Intel Pentium M processor question

[Makaveli10]

Hi everyone:

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 that I've had for a few years now. Its got an Intel (R) Pentium (R) M Processor 1.86GHZ 335MHz. I always assumed my processing power was limited to 1.86 GHz and so never bothered to buy any games that had a higher minimum requirement than what I had. To my surprise though I've been able to run Bioshock and Crysis (although its not been the prettiest of experiences 😛). I was wondering how this was possible and wanted to know the equivalent power it had in comparison to other processors? My knowledge of computer performance is severely limited. I'd be grateful for any guidance on the matter, and let me know if I need to post more information about my system. Thanks!

 

[PeteRoy]

Pentium M is equivalent to Core Duo in single threaded applications I think.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Playing games generally is far more dependent on your video card then CPU. You can get away with a middle of the road CPU more often then not.

 

[myocardia]

Welcome to anandtech. A 1.86 Ghz Pentium M is roughly the equivalent of a 2.2-2.3 Ghz Athlon 64, or a ~3 Ghz Pentium 4.

 

[Makaveli10]

Ahhhhh excellent!! That makes a great amount of sense, thank you for the replies. My graphics card is an Nvidia Geforce Go 6800 256MB, so I guess that accomodates for the lack of processing power for more demanding games. Now I've got a guide to go against when looking at minimum requirements - thanks again!