[SOLVED] 3 GHz Dual Core vs 2.2 GHz Quad Core for Gaming

[Shaina11]

I'm working on a couple of older PCs for gaming around the 2005-2010 era, and I currently am looking between two CPUs, the Core 2 Duo E6850 at 3.0 GHz, or the AMD Phenom X4 9500 Quad-core at 2.2 GHz. Which of these do you think would be better suited for gaming around that era? A faster dual-core or a slower quad-core?

 

[13thmonkey]

faster/slower by what measure? GHz doesn't tell the whole story. In this case I suspect that the C2D is faster.

As close as i can get in terms of comparisons, these would be reflective of the time as well.
https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/59?vs=23

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Preferably neither. Go for the core 2 duo machine and plop in a $5 core 2 quad.

 

[DSzymborski]

The C2D ought to be faster. It has the faster single-core performance and given the games of the era you're looking at, faster single-core performance is going to be more crucial than the Phenom's multi-core advantages.

 

[Shaina11]

faster/slower by what measure? GHz doesn't tell the whole story. In this case I suspect that the C2D is faster.

As close as i can get in terms of comparisons, these would be reflective of the time as well.
https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/59?vs=23

Definitely figured the Core 2 Duo would be faster, given that games of the era didn't really make much use of anything more than two cores at most, was just curious of the opinion of others. Thanks, I really appreciate it~

Preferably neither. Go for the core 2 duo machine and plop in a $5 core 2 quad.

I definitely understand the preferably neither, though noting that this is for more of an older build for older game eras, I wouldn't think it'd be too bad quite honestly. Especially considering I'm only going to be using a Radeon HD 3870.

The C2D ought to be faster. It has the faster single-core performance and given the games of the era you're looking at, faster single-core performance is going to be more crucial than the Phenom's multi-core advantages.

Yeah was definitely what I was thinking as well, considering they didn't use much more than two cores at most at that time period. I also evidently just found a custom BIOS for one of the PCs that allows one to upgrade it to Phenom IIs, so I could potentially put in a 3.0 GHz Phenom II X4 or X2 instead of a 9500. I may just do this instead given that the performance would be slightly better than that of the Core 2 Duo.

Thanks so much for your help everyone~

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Id go for the c2d

 

[Shaina11]

Had I not just found this custom BIOS for one of the PCs, honestly I likely would have, but now that I have, I may go for a 3.0 GHz Phenom II X2 or X4. Thanks though, was certainly what I was originally thinking.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Some 2 or 3 core phenoms can be turned into 4 cores.

 

[Shaina11]

Oh really? I've not heard of this, mind sharing how?

 

[Shaina11]

Whoops, sorry, accidentally hit a wrong button trying to upvote you.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-phenom-cpu,7080.html

A lot of the dual core and 3 core phenoms were actually quad core phenoms cores with a core or 2 disabled for any number of reasons. Some 1 core semprons were actually dual cores with 1 coere disabled aswell. Some motherboard have a setting to reenable the disabled cores.

Need a compatable motherboard and it only works on some phenoms.

 

[Shaina11]

Ah, yeah, unfortunately I don't think this particular motherboard can do that. It's a Gateway LX6200, so really doubtful that it could, but this is really neat to hear about. Similar to what I've heard in the past if I'm remembering correctly about how some i3s and i5s were really i7s that didn't come out of manufacturing properly and so were essentially downgraded to i5s and i3s.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Yes, but i dont know of any i5s that can be turned into i7s as the cores are lazered off and not firmware locked.

 

[captaincharisma]

Core 2 duo would be the better CPU overall. AMD pre-ryzen CPU's whether they were 4 or 6 cores were outperformed by intel dual cores

 

[Shaina11]

Core 2 duo would be the better CPU overall. AMD pre-ryzen CPU's whether they were 4 or 6 cores were outperformed by intel dual cores

Athlon was killing Intel and their Pentium 4 however back in the day. It seems like a 3.0 GHz Phenom II, whether dual or quad-core, might perform slightly better than a Core 2 Duo, granted not by much, but just slightly.