KomaruKirinashi Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 Good morning everyone. I have a few questions. I recently purchased TES IV: Oblivion, and it has consumed all my free time. However, the frame rate is lacking a bit. I personally tend to turn graphics up to their maximum, it's a bit of a habit. Neverwinter Nights 2 and Call of Duty for suffer the same problems. As such, I'm looking to upgrade my desktop hardware/software to better accommodate such games, and I figured your opinions would probably be invaluable, since you probably know more about computers than me. Here is my current Desktop set-up: Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.0Ghz CPU RAM: 2 GB, DDR2 GPU: Nvidia GeForce 7900GTX 512MB I am currently considering blasting a paycheck on a new processor, IE Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0 Ghz. Speaking of which, what does that MEAN? Two processors both running at 3 Ghz? Or two processors running at 1.5 Ghz? Anyway, any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks,KomaruKirinashi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkAnsem Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 the core 2 duo processors work like 2, so that would mean 2 virtual cores running at 3.ghz each. even by counting taht the real speed is 90%, it's one helluva lot speed. also, your GPU seems as good as hell, what problems you should have? if you have the money, buy an 8800 GTX and you'll be fine for quite a long time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTerminator2004 Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 You have the same processor as me, cool! ^^ You should upgrade it, though. Personally, I'd recommend splashing out on a quad-core processor, such as the intel Q6600. It's only £20-30 more expensive, and it will serve you much better in the long run. you might also consider upgrading your graphics card, but thats not as high a priority as the cpu is. As for what dual-core is... in theory, it is two 3 ghz processors in one, but in practice its not. Basically, a program has to be specifically programmed to use more than one core, and if it isn't it just uses the first one. Even when it is programmed to use both, the speed doesnt ever reach 6 ghz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IamBatosai Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 To clear up the Dual Core question: A Dual Core is virtually two processors in one as Terminator said. However, only one core is used most of the time. This is because the programs being used must be written to use multiple cores. For example, if a game was made so that it has two independent tasks (two different things needing to be processed) the Dual Core would act like you have two processors. Meaning two different tasks will be processed at the same time. Not exactly meaning you have 6 Ghz of CPU power though. But if the game is only written to have one task then the Dual Core will only use one of its cores. For some more information read this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkAnsem Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 isn't it possible to force oblivion to use 2 cores? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTerminator2004 Posted February 18, 2008 Share Posted February 18, 2008 There are a couple of lines in the .ini file which can be edited to make it take better advantage of them, but it uses up to two cores by default anyway, so I don't know how much difference they make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KomaruKirinashi Posted February 18, 2008 Author Share Posted February 18, 2008 Are the quad-cores really worth it though? I'd have to get a new motherboard for that, I think. : ( As for GPU, my uncle works for Nvidia (How cliche) so I occasionally get new GPUs from him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Povuholo Posted February 18, 2008 Share Posted February 18, 2008 I had a question about Quad Cores/Dual Cores as well... Let's say you upgrade from a 2.1 Ghz CPU to a 1.8 Ghz Dual Core CPU. Old games (such as Morrowind) do not support Dual Core. Does that mean the FPS in Morrowind would be lower, because it's only running on one core, so just 1.8 Ghz? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTerminator2004 Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Pov, yes, that's exactly right. Komaru, it is definitely worth upgrading to quad core, unless you wanna compromise, and buy one of those triple-core cpus being released soon... but quad core is still better, and not much more expensive. most games now are programmed to use them, and some, such as Crysis, are even programmed to be able to use an unlimited number of cores. So it is well worth the investment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IamBatosai Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 I had a question about Quad Cores/Dual Cores as well... Let's say you upgrade from a 2.1 Ghz CPU to a 1.8 Ghz Dual Core CPU. Old games (such as Morrowind) do not support Dual Core. Does that mean the FPS in Morrowind would be lower, because it's only running on one core, so just 1.8 Ghz? Not exactly. The Dual Core has a better architecture. Which allows for more efficient data processing. The Dual Core may also help your GPU perform better which would increase your framerate. If your CPU is slow it will bottleneck everything practically. Which means everything will run slower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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