amd athlonII x4

R

robina_80

Active Member
how is this processor with games, i mean i know its the budget x4 from amd but can it still play games well, i mean i know games nowadays are more intense on the gpu so thats why i cant be bothered to get a really powerfull proc instead just get a really good gpu instead
 
Well, the lack of cache and low clock speed aren't great for gaming. If you overclock that solves most of the problem, higher clock speed can help make up for the lack of cache somewhat.

Which one were you looking at getting? Just the 620?
 
Id get this mate....2mb of cache

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176579

Sure you could overclock it to 3, 3.2Ghz maybe more.

i know games nowadays are more intense on the gpu so thats why i cant be bothered to get a really powerfull proc instead just get a really good gpu instead
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You could get a powerfull GPU,but thats not going to be good if its bottlenecked by a slow processor :),that one ipicked out should be good.
 
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It's not 2mb of cache, it's 4x512kb. Each core only has 512kb at it's disposal, not that great for gaming.
 
87dtna said:
It's not 2mb of cache, it's 4x512kb. Each core only has 512kb at it's disposal, not that great for gaming.
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I know that :rolleyes:,But still in total it has 2mb!

Its a budget processor....and he said hes on a budget,what more can you expect?

robina_80,what is your max budget? do you have a build plan?
 
Nevakonaza said:
I know that :rolleyes:,But still in total it has 2mb!

Its a budget processor....and he said hes on a budget,what more can you expect?

robina_80,what is your max budget? do you have a build plan?
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Total doesn't mean squat. Each core can only use 512kb, period. With a Phenom II each core has 512 also but also up to 6mb L3 cache at it's disposal. Gaming requires cache for smooth play.

I Phenom II 555BE is the same price ;) And I would take a 555 anyday over a 620 for gaming.
 
87dtna said:
Total doesn't mean squat. Each core can only use 512kb, period. With a Phenom II each core has 512 also but also up to 6mb L3 cache at it's disposal. Gaming requires cache for smooth play.

I Phenom II 555BE is the same price ;) And I would take a 555 anyday over a 620 for gaming.
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I'm pretty sure the 550BE and Athlon II x4 620 was on-par, if not a little better.
 
You can easily overclock the Phenom II 555 and get great speed out of it---currently running mine at a little over 3.6 Ghz.
 
2048Megabytes said:
For gaming I would take a Phenom II Dual-Core over any Athlon II Quad-Core processor.
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You do realise that more and more games are now and will be taking advantage of more cores...Quad is the way to go now not Dual core imo.
 
^ +1

Most games nowadays can use a quad core. Heck, a few console ports are even coded for six threads or more. IIRC, Source based games use every core available, no matter how many.
 
Drenlin said:
^ +1

Most games nowadays can use a quad core. Heck, a few console ports are even coded for six threads or more. IIRC, Source based games use every core available, no matter how many.
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Ive also noticed that for even those games that dotn take advantage of more cores,the other cores are still been used to do other tasks which is obviusly freeing up that core the games using :)
 
Indeed. There's a lot more going on than most people realize. Looking at my task manager, there are currently 33 processes and 494 threads going...all I have running is Steam, FF, Avast, and task manager.

Closing Steam took it to 32 and 474...good to know it has good multithreading I guess. :confused:
 
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Nevakonaza said:
You do realise that more and more games are now and will be taking advantage of more cores...Quad is the way to go now not Dual core imo.
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Ehh, but you are comparing the crappiest quad there is (not counting Phenom I's) to one of the best dual cores there is.

Besides, a 555 Phenom II will easily overclock to 4ghz with an aftermarket cooler. The higher clock speed also makes up for less cores, along with the crapload of more cache.

Nevakonaza said:
Ive also noticed that for even those games that dotn take advantage of more cores,the other cores are still been used to do other tasks which is obviusly freeing up that core the games using :)
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Yes but once again, we're talking about a really powerful dual core here to an inferior quad. It may have less cores, but the cache and clock speed make up for it. 1 core/thread at 3.2ghz with 6.5mb of cache is going to be able to do a lot more at once than 1 core at 2.6ghz and 512kb of cache. AND of course, don't forget the fact that the Phenom II dual core's can possibly unlock to a full Phenom II quad. There's a MUCH better chance of that happening than getting a propus with L3 cache to unlock.
 
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As 87dtna stated, what really kills the performance on an Athlon II Quad-Core is the lack of cache.

The Athlon II Quad-Core could likely multi-task better than the Phenom II Dual-Core processor, but for video games the Phenom II is better.
 
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