Forgive my ignorance but when you say that, for example, the 2600 i7 processor runs at 3.4 GHS does that mean that all four cores run at that speed, or their combined speed is 3.4 GHS?
I ask this because I am getting one and I am wondering how it will perform with single core games like Oblivion or Morrowind, or Far Cry for example…
Thanks for the assistance

All your cores run at that speed.

Edit: It should be noted that the GPU, not the CPU, contributes the most to performance in games.

Skyrim is highly CPU dependent. But, yes, most games are mostly dependent on the GPU. I had almost no performance increase when I upgraded from a 560Ti to a 580 in Skyrim. Large increases in other games though.

Games are generally more gpu dependent, although I can attest to most modern games having high cpu requirements to maintain something like 60fps. I 'had' a powerful gpu and cpu, corei7 2600k @ 5ghz with a 6990. Then my cpu died, and they gave me a 2core cpu while my original goes to warranty. Games drops frames all over the place, even with this powerful gpu.

The original mass effect? I thought this game was a 2 core game based on it's age - yet during many scenes on two cores it drops to 24fps, 40fps, 52fps, all over the place. Same goes for mass effect 2, assassins creed 2+3+4, the witcher 2, crysis, crysis 2, grand theft auto 4 and episodes from liberty city, metro 2033, deus ex human revolution, saints row the third, battlefield 3, homefront, darksiders, sonic generations, batman arkham city and asylum, serious sam 3, call of duty games, rage, alan wake, two worlds 2, dragon age 1 and 2, the list goes on and on.

All these games run at a locked 60fps @ 2560x1440, with a 4core cpu, with a two core cpu? All over the place.

Out of all these games, skyrim is right up there in terms of cpu useage, I would say it's 70% cpu dependent and 30% gpu.

Cpu number + clockrate = vital to vaguely modern games.

Thanks for the info guys, since I play mostly TES games and the Total War series I was kind of worried that the older games would be a bit cripled. But sound slike I will be ok then...

@ OP

I have a i5-2500k 3.3ghz and I overclocked it to 4.3ghz without touching voltages. If you want to overclock buy a Coolermaster Hyper 212 cooler its really good.

I advise that you buy an i5 rather than an i7 if your not doing 3d modelling or video editing. An i7 has no gaming performance difference (no difference in fps) than the i5 and will save you quite a bit of money that you could spend on another part of your computer like an SSD. Most games do not use all four cores as it is so the i7's 4 cores plus 4 virtual cores will do nothing for you.

Look for "i5 vs i7 for gaming" in google for proof.

Yeah, if you're just gaming, the i5 2500k is a pretty good choice. The only thing that the i7 2600k has over the i5 (other than hyper-threading) is the larger cache. It will always out perform the i5 because of this, but not by much. Probably only like a 1 or 2 FPS difference. Hyper-threading is pretty cool, but not used in any games really. Only game I can think of that takes advantage of it is GTA IV. Still love my i7 though. It's pretty beastly. But, I do a lot more than game on my PC, so I went for the i7.