Possible to game using Athlon X2 4000 @ 2.3ghz ?

[Snow-Munki]

Hi,

I have a pretty old Athlon X2 4000+ which I think runs at about 2.3ghz. This is on my HTPC which runs fine but decided I would like to start playing games on it soon ( Just Cause 2 / Dirt 2 etc )

I plan to get a 5770 very soon and it will be on my TV which only displays up to 720p ( 1366 x 768 )

Do I also need to get a new CPU, I'd prefer to stagger the purchase and maybe get the CPU in a few months time. Have my eye on the Athlon II X4 635.

Thanks,

 

[Mr Krugga]

None benches will provide you the real gaming experience thus you should get the graphics card and try it yourself

Phenom II X3 720 costs the same and is a better choice for gaming purposes. Assuming your mobo supports it or you have in mind buying a new one.

 

[Trunks9486]

Is your motherboard compatible with AM3 chips? Is it an AM2+ mobo?

It should be fine for some time, it WILL bottleneck your card, but increase the AA/AF until workload shifts back to the GPU.

 

[Snow-Munki]

thanks all.

Thought X4 would be better long term than X3 ? I'll read around and see though. There is a slim chance my g/f may want to send renders to this machine so guess a phenom would be better. When I get the funds may be able to stretch to a X4 Phenom.

Motherboard - yeah checked and latest bios surprisingly supports the latest AMD CPU's

 

[eddiew]

Not all that surprising, AMD are getting a really good track record for letting people stick with the same motherboard over several generations of CPU

 

[Trunks9486]

I am pretty sure that the Athlon is better at rendering tasks compared to a triple core phenom. Onviously the X4 phenom will be better but the question is whether its worth the extra cash, which it probably doesnt i think. With that said, Phenoms are better at gaming compared to athlons.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=81&p2=105&c=1

Use this to compare processors, and choose the workloads that you care the most

 

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

It'll do for a while... stagger your purchases and get the best equipment you can.

I recently upgraded from a s939 a64 4000+ @2.8ghz, and whilst obviously a bottle-neck... it was bearable. I could still play modern games @ 1680x1050 as long as I tweaked the graphics plenty.

 

[Snow-Munki]

thanks all. Just need to convince the g/f I need to buy another computer part now !

 

[deusexlumina]

+ 1 for that tri core, although the x4 is a quad the fact it doesnt have as much cache and a lower default clock speed hurts it a bit too much when it comes to games.