Is the Core 2 duo still a good processor today?

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suryalord

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I'm looking for a new CPU to play video games with ( no worries I already have a GPU ) but my current Pentium E5800 is probably not a good CPU to play with. Would it be better if I were to purchase a Core 2 Duo for a few quid rather than stay with my pentium?

Many thanks
suryalord
 
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No, not really suitable for gaming anymore. You can see how a core 2 quad holds up in somewhat recent games here:
https://www.techspot.com/article/1313-intel-q6600-ten-years-later/

CaptainCretin

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If you have a 775 motherboard, you can probably run a quad core Xeon cpu, which would be cheaper than a decent Core2 Quad.

You wont be able to play the latest games are any reasonable fps, even with a good gfx card, but it will handle older titles from 5-10 years ago without breaking a sweat.

If your board is an older 915 chipset, Pentium is all it will run, not even a Pentium dual core is supported.
 

InvalidError

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From the Core2 to the Core i-series, Intel integrated the memory controller in the CPU. That cut memory latency roughly in half along with a ~60% step in IPC. The Core2 is simply a non-starter for most modern games.

As the TechSpot benchmarks show, almost anything current-gen you can buy today will be more than twice as fast as a Core 2 Q6600.
 
I'm sorry to say you won't be running any newer titles on a Core 2 Duo/Quad unless they require a weaker CPU but sadly CPU requirements are going up. Any modern CPU would be better. Those old Pentiums are about the same as Core 2 Duos. So there wouldn't be much point in upgrading to a Core 2 Duo. I'd save up if I had to and at least get one like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Compaq-Elite-8200-Microtower-Intel-i5-2400-3-10GHz-8GB-1TB-Win-10-b/292577129005?hash=item441ef4b22d:g:77kAAOSwUCZaxARV

 
May 31, 2018
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I hate to pile on here, but a move above Core 2 is probably a good idea.
The last Core 2 systems I held onto were modified for Xeon cpus (a cheap upgrade option if they will run under your BIOS).

I guess it depends on your expectations.

A good Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, or Xeon cpu WILL be faster than a Pentium E5800.

But right now, my minimum system is i5 based (unless you're into alternative ISAs), and I'm not even into gaming.

And a good question would be, is this video card going to be cpu limited?
For something like a Radeon RX 560 or above, the answer would definitely be yes.
 

Eximo

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Depends on what you have to spend.

Ideally you could pick up a Ryzen 1200, cheap B350 motherboard, and some memory for around $200.

For a little more you can get the R3-2200G which comes with a pretty decent onboard graphics.

Or for about the same an i3-8100 quad core CPU to go with the GPU you have.
 

delaro

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Q9550 or Q9650 are the best your going to get reasonable cheap, Xeon chips require a adapter and won't work with every board out even if it supports the Q9XXX range. The issue is most of the OEM and low end boards only support up to a Q6600 or Q6700 which are horrible for todays games.

A Q9550 or Q9650 on a hybrid board that supports DDR3 and speeds up to 2000mhz as well as PCI-e 2.0 X16 is still a decent combo but hard to find. That gives you about the same FPS you would get out of a G4560 with around the same amount of latency.


 
May 31, 2018
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Call me a fanboy or whatever but I'm obsessed with the fm2 platform ATM and you can get some bundles really cheap. Just bought an A8-7650k plus board and cooler for £40 and even that with its igpu can run games pretty well. Pair that with a low end GPU like a 6870(just bought one for £18) and you're running GTAV no problem. The cheap upgrades are out there, you just got to look.
 

TJ Hooker

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@theplonker2 there was a thread just a day or two ago with someone complaining about how badly GTA V was stuttering with there FM2+ APU. I wouldn't recommend buying into a dead platform like that. You'd have to buy DDR3 as well, which you'd then have to replace again the next time you upgrade.
 
the nice thing about Duo Core 2 Quad or Extreme (depending on your board) is that they are plentiful, and pretty cheap. a Q8400 can easily handle COD World at War for example in tandem with a 7870 Video card.

So depending on Motherboard and video card the last thing I would suggest is a 8GB ram, a lot rarer on DDR2 LGA775 Boards, Some later models handle DDR3 up to 8GB.

What game where you thinking of playing on that upgraded system ?
Have you checked "can I run it ?" for specs on the games your likely to play on that system ?
 
May 31, 2018
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TJ Hooker I know, it's not the best recommendation but it's really cheap and would at least bring him up to a still updated platform.
Plus not saying it's not FM2 but if you search "GTA stutter" into the forums there's multiple different systems suffering from multiple reasons: Windows updates, not enough ram etc.
If it is just the FM2 platform it's a good job the pc isn't for me, it's for my brother and he likes to play sea of theives: https://youtu.be/LbyUql8R0F8
 

CaptainCretin

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OK, Recap. most 775 boards can take an unmodified* E3 or E5 series Xeon; although the 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3GHz Xeons are a priced in the $40-$60 range, the 3GHz E5 5450 is about $15.

The Q6600 mentioned above is a 2.4GHz chip, so a fair bit slower than the 3GHz E5 5450.

A benchtest of the E5 5450 in an ASRock mobo with DDR2 RAM gave similar results to an AMD FX8xxx series cpu with DDR3 RAM, allowing for the fact the FX cpu has twice as many cores.

Any later generation gfx card wont be able to run at full speed, due to the PCIE gen1 slot, but the loss isnt huge, perhaps 10-20% in the most intensive games, less in older titles suitable for the age of the system, as long as you accept you arent going to be gaming in 2K or 4K.

The biggest limitation is if the board only runs DDR2, the max these boards can take is 8GB, but 4GB modules are stupid money, similar in price to DDR4 16GB modules, so realistically, unless you are very lucky, you are stuck with 4GB.

BTW, if anyone has been running a DDR2 board, is retiring it and HAS any 4GB DDR2 modules, could I have the ram please?? (For my 5 y/o's PC).

* The mod is just filing a small notch in the pcb the cpu is mounted on; if you buy from Ali Express, most of the Xeons will be ready to drop into a 775 socket with no further mods needed.

PS, those FM/FM2 cpus are utter crap, after upgrading and finding most of my games ran slower, even when extremely over-clocked, I went back to a Phenom II 1090.
 


I thought that would have been interesting, but it was a BS review.
We know it's an aging CPU yet they put everything on Ultra Settings, that's just idiotic. There was no comparison between Ultra, normal and low... so it was a waste of internet space.
They could have done so much more
 

InvalidError

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The TechSpot benchmarks showed it overclocked to 3.1GHz. Still nowhere close to current-gen chips with minimum frame rates as low as half that of a Pentium G3470 or ~1/4 that of a stock i5-2500k.
 
I'm looking for a new CPU to play video games with ( no worries I already have a GPU ) but my current Pentium E5800 is probably not a good CPU to play with. Would it be better if I were to purchase a Core 2 Duo for a few quid rather than stay with my pentium?

as you see above there are many possibilities and will continue to be debated ad nauseum until you tell us all what is your Motherboard, it will dictate the possible upgrades you may enjoy as a cheap upgrade to your current aging pentium system


 

TJ Hooker

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Most graphics settings have little to no impact on CPU usage. In which case there would be little difference in performance between low and ultra settings if you're already ~100% CPU bound.
 


I am not blaming you for the article, I think its OK, but they should show what low settings show. There can't just be a blanket statement that there is no difference on CPU load if high or low settings, proof is always needed.
I think it was a missed oppurtunity as I still got a Quad core sitting in a box in a 775 mobo. I'd like to know what else can be done with it.
 

InvalidError

Titan
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It has been proven to be mostly true (minimal to no impact) enough times in the past that it isn't worth most reviewers' time anymore. Most games' CPU-intenstive features are core components of the game, graphics pipeline or game engine.

You can try it for yourself by lowering your graphics options until the GPU is at neither 100% VRAM or 100% GPU utilization, write down frame times, lower graphics some more, rinse and repeat by toggling different options while making certain to keep the GPU below 100% peak GPU/VRAM load. You will find out that most graphics options (within what the GPU can handle without bottlenecking in any way at any time) have negligible to no impact.
 

CompuTronix

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One of my nephews is still happily gaming at 1080p with mostly high settings in recent titles, on an overclocked Q9650 at 4.2GHz that he's kept upgraded since we built it nearly 10 years ago. His rig gets a Passmark CPU score on par with a stock i5 2500K, and also scores surprisingly well in Fire Strike with a GTX 1060 on PCIE 2.0.

Here's the specs:

Q9650 OC'd @ 4.2GHz
Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB
Asus Rampage Formula X48 Chipset PCIE 2.0
Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracers 8GB DDR3 1866
Samsung 840 Pro 256MB x3 SSD's in RAID 0
Seagate HDD 7200 RPM 2.0TB Storage
Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme GTX 1060 6GB
Antec 902 v3
USB 3.1 Card

I think it's safe to say he's stretched out his rig about as far as you can go with socket 775.

CT :sol:
 

CaptainCretin

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I've just loaded Project Cars onto my daughters 775 Xeon 5450 DDR2 PC and it works fine, although at medium spec gfx settings, and I had to bump her pagefile up to 4GB, as she only has 4GB and the game takes all of it (more or less).

"Can I run it?" claimed no, but then it doesnt recognise Xeon CPUs; the minimum spec is a 2.6 Core2 Quad, and the Xeon is a 3GHz quad.

However she has taken a hankering to the old Fanatec Forsa CSR set I picked up a few days ago, as I foolishly let her play it on my set up while installing and configuring it on hers.
 

daerohn

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long word short: your CPU is greatly outdated. also your main board and rams. if you want to play recent games with medium to ultra graphic settings you have to change your system all together as any investment you would put on that system will not justify the money you spent. may be only CPU.

So I suggest you upgrade your system to at leasr a ryzen 5 2600.
 
Aug 12, 2018
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The boards can actually take more than 8gb of ram, or at very least mine can/is. I have 16gb recognized by win 7 as we speak.
https://imgur.com/a/YSyesOR


The real answer as always to OP's question is; It depends. It depends on what exactly you mean by "gaming". I play games on a 775-based system, but I don't play very intensive games for long periods, but I've noticed it really depends on the game for more modern stuff what works and what doesn't (aka what games are CPU demanding and which aren't). You could look into getting an e8600, they are reasonably cheap on ebay and most games you'll be able to run anyway can't utilize any more than 2 cores. This is a stop-gap if money is tight or if you're just a casual gamer. Eventually you should look to upgrade to something more modern for playing more modern titles.
 
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