CPU Speed vs Number of Cores?

I'm running a Toshiba Satellite with a 4th generation Core i7-4710HQ quad core processor clocked at 2.5GHz with turbo capability to 3.5GHz and 16GB of RAM under Windows 8.1. All I know is that this computer runs rings around the Dell my wife uses that has a third gen i7 processor and 8GB of RAM. My perception of performance improvement is based on a few available online benchmarks and things like how fast the computer boots from a cold start (both have equivalent SATA HDD drives). This isn't as quantitative as you all have been, but I think our perceptions are pretty accurate.