Are 3 core cpus good gaming

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Russ fett--3

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Are 3 core cpus good for gaming ?? My friend wanted to get something under 30$ that had more that 2 cores. So hes lookin at a phenom all x3 445 clocked at 3.1Ghz amd CPU for 25$
 
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First of all you should know that you can actually unlock the 4th core of that CPU if you think 4 cores is not enough, now the unlock comes down to your motherboard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaRCCEtm4w0

Second three cores is not the best but it's still aceptable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVl8Eupbr_E

4 cores is the maximum recommended nowadays whereas 2 cores might be insufficient in some games. But is a told you with aceptable cooling you can turn this CPU into a quad core

The problem is that the Athlon II X3 445 runs at 3.1 GHz with old architecture then It's not ideal for gaming

I recommend you a sandy bridge chip or above running at 3.0 GHz that will overkill amost of AMD CPUs

For example a core i3 2120 (3.3 GHz)...
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spentshells

spentshells

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What specific cpu is your friend looking to purchase? Phenom 1 not phenom 2 would be an extremely poor choice while at the same time the phenom 2 are well past their expiry date for modern gaming.

But if that is all that is available for options I would ask that you provide some additional info.
 
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Oliver_21

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Feb 17, 2016
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First of all you should know that you can actually unlock the 4th core of that CPU if you think 4 cores is not enough, now the unlock comes down to your motherboard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaRCCEtm4w0

Second three cores is not the best but it's still aceptable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVl8Eupbr_E

4 cores is the maximum recommended nowadays whereas 2 cores might be insufficient in some games. But is a told you with aceptable cooling you can turn this CPU into a quad core

The problem is that the Athlon II X3 445 runs at 3.1 GHz with old architecture then It's not ideal for gaming

I recommend you a sandy bridge chip or above running at 3.0 GHz that will overkill amost of AMD CPUs

For example a core i3 2120 (3.3 GHz) is a really good way tpo start, or perhaps a pentium G2120

In case you want a CPU for web brosing any dual core is OK, more is a waste of money

For normal computers a rapid storage is far more important than a high end CPU
 
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capt_taco

capt_taco

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I recently tried running some semi-modern games on an old AMD machine with an Athlon II x3 Rana CPU. It was terrible. Since the only triple-core processors AMD made were from that same era, I expect most others will be about the same.

Yes, you can unlock the fourth core SOMETIMES, but it's not always stable. I did that with the above-mentioned machine, and it picked up the annoying habit of crashing randomly during boot most of the time. Turning that core back off solved the problem.

Probably the best you're going to do for $30 is an old LGA775 quad-core, say the Q9400 or Q9550, and then overclock the hell out of it. But then you're still only going to get mid-low tier performance out of it, and you're stuck on an 8-year-old architecture that's obsolete by three generations. If you want to do any serious gaming, you're going to have to do better than that and up the budget a little.
 
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Oliver_21

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Core 2 duo and core 2 quad CPUs were not the best of Intel. AMD has always been more OCeable and you are getting the same performance with a core 2 Quad. Also, You can't upgrade much in the LGA 775 socket
 
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capt_taco

capt_taco

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They were not the best of Intel, but they are the best you can do for $30 today. But no way is a triple-core Phenom II x3 a match for the better Yorkfield quad-cores - in pure benchmarks they start out 25%-50% behind, and then you are trying to make that up with overclocking.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/mid_range_cpus.html

Then overclocking them enough to even be in the same ballpark as a C2Q requires a third-party heatsink, so since we're talking $30 CPUs, you just doubled your budget. You want the one with the most power you can get with the stock heatsink, which is probably a Q9400 or Q9550.

No, none of these will give you a very good gaming machine, more like barely passable, and LGA775 is a serious dead end. So in that sense you are absolutely correct.

Probably the best thing you can do on a severe budget is find an old AMD machine with an AM3+ motherboard that supports FX series, then drop in an FX-8300 for $100 or so when it goes on sale. That'll at least get you more or less on par with modern gaming.
 
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spentshells

spentshells

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Apr 1, 2006
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On initial release, SteamRoller..... Im almost positive that the ipc was lower than phenom 2
 
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Ecky

Ecky

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Feb 3, 2013
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Bulldozer was. Piledriver, Steamroller and Excavator have been incremental improvements.
 
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Oliver_21

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Feb 17, 2016
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Nah core 2 CPUs were overpriced and overshadow by athlon/phenom II CPUs
 
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