Dual core CPU for older heavy CPU demanding games?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

Milanello

Honorable
Dec 11, 2013
12
0
10,510
Im thinking about getting a dual core pc when I get my new rig this time, as I love older games like the total war series which hasnt really been optimized for many cores. So when you get 10s of thousands of men on the screen at the same time, it would be sad to have a quad core that can only use like 1 core for all that work no?

Im just venting my thoughts here, as I really dont want to get disappointed about all the quad core hype when so many games dont even use that, and whats the point of actually getting a computer when I cant even see any games coming in like 1 year or 2 that I can take advantage of many cores?


Anyone out there who are experts on getting the most out of a dual core pc setup? I dont want to hear about "its nice to be able to have 150 tabs open with youtube while you are playing 3 games at once", as I want to get the most out of simply gaming and not video editing etc.

Would it really be so bad to get a dual core CPU right now, also because the newer graphic cards would bottle neck a dual core setup?

I just dont want to get disappointed if I get a good quad core CPU and then it still cant play an old demanding game like rome total war with mods + stacked armies etc without dropping low in fps.

Anyone out there who has a quad core modern computer and can play rome total war with stacked armies and no problems in fps?

I just dont want to get disappointed, and its hard to find good threads about this on the web, please air your thoughts on my issues lol.

sorry for the wall of text guys
 
Solution
logainofhades
The main benefit of the quad core models, is they have more cache than the dual core models. For your single and dual threaded only games, the extra cache might benefit you. Granted that Pentium 3528 can match a 4770k in single threaded performance, but needs to be clocked at 4.4ghz or so to do it. Personally, I would just settle for a low end i5, or a Xeon 1230v3 with an ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0, unless you really want to play around with overclocking. If you do more than just game at the same time, I would definitely recommend going with a quad. In my case, I play WoW, which is poorly threaded, and have multiple tabs open in Chrome, usually one playing Netflix, Hulu+, ect, plus my Vent client. I game on one monitor and do everything else...
Sort by date Sort by votes
Supermuncher85

Supermuncher85

Distinguished
Aug 18, 2010
1,685
0
20,160
Actually with new unlocked dual core pentium coming end of the month, best time there ever was!

Pre-review here http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/70977-intel-pentium-anniversary-edition-g3258/ @ $80 or $52@microcenter great buy imo. I know I'm gonna make a build with it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

bob hays

Honorable
Nov 21, 2012
1,357
0
11,960


on oc'ed i3? I'm interested in the pentium but the lack of hyper-threading makes me wonder if I should get one or not. If it was an i3 that could overclock i'd be on it instantly.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Supermuncher85

Supermuncher85

Distinguished
Aug 18, 2010
1,685
0
20,160
Did you read the review?

The overclocked chip does a very good impression of a Core i7-4770K - there's very little difference in real-world games run at 1080p. Sometimes numbers can be misleading, but the game(s) felt smooth and fluid to play. We'd challenge anyone to tell the difference between the overclocked Pentium G3258 and the 5x dearer Core i7-4770K in these games. Really, the standard chip is good enough for 1080p gaming.
Click to expand...
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/70977-intel-pentium-anniversary-edition-g3258/?page=7
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

bob hays

Honorable
Nov 21, 2012
1,357
0
11,960
Its not for gaming, its cause I like to render videos, even though I can do it on my main rig its just a lot more convenient to be able to do it on whatever i'm using at the time. Its also better for a media server application. Uses less power for similar performance.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
logainofhades

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
Apr 27, 2009
37,582
3,255
143,290
The main benefit of the quad core models, is they have more cache than the dual core models. For your single and dual threaded only games, the extra cache might benefit you. Granted that Pentium 3528 can match a 4770k in single threaded performance, but needs to be clocked at 4.4ghz or so to do it. Personally, I would just settle for a low end i5, or a Xeon 1230v3 with an ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0, unless you really want to play around with overclocking. If you do more than just game at the same time, I would definitely recommend going with a quad. In my case, I play WoW, which is poorly threaded, and have multiple tabs open in Chrome, usually one playing Netflix, Hulu+, ect, plus my Vent client. I game on one monitor and do everything else on the other. For what I do, my i5 handles everything I throw at it. Only one world boss fight really kills my FPS, dropping it into the teens.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
S

sapperastro

Honorable
Jan 28, 2014
191
0
10,710
OP, check when Rome Total War came out...

Now, take a look at how many different CPU lines have been released since then.

Taking Rome, or Medieval 2 as a quick benchmark, I played both extensively, with every mod imaginable...all of them on my ancient socket 939 Athlon 64 x2 4800+ machine. Highest settings. Massive maps with armies and agents crawling all around the place. Yes, I include Europa Barbarorum in this assessment. No issues whatsoever.

So, after getting this info straight from the horses mouth, now you can be happy in the thought that ANYTHING you buy in the modern CPU area will happily destroy your old games. Dual core, Quad core, Hexa core, Octacore...it honestly won't make any difference.

Now all you have to do is pick your parts, build and play, safe in the knowledge that it doesn't matter what CPU you pick.

Disclaimer: Don't pick anything from the low power series like the new Athlons, Semprons or Celerons. Anything from the new Pentiums (1150)/Athlon x4 (FM2+) up will serve you perfectly.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom