Single or Dual core processor

[kasavien]

Hi all

I'm going to be building a new system in the near future, mainly for gaming, specifically for Elder Scrolls 4 - Oblivion, but i also play a lot of cs:source and i will be getting quake 4. My budget for a new processor is around £250 - £300. Now my question is: would i be better off with a single core processor like the AMD Athlon 64 4000+ or the Dual Core processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+?

I may overclock the processor, but i'm not confident to just jump straight in i will probably wait a while and read up before i decide to do any overclocking.

Thanks in anticipation

Andy

[Wiczy]

I recommend you go for the X2 3800.

Great cpu's at a great price and future proof

[Byatt]

For gaming? I'd take the single core myself

[kempez]

I would get the x2 3800+ as its just the same performance as a single core in todays games: and whenn the multi-threaded games come out it will be ready for them. Plus an X2 makes your whole winblow$ experience much smoother

[Wiczy]

Exactly, it's time to move on

Roll on FEAR...from what i've heard it is going to be optimised to take advantage of dual cores

[kasavien]

Just got a quick question, does an AMD athlon 64 X2 have two 3800+ cores or do the two cores combine to rate it as a 3800+

[specofdust]

The X2 3800+ is turning out to be a great core. Its generally overclockable to 4200 speeds if not more, and its in game performance is pretty damn good. Considering it's generally under £40 then the single core varient, definately go for it if you can.

[Rohan]

Just got a quick question, does an AMD athlon 64 X2 have two 3800+ cores or do the two cores combine to rate it as a 3800+

The X2 3800+ is basically two 3200+ cores stuck together, each running at a clock speed of 2.0GHz. So in single threaded applications such as games, it will perform like a 3200+ (or slightly better).

They really shine when multi-tasking though.

[specofdust]

Well, don't forget that while a game might want 100% of your CPU power, and can't take any of CPU 2's power in a dual core setup. Other apps use CPU time as well, and they can use CPU 2's power while CPU 1 is maxed out from the game.

I have two downloading programs and a music player open right now all of which use some CPU power, not much, but some. Say you get an average of 5-10% used normally by random little things, that load can be transfered to the other CPU. Not to mention the benefit of being able to do two process heavy apps at once, or when multi-threaded games finally hit the shelves.

[kempez]

Agreed. I've actually virus scanned my system whilst gaming so that isd a total bonus

[kasavien]

Thanks everyone for all your help, i think i have a better idea of what i would like now, probably the dual core.

Thanks again

Andy