Will my processor be good enough?

[pleace]

Hey guys, i just upgraded my psu and i also got a GTX 550ti getting shipped to me, so i can finally have a gaming pc. i dont want to buy a new cpu but im wondering if i will be able to play games good enough with my current one(games dont have to be on the high settings). i current have a Amd Athlon 64 x2 5000+ 2.60GHz processor. im looking to play games like gta 4, assassins creed series, bioshock, maybe diablo 3, batman arkham, etc. Thanks .

 

[borisvodofsky]

Hey guys, i just upgraded my psu and i also got a GTX 550ti getting shipped to me, so i can finally have a gaming pc. i dont want to buy a new cpu but im wondering if i will be able to play games good enough with my current one(games dont have to be on the high settings). i current have a Amd Athlon 64 x2 5000+ 2.60GHz processor. im looking to play games like gta 4, assassins creed series, bioshock, maybe diablo 3, batman arkham, etc. Thanks .

Consider overclocking that processor to 3.2ghz-3.4ghz. The main obstacle for you will be minimum fps, because when things get busy on the screen, you're going to experience larger frame dips due to the aging CPU.

You can also manage this somewhat by turning down cpu heavy tasks such as physics, but that option is not tweak-able in all of the games on your list.

Just making sure, ur on AM2 right? and not 939?

 

[pleace]

i have no idea what am2 and 939 are, im sorry im new to this. and will that over-clocking eventually just destroy my cpu?

 

[Arkaign]

Upgrade that cpu ASAP. If your mobo supports it, get an Athlon II X3 or X4 for a cheap upgrade. If not, then perhaps look at Pentium Dual Core + H61 mobo + 4GB DDR3, which can be had for fairly cheap. If you have more $$, then stepping up to i3 or i5 and 8GB ram would be even better, but honestly with a 550ti I think an Athlon II or Pentium Dual-Core would be a decent match.

The Athlon X2 (pre II series) is just a terrible match for modern gaming.

All of the above assumes that you'll give up on GTA4. It's horribly coded on PC, and with a 550ti you'd want to combine that with at least an i3, 4GB DDR3, and details turned down quite a bit to make it playable.

The rest of the games you listed will play nicely at medium settings on an Athlon II with a 550ti and 4gb. (2gb will work, but I find many users have tons of apps/giant AV products/etc running in the background, in which 4gb helps greatly in not running out of ram).

 

[Puppies04]

Well if what you have is all you can afford then you will have to make do, but assuming you took the advice of people on this forum and upgraded the cpu (and maybe mobo) what would your budget be? Also what country are you in.

 

[pleace]

btw i got 8gb of ram. and this is all i can currently afford, i just wanted to make sure that it would do ok when playing games

 

[VirtualLarry]

if you have 8GB of RAM, then are you on AM2+ (DDR2) or AM3 (DDR3)? If you are on AM3, or your AM2+ board supports an AM3 CPU, then consider dropping in a Thuban Phenom II X6 1045T into that board.

 

[maniac5999]

if you have 8GB of RAM, then are you on AM2+ (DDR2) or AM3 (DDR3)? If you are on AM3, or your AM2+ board supports an AM3 CPU, then consider dropping in a Thuban Phenom II X6 1045T into that board.

I'm pretty sure that the Athlon 64s were 939 and AM2. AMD didn't start DDR3 support until the Phenom II. A quick Wiki search seams to indicate that a 5000+ was either Windsor(90nm) or Brisbane(65nm), both of which are AM2.

Pleace, while the CPU is significantly less important for gaming than the GPU, your CPU is ANCIENT. Possibly from as far back as 2005. That being said, depending on what motherboard you have, a decent CPU may be as simple as a drop in, $50 upgrade away. Is it possible for you to tell us what motherboard you're using? (and if possible what PSU too?)

 

[Gs dewd]

Yes your motherboard could very well support a x6 proc. I have 2 ddr2 boards that do.

 

[pleace]

ya sure. my psu is a 650w corsair, people reccomended corsair saying it was a good brand.
it is the XFX nForce 750a SLI Motherboard, and heres what the supported ones are.

Processor Supported:
Phenom
Athlon 64 X2
Athlon 64 FX
Athlon 64

Socket Supported:
AM2+

 

[maniac5999]

ya sure. my psu is a 650w corsair, people reccomended corsair saying it was a good brand.
it is the XFX nForce 750a SLI Motherboard, and heres what the supported ones are.

Processor Supported:
Phenom
Athlon 64 X2
Athlon 64 FX
Athlon 64

Socket Supported:
AM2+

95w max isn't a good thing, especially since I'm having trouble confirming that it'll support Phenom 2 chips. (Cliff's notes: AMD built the first Monolithic Quad, the Phenom. It sucked. They couldn't get it faster than 2.6ghz, and it had other problems. They replaced it with a patched up version on their smaller 45nm process. It was pretty darn good. they sold them at up to 3.7ghz, and as quads and Hexa-cores.)

The issue that we have is that because of the problems of Phenom 1, 95W boards can't really deal with them, they used too much power. If your board can support Phenom 2 chips, then you can get a 3ghz quad to drop in there for under $100, but that's a big if, and a quick google search isn't telling me the answer.

 

[2is]

Consider overclocking that processor to 3.2ghz-3.4ghz. The main obstacle for you will be minimum fps, because when things get busy on the screen, you're going to experience larger frame dips due to the aging CPU.

You can also manage this somewhat by turning down cpu heavy tasks such as physics, but that option is not tweak-able in all of the games on your list.

Just making sure, ur on AM2 right? and not 939?

Highly unlikely he will be able to OC anywhere near 3.4Ghz.

OP, you'll want a new CPU/Mobo/ram. That processor will not handle many of those games well. I have several X2 systems and they are not at all gaming CPUs.

 

[Bman123]

You need z better CPU. Honestly the only games you will run with good settings are from the cod era. Bioshock will run but you can forget about gta 4. That is one of the worst PC games of all time

 

[AtenRa]

You would be better with a Llano CPU+Mobo+Mem Combo than getting the GTX550.

Anyway, i believe you would be able to play some games at up to 1280x1024. Try raising IQ settings of the games as much as possible in order to stress the GTX550 and not the CPU.

 

[2is]

You would be better with a Llano CPU+Mobo+Mem Combo than getting the GTX550.

Anyway, i believe you would be able to play some games at up to 1280x1024. Try raising IQ settings of the games as much as possible in order to stress the GTX550 and not the CPU.

Raising IQ won't put any less stress on the CPU, it will just put more on the GPU than at lower IQ. So if he's getting shit performance at low IQ, he'll just get shit performance that simply looks prettier at higher IQ levels. Polishing a turd, in essence. At a certain point you may be able to raise IQ to make the GPU the bottleneck but that's not going to do anything for your performance except make it worse.

 

[borisvodofsky]

If you can get a new processor the good phenoms 1090 or 1045, then you're set. If not, then you'll need a whole new base setup.

 

[Rifter]

short answer No its not good enough. long answer read above posts.

 

[sm625]

look up your motherboard specs, make sure it can support the power rating on whatever CPU you want to put in there, even IF the bios can be updated to support it.

 

[blckgrffn]

Yeah, sorry. No. AMD x2's are way past their prime these days.

It'll work, but not very satisfactorily. Especially GTA 4, which really wants a quad.

You should check the FS/FT forums here. There are x58/i7 (Intel i7 Nehalem) setups with 6GB or ram and very reputable boards that go for $240-$260 fairly regularly. You'll be hard pressed to do better and get the same quality when it comes to components.

A SB i3 is strong, but sometimes you are going to need those threads so I feel that a x58 would be a better fit from that perspective. (IMHO)

You've got the PSU for it.

 

[Gs dewd]

ya sure. my psu is a 650w corsair, people reccomended corsair saying it was a good brand.
it is the XFX nForce 750a SLI Motherboard, and heres what the supported ones are.

Processor Supported:
Phenom
Athlon 64 X2
Athlon 64 FX
Athlon 64

Socket Supported:
AM2+

eeee. Your selection of "upgrade" procs is very limited. You'll need a new mobo to utilize a PhenomII proc. I have 2 am2+ ddr2 boards but both use the amd chipset and can take a x6 without issues.

 

[Denithor]

Ok, for starters, no, your CPU is not going to give you a good gaming experience.

A plus is your PSU - a 650W Corsair is a great model, can support literally any single GPU available (and honestly most dual-card setups too, but that's beyond the scope of this discussion).

Do you by chance live near a Microcenter? If so, lucky guy! Go look at their combos, sometimes they almost literally give away a motherboard when you buy a CPU.

What type of memory do you have? I'm guessing you just bought some (8GB)? Is it DDR2 or DDR3?

Give us a few more details and we can help you better.