to read and write to faster cache rather than system memory or hard drive paging. One example is media encoding.

EDIT: Get whatever you want. I'd personally get either the E8400 or the Q9450.

 

[cbolt67]

Try looking over this article. I found it interesting. Maybe it will answer your question.

http://www.tomshardware.com/20...oes_cache_size_matter/

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: PCTC2
Extra cache is beneficial for programs with a lot of memory reads and writes. It allows the system to read and write to faster cache rather than system memory or hard drive paging.

Correct, and very well-said, I might add. Games seems to benefit by far the most, at least among commonly-used software, as long you aren't trying to run them @ extreme resolutions, or with 16x AA. SuperPi also benefits considerably from the extra cache, and IIRC, so do most types of distributed computing projects, like Folding@Home.