Can I play Grand Theft Auto IV with a Dual-Core CPU?

[ClownWalker]

Here's the thing : I'm about to build my new gaming pc and the first game I'd like to play is Grand Theft Auto IV from 2008.

I heard this game was really badly optimized, but can someone enlighten me on what it means? And also, it is said that GTA 4 was made to be played with Quad-Core CPU since it's very demanding. I just bought the Intel Core i3-2120 3.3 Ghz for my rig because it's the only thing I could afford (125$ instead of the 190$ i5-2320). But since it's a Dual-Core CPU, I was wondering what would be the difference and results of playing a game like GTA 4 that plays better with Quad-Core CPUs.

Here's my rig :
i3-2120 3.3 Ghz
Sapphire HD 6870 1GB DDR5
8GB HyperX Kingston DDR3 RAM 1333 Mhz
Gigabyte GA-H77-DS3H
Thermaltake TR-2 600W PSU

Benchmarks are only theorical so I wanted to ask you guys think. If you have played GTA 4 on a Dual-Core processor, how well did it ran?

Thank you for your time!

 

[jaguarskx]

Sure. I was able to play it on my Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 that has a dual core i5-2410m without any problems. It ran fine so it should be okay for you as well... unless there is something super awesome about the Y470 that I don't know about.

 

[ClownWalker]

Best answer selected by ClownWalker.