People who need to ask this question generally don't care about the answer. You probably just browse the internet, listen to music, and do "some video or photo editing."
You still won't likely notice any difference. Running VMs is more RAM intensive than it is processor intensive.Believe me I care. I run Parallels and multiple virtual machines. I am asking this because I am seriously considering buying the latest MCP with Retina Display that has 256 GB flash storage. There is a guy in my town who just bought one and is selling it at a steep discount and I'm wondering if it is significantly better than my 2010 MCP with 17 inch screen, 512 GB SSD, and 8 GB memory. On the whole, the specs look nearly the same between my MCP and the latest MCP except with regards to the processor and graphics specs. Therefore that where the real comparison comes down to.
...keep in mind also that a Quad Core will generate more heat and use more battery. Better is a subjective thing, buy what you need.
That's true, but the Apple laptops with quad-core processors all have batteries sufficiently large to compensate for the more power-hungry processor, so the battery life is actually roughly the same from what I've heard. But valid point on the heat.
You still won't likely notice any difference. Running VMs is more RAM intensive than it is processor intensive.
1. 2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
2. 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Which processor is better? Explain your reasoning.