CPU powers

[billypnats]

What speed of a CPU is considered fast today? what is the number of gigahertz that draws the line between fast and slower in a dual core processor?

 

evreything else aside, just about clock speeds plz

[maYuYang]

What speed of a CPU is considered fast today? what is the number of gigahertz that draws the line between fast and slower in a dual core processor?

 

evreything else aside, just about clock speeds plz

 

 

Hmmm, about 3.2 GHz would be the border. You can already buy those, AMD is selling them. IBM has a CPU with 3.73 GHz, but not sure bout that.

4.0 GHz is the highest you can overclock your CPU to atm I think(with normal methods)

 

With Liquid Nitrogen, a Japanese managed to overclock to 7 GHz(which was a comercial chipset) and 500 GHz, the team was the Georgia Institute of Technology I think and they used a PS3 Chipset.

[nosisab]

What speed of a CPU is considered fast today? what is the number of gigahertz that draws the line between fast and slower in a dual core processor?

 

evreything else aside, just about clock speeds plz

There is no way to give a meaning answer with such narrowed road 'cept buy the fastest one that fits the budget reserved to it. And that fits your motherboard and memory type too, of course.

 

There is no such line. The CPU may be enough to run A but not B whatever are those A and B and this will change over time (BTW the industry standards).

[billypnats]

What I mean is that

for current gaming, what would be the optimal price vs performance clock speed, (not too expensive, but still be able to run lets say fallout 3 at like ultra high 30fps +)

[nosisab]

What I mean is that

for current gaming, what would be the optimal price vs performance clock speed, (not too expensive, but still be able to run lets say fallout 3 at like ultra high 30fps +)

That's the problem. It's not a function of clock speed alone. Assuming you are going to upgrade your machine CPU and only the CPU you shall go to the fastest one you placed a price limit. I can't tell about FO3, Oblivion wouldn't achieve high framerates even with the bleeding edge CPU if not backed up with powerful Video card, plenty and quick RAM and even somewhat forgotten hardware pieces like quicker and defragmented HDs and sound cards that doesn't load CPU are meaningful. Indeed at really high standards, like high resolutions and AA and anisotropic even SLI/Crossfire setups have problem to supply that you stated above.

 

For a time higher clocked mono-core CPU were preferable to slower dual core ones, but this isn't a fact anymore since the applications are going to take full advantages of the threaded programming. You should even account for 3 or quad cores if your motherboard can do it (or can have the bios updated to it).

 

Specificly saying I wouldn't even consider upgrading the CPU under 4GHz worth clocking, unless the actual one were very obsolete.

 

So, under this (supposed) environment, are the Motherboard and RAM type (DDR, DDR2, ...?) those things that will do the most at limiting the choices. The worse scenery would be you ending with a good CPU that not fit them.

[billypnats]

I don't overclock, I do have a somewhat powerful GPU (4850), I plan to play at 1650x1050 resolution, decent mobo.

 

For me I honestly don't care about cache (as long as over 1mb), timing and all that jazz cus it feels like it doesn't do much in a game. (for me anyways) which is why I said everything else aside, clock speeds only.

 

THis is my what my hamster wheel computer is:

 

AMD X2 4000+ brisbane

visiontech 4850

a normal 80gb harddrive 7200rpm

m2v-mx mobo

600W gamexextreme PSU

2GB DDR2 ram 800mhz

 

 

As you can see, my CPU is bottlenecking my entire system, which is why I want to upgrade to a more decent one, but I don't want to buy those 1000+ CPUs, I can't anyways cus I can't change my mobo yet, so I just need an AMD processor with a TDP of no more than 65W but still pretty fast.

 

But Im troubled over what to get, there's this X2 5200+ @ 2.7ghz and theres X2 5000+ @ 2.6GHZ, is that anywhere considered to be "fast" I don't mean THE FASTEST but I want to know if this separates the weak cpus from the better (but not top of the line) cpus

[Vagrant0]

At the moment, 1.8-2.2ghz is becoming the minimum needed for newer games. So if you are planning to do a new computer, or look into upgrading most hardware, you should aim for a minimum of 3.0ghz if you want the computer to still be fairly good for the next few years.

 

However as mentioned, memory and graphics are also a concern.

Minimum RAM that you should plan for should be 3-4gb. Although 2gb may be able to last you for another year yet, more ram is usually better, especially if you're using vista.

 

For videocard, aim for something with minimum 768mb video memory, but again, a 1024mb would probably last you a bit longer. If your motherboard can support it, 2 512 cards linked, or 3 256 cards would probably do a bit better... Depending on the configuration and chipsets of those single cards.

 

While hard drive speed can matter, it can usually be dealt with by having a large page file, Or having a seperate hard drive for all the base system functions (having 3, base system, applications (games), and storage is preferrable). By seperating your system and games to seperate drives (not partitions), less infomation is being accessed from either one at any given time, so most of the performance loss from a slower drive can be negated.

 

Atleast I think... Not really an expert on any of this, but this is essentially my own plan next time I have enough money to buy a new computer.

[billypnats]

OK thats the kind of answer i wanted to know kudo

[rsearch3370]

For games to be played on PCs you have to look at the CPU speed , memory, and the Graphics card.

 

My current Computer is an HP (this is basicly the company that assembled the components).

That uses an AMD 64 x2 5200+ This is a Dual core (x2) CPU. The 5200 is an indication of the speed. For AMD it indicates 2 CPUs running at 2.6 Ghz.

 

Memory is 2 Gig of DDR @ 533 Mhz. The part to watch here is the amount of memory. 2 Gig is pretty much the minimum needed with todays games especially if your adding MODs. (I found this out running Morrowind with 12 MODs on an 2.6 Ghz INTL Celeron with 1 Gig of mem. -old computer).

the 533 Mhz is the speed of the memory. (faster is better).

 

The graphics card I have is nVidia 8600gts 256 Meg of memory. This is a Good card (not top of the line). Also here look at memory more is better. There are cards with 512 meg of memory or more out there, of course they cost more.

 

With what I have (which is not the top of the dual core line).

AMD 64 x2 5200+

2 Gig of mem

nVidia 8600gts card

 

I run Oblivion at 1440 x900 and maintain 60 frames per second. This is being slowed down by the setting in the card for the LCD monitor. (It will run at a faster frame rate).

 

All oblivion settings are set to maximum. Grass, water, reflections, smoothing, textures.

Plus I think I'm up to about 25 MODs at the moment 3 of which are companion MODs. Another is a City MOD that includes children characters.

Plus I can still run FRAPs for video capture.

 

This not by far a top end system.

 

I've had it almost a year now and it still has room to spare.

 

I've also played Witcher, Gothic3, Legend, Crysis, NWN2, Torok, FEAR on this computer. I think Crysis was the only one I could not set at Max. (If I remember correctly).

 

If you are having trouble running the game and you have something similar to this then you may want to clean out your computer. (no, that does not mean open it up and vacumn out the inside).

 

Ths best way is to get a system repair software package. It will help you optimize and clean up your computer. Reclaim space on your hard drive, Clean out dead registers (that a whole different discusion). Lets just say if you add and remove games or programs often you will have these, and yes they can cause slow downs.

 

Another thing for XP uses (I'm one of those). There are programs running in the background that use up resources. They can be turned off.

 

There is a great article here on the forum about this part. It tells you what programs (or services) you can turn off.

 

Had to look it up; Windows XP performance tweaks witten by Dark0ne.

 

Take a look.

[nosisab]

my answers were as vague as the original post, yet a clear one... go to the highest speed and number of cores the mobo and budget allows.

 

Afterwards the specs were placed and the picture could be sought and yet the answer would be the same. Just all talk about video card and RAM could be spared.

 

When expecting a direct and objective answer a useful background and objective question is a must.

 

Would be a bad advice pointing a fast CPU if the video card or RAM amount were what claimed for an upgrade.

 

Edit: Yet, again, before buying a CPU is good practice verifying if the mobo's regulators can supply it's power demands (commonly treated as raw wattage, like 65W, 95W, 125W...) this is not the same as the PSU capacity.