Oh yes. Multithreading is the de facto standard. Almost everything released these days uses it. There's threads in which various forum members screech at Toady for it, to no avail.
I see. So in order for me to play DF at a good speed and also be able to play modern games aswell, I need a multicore processor, that runs at a high speed? Any recommendations?
Well, luckily, it's not as hard to choose as you might think. There's no such thing as a modern, ultra-fast, single-core CPU - there's a damn good reason the industry moved to multi-core CPUs, and it wasn't to screw over programmers (despite what some of us think!). So it's not a matter of 'trading off' single-core and multi-core speeds, or 'deciding between' modern games and DF.
(That said, modern games
are graphically-intense, while DF (obviously) isn't. You'll have to spend money on a GPU if you want modern games, whereas DF could probably run on embedded graphics handily. Still not really a trade-off, though, more like an additional requirement.)
And having a multicore CPU is still
slightly helpful, since you can give DF its own core and let a second core handle OS/background applications. It's less of an additional benefit once you hit quad-core or higher, though.
Wow; all this means almost nothing to me. I know how to /use/ a computer, but I don't really know how they actually work.
So if I printed this info out and took it to a computer place, would they know what you're all talking about?
I've been running DF off my little LG Netbook. It's pretty slow. Where do I go in to find my specifications?
Hehe, no, they'd probably look at you like you were nuts and then try to sell you a MacBook.
There's a few good sites online that can poll your system specs. As for upgrading... are you looking for another netbook? A laptop? You won't be building your own portable computer, of course, so decide what you can afford and see what's available at that price.