dual core for my gaming rig ?

[Gadzookie]

im thinking of getting a 4200 x2 dual core processor for my next gaming rig but i heard alot of ppl saying there dual cores are giving them problems when gaming

all i will be doing is playing games on my pc should i still go dual core or get a single processor

 

[o1die]

If you're on a budget, I'd put more money into the video card than the cpu. I found a Fry's combo deal with athlon 64 3200 for $170. It overclocks to 2500, a great bang for the buck.

 

[Gadzookie]

im going to be getting a 7900 gt and 2 gigs of ram but i cant decide what to get either a 3700 san diego or a 4200 dual core

 

[robertk2012]

4400. Most new games will be made for dual cores. I havent had a problem with mine yet but there are incompatibilites out there.

 

[Tig Ol Bitties]

If it was me, Id pick the dual core to be more future proof. The 4200 would be a sweet spot choice right now for X2s, and they overclock nicely. The difference in the 4200 and 4400 is the extra cache, and i dont think its going to provide any significant difference. But hey, I love my 4400.
As far as problems go, the incompatibilities with older games can be fixed by setting the affinity through the task manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL). You will basically run the processor as a single core instead by turning off one of the cores for games that do not support dual core like HL2 and GTA:SA. You can search all over the web for how to set affinity for games not supporting dual core. So in a sense you get the best of both worlds going dual core, and they're cheaper these days, and new games like Oblivion will utilize the dual cores more. Make sure to check out AMD's website to get updated dual core drivers and the microsoft's dual core hotfix at their site. I dont have links to them anymore, but they will help a lot if you do decide to go dual. And when you go dual, you never go back.
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AMD X2 4400+ Toledo
XFX and LeadTek GeForce 7800 GTX 450/1250 in SLi
DFI Lanparty nF4 SLi-DR (704-2bta BIOS)
2X1GB OCZ Platinum DDR Ram (2-3-2-5)
Hitachi Deskstar SATAII HD 250 GB
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NZXT Guardian Case
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
Creative Inspire P7800 7.1 Surround System
Samsung 204b Black 20.1" LCD (1600x1200)

 

[Gadzookie]

ok im going to get the 4200 then i hope everything works out i only play city of villains

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

single core woulda been the wiser choice..

 

[Gadzookie]

why ?

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

in my opinion and if you plan on building a rig for gaming purpose mostly, id say a fast singlecore is the better choice. its not like every new game in 2006 will have dualcore support by nature, infact we are all waiting for a wave of dual core optimized games that may never come or at least not as a wave..so why buy a second core and wait for games that may appear slowly? Id go instead for something like a 3700+, its fast, its oc´able, and its not expensive. And it certainly is fast enough to play any game today, though u will need enough power in ur graphics subsytem aswell. So, id advise to spend the extra money u save from goin with a singlecore right into the graphics card. X1900XT. Then you can let those dualcore optimized games come and they will run perfectly even though u dont have one of these shiny dualcores.
Additionally look at the latest benchmarks for Intels upcoming CPU, Conroe. 20% faster than current AMD CPUs. Dont spend too much money for a horse that maybe dead already.

 

[Gadzookie]

ack i cant decide :-(

 

[Tig Ol Bitties]

LOL, look bud, its really a toss up...I just told you what I would do. I also told you in your other thread that those 3700s are an awesome chip. It just really depends on your budget i guess...you can opt for the 3700 and get a better video card from the $100 you save i suppose...me, i happen to multitask a lot, so the dual core was obviously the choice...if you're just gaming and nothing else, single chips will last for a while and probably be better for you. So really, the question is are you gonna be utilizing those 2 cores, cuz if not, the money you can save can be better spent somewhere else

 

[Gadzookie]

if i get a 3700 san diego and a 7900 gt how long do you guys think it will last for gaming ?

 

[Tig Ol Bitties]

1 year at least I would think...theres the new M2 socket out right now, but its a bit early to jump into those I think. People are still converting from 754 socket to 939, actually a lot of people are staying with 754 socket...the only thing you may end up upgrading again is your video card after a year. Check out ATI's 256mb 1800xt and 512mb 1900xt as well, they're good value right now too. Just do the research comparing the cards with nVidia to decide what you want.

 

[McArra]

Dual core is much much more powerfull, Link

 

[dguy6789]

Dual core, no questions asked. I would take an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ over an Athlon 64 FX 57 any day of the week.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

If you upgrade evry 6 months single-core is fine for now. Otherwise dual-core is a better solution for 18 months or more. I've read devs are starting to take advantage of multiple processors to help with A.I. physics calcs, ect., and with Intel making it obvious SMP ain't going away anytime soon, there is a definitely a financial incentive to program for it. that is very unlike any other time in PC gaming when SMP systems were a very small niche, and not approaching a mainstream gaming platform, as they are trending towards now.

 

[CP5670]

A dual core will be a little faster in games. The thing is that the cheapest dual core, the 3800, is still $300 while you can get the single core Opteron 144 for $130 off Monarch (both can generally be overclocked to at least 2.4-2.6ghz). For a purely gaming system, if that $170 is put into the video card instead, it would yield a far larger performance improvement than any faster processor currently available.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: McArra
Dual core is much much more powerfull, Link

3dmark testing is pointless as it does not translate to real-world 3d gaming results.

A couple of games have recently been patched with dual-core optimizations-- Quake 4 and Call of Duty 2. The COD2 patch did not increase the performance at all, according to FiringSquad's benchmarks. Quake 4, on the other hand, showed some good performance increases... depending on your playing resolution. At 1600x1200, there was NO performance increase, but at lower resolutions like 1280x1024, it was as high as 30%. It's really going to depend on your display and what resolution you play at.

Oblivion will be the first game to come out that will have dual-core support built-in without the need for a patch. A developer has said that there is a performance increase, but that he did not know how much. My guess-- once you get into 1600x1200 4xAA territory, you're going to be GPU-bound and the CPU (dual-core or not, FX-xx or not) will not affect performance. We've seen it with FEAR and COD2, and I'm guessing it will be the same with Oblivion. I hope I'm wrong because I have been looking for a reason to spring for dual-core.

 

[tjpark1111]

both are great, and if you got the cash, just get the dual-core. end of story.

 

[mcvigo]

get an opteron 144(9x) for 136 shipped on monarch, or a opteron 146(10x) or 148(11x). All overclock to fx 57 speed easy.

 

[TheRyuu]

Don't think anyone said it yet so,

Opteron 165 FTW!! FTW!!!!

 

[svsnow]

3800+ overclcoks around a 4200+ u might as well get it ..its cheap and will last long ass time . most games are going to be multi-threaded i assume .. since COD2 and quake 4 are already supporting it with the latest patches.
you can latter setup an ageia chip and ull be good to game on for years..

 

[svsnow]

3800+ (hits around same as 4200+) will last years upon years when u bundle it with the new ageia chips coming out ,.. also Quake 4 and COd 2 have patches that support multi-threading and the new UT 2007 will as well . most liekly all new games will be designed to support dual cores as well as single cores i assume...
then u can game on for years and not have to upgrade to a dual core again lol
or just stat content and wait til dual cores are super cheap or there is sokmtheing beter (ur choice)

 

[ronnystrauss]

dual core is the way to go for sure. the 4200 will be fine for any game out right now and for future games it will be awesome as well. and the dual core will have you set for atleast 2 years

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

i guess at the time we will have mass dualcore optimized games todays dual-cores will be out dated already.