Dual core 3Ghz or Quad core 2.4GHz ?

[Blagard]

OK so you might have guessed I don't run a high end PC, and only an AMD powered one as well. The question is would the game really benefit from the quad processor or would it be barely noticeable.

Although CPU benchmarks show a quad core running at 2.4Ghz (Phenom X4 9750) almost twice the score as a dual core at 3Ghz (Athlon 64x2 6000+) I actually wonder if the game would benefit? Certainly video appications and the like would benefit but if a game only really uses one core most of the time I am not so sure.

For graphics I use a Geforce 9600GT (512Mb) and have 4Gb of RAM (DDR2 376.7MHz) - Motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA-770-DS3 and the quad core mentioned is very near the top of the scale for CPU's supported.

[Mano]

For AH there would be no benefit if you paid extra for a quad core processor. You just need a good video card.........PCI Express 2 or 3.0. A quad core comes in handy if you do any video editing ( OC it too ).

 

[gyrene81]

don't compare a phenom processor with an athlon processor...especially when it comes to gaming. a 2.8ghz quad core phenom2 will out perform a 3.1ghz quad core athlon2. obviously getting as much core clock speed as you can get is the way to go. the core architecture will make a performance difference as well.

are you just looking to upgrade what you have or go for a new build?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

For AH there would be no benefit if you paid extra for a quad core processor. You just need a good video card.........PCI Express 2 or 3.0. A quad core comes in handy if you do any video editing ( OC it too ).

 

A good video card and pci-express generation have zero common things together. You can have a totally crappy non-playable $10 display card that boasts PCI-E 3.0 support.

[SirNuke]

For AH there would be no benefit if you paid extra for a quad core processor. You just need a good video card.........PCI Express 2 or 3.0. A quad core comes in handy if you do any video editing ( OC it too ).

 

AH is very cpu dependant, getting the best video will only bring marginal improvment compared to the gains of having a bigger cpu. The speed of pci express is almost irrevelant also.

A lower frequency phenom will eat any athlon64 for lunch you will see a big difference,

[Blagard]

are you just looking to upgrade what you have or go for a new build?

I am just considering an upgrade on the processor as I can get the quad core fairly cheap! - But only AH would reap the benefit as my other applications don't need major CPU use.

[Debrody]

I would choose the Phenom.
Does your motherboard support the PhenomII? They are cheap too and actually arent a bad CPU (about the same as nowadays I3s)

[gyrene81]

finding an am2+ cpu is going to be troublesome, not to mention not a whole lot of gaming performance gain.

for old equipment i check pricewatch.com first, then ebay (sometimes you can find liquidators selling below retail)...

http://starmicroinc.net/phenom-9850-25ghz-cache-hd9850xaj4bgh-64bit-desktop-processor-p-1267.html

http://starmicroinc.net/phenom-9850-black-edition-25ghz-cache-hd985zxaj4bgh-64bit-desktop-processor-p-1268.html

http://starmicroinc.net/phenom-9750b-24ghz-cache-hd975bwcj4bgh-64bit-desktop-processor-p-1266.html

[Denniss]

Motherboard CPU support for rev 1.0 (first link) and rev 2.0 (second link):
http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2722
http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2874

The older rev is limited to the older Phenom CPU while the newer rev may use almost all versions except the highest-TDP Phenoms