Gaming AMD 3 or 4 cores?

[iGas]

Civ 5 System Requirements list just came out, and I like to have my system up to snuff by the end of September.

Will be gaming under Vista, but I might buy Win & if it significantly improve gaming performance.

Current system:
Athlon II X2 245
4 GB ram
1280x1024 LCD (I can hook it up to my 1080p LCD TV @ 2.4ms response time), possibly upgrade to an 37" 1080p TV as a dedicated monitor.
On board graphics (will upgrade to GTX 460 1gb).

Will a quad or triple core CPU upgrade significantly improve my Civ 5 gaming experience over that of the current X2 cores CPU?

Thanks.

 

[Jovec]

Asking about an unreleased game? However, we can infer from the minimum specs (dual-core) to the recommended specs (quad) that the game will indeed make decent use of the extra cores. So... probably.

 

[DrMrLordX]

You could always hedge your bets and pick up an Athlon II x3 445 or a Phenom II x3 720 BE and try for an unlock.

Either way you will get one more core minimum, possibly two more. You also get L3 with the Phenom II, and possible L3 with the x3 445 (it unlocks to a Deneb when it unlocks). L3 helps a good bit with games, so putting yourself in a position where you might get some L3 is a good idea.

 

[0roo0roo]

No idea, i know team fortress 2 only uses 2-3 cores with core loading not impressive..while left 4 dead 2 uses all 4 with pretty good efficiency. both are source engine, but left4dead is the newer version. It depends entirely on how well the engine is coded.

 

[LoneNinja]

It says dual core for the min with no clock speed, and 1.8Ghz quad as a recommended. This gives me the idea that it is well threaded for at least 3 cores, but honestly since it's not out yet it may in fact run just as well on your current dual. Until actual benchmarks come out I don't think we can say that it will be significant or not to move to an X3/X4 or what the difference between them would actually be.

 

[Skiprudder]

I would go for at least 4. According to an interview linked on the "Civ Fanatics" website http://www.civfanatics.com/ Firaxis has designed the game to be highly threaded and they have tested on up to 12 core systems. They actually brag that the threading is significantly better optimized than in most games to take advantage of as many cores as possible. Then there is this quote from an Intel page...

"GPA allowed us to optimize Civilization V for a wide variety of hardware, from integrated graphics to high-end enthusiast cards. By using GPA’s Platform View for task visualization and Intel TBB, we were able to build an engine that makes maximum use of all the CPUs in the system, including the new 6 core/12 thread Core i7 processors. GPA was exactly the kind of tool we needed to make this happen!"
– Dan Baker, Firaxis

 

[formulav8]

I think your dual core will have no real problems pushing the video card to playable frames. If your a ocer then you could get up to 3.6ghz on that dual core if you have a good board, ect...

 

[richierich1212]

I'd wait until it gets closer to release date. CPU prices will be lowered by then, and hopefully some preliminary benchmarks will be released.

 

[iGas]

It look like the dual core going to be a paper weight by the end of summer, and I'm gunning for 6 cores since the game will take advantage of multiple cores.

Thanks all.