CPU For Nowaday Games? HELP

[ShaunyR]

I was wondering if I really needed a 64 bit processor for games out today like counter-strike, warcraft 3, and other games. Should an athlon xp be fine?

 

[ShaunyR]

I also wondered if it would run games like city of heros and such.

 

[high]

an A-XP owns in those games

 

[Maezr]

the 64 is a hybrid

it only runs in 64 when the software supports it- and not much does.

personally I think the 64 is huge waste of money unless you have a pretty insane budget.

 

[Spamdini]

wouldnt you say the A64 is more future safe as it goes? because im in the market and ide like to know which one would be the better buy.

 

[everman]

You can get a mobile xp and overclock it a lot. Just look around the forums and you'll see. There's no point in really having a 64bit cpu right now, but the athlon 64 is faster than equally clocked XPs in 32bit mode.

 

[S4M33R]

I wouldn't pay the premium required for a 64 bit cpu at this point in time. Today's games are easily handled by the XP. The money you save on the processor/motherboard, can more effectivly upgrade you from say a 9800 pro to a radeon 800xt.

 

[SneakyStuff]

An athlon xp is perfect for games out NOW, I dunno about the future, because games may include 64 bit extensions (I know FarCry does) but if all you play is wc3 and the likes, go for it, for the value an athlon xp can't be beat

 

[DaveSimmons]

For your gaming budget, most important is to set aside $200 for a 9800 Pro.

If you can afford it, an A64 3200+ is faster than a P4 3.2C, while an A64 3000+ is about the same speed as a P4 3.2C, all of them running normal 32-bit Windows and programs.

A heavily overclocked XP 2500+ is good enough for this years' games, but it is much slower, at a guess about like a P4 2.8C for games.

Read any of the 1,000 other system threads for recommendations on motherboards and memory.

 

[Connoisseur]

errr....if by heavily overclocked xp 2500+ you mean a barton that runs at about 2.4 ghz +, then it'll kick the crap out of a 2.8C P4. An AMD chip at that speed has a PR rating of 3600+ or 3800+.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
errr....if by heavily overclocked xp 2500+ you mean a barton that runs at about 2.4 ghz +, then it'll kick the crap out of a 2.8C P4. An AMD chip at that speed has a PR rating of 3600+ or 3800+.

Hmm, the XP PR ratings are wildly inflated (unlike A64), but yes an XP 3800+ might be almost as fast as a P4 3.2C .

 

[Hans5849]

Originally posted by: ShaunyR
I was wondering if I really needed a 64 bit processor for games out today like counter-strike, warcraft 3, and other games. Should an athlon xp be fine?

counter strike has been out for ever, what makes you think that you would need a 64bit proc to run it.

 

[Rix13]

Originally posted by: Hans5849

Originally posted by: ShaunyR
I was wondering if I really needed a 64 bit processor for games out today like counter-strike, warcraft 3, and other games. Should an athlon xp be fine?

counter strike has been out for ever, what makes you think that you would need a 64bit proc to run it.

isnt there going to be a new counter strike based off the Half life 2 engine,, Counter Strike : Source?

 

[Hans5849]

CS2, yea there was a E3 video with counter strike released.

 

[Hyperlite]

well...good luck finding a A64 @ 2.5Ghz. get a AXP-M, OC to 2.5Ghz, at it pwns.

 

[Runner20]

XP is fine, although 64 is better and is considerably faster in games.

 

[Coocoocaca]

My stuff:

CPU: Athlon 64
Heat Sink/Fan: Thermaltake Silent Boost K8
Hard Drive: Maxtor 80GB 7200 ATA-133 8M Cache
Memory: Geil PC3500 433MHz DDR SDRam
Monitor: Samsung 17" CRT 753DF-Ivory
Motherboard: MSI K8T Neo-FSR Via KT800
OS: XPPro
Video Card: ATI RADEON 9600 XT 128MB 8x DVI
Case and Power Supply: C442BKT - Foltron 350W P350XF


The only problems I have had so far is it locks up sometimes while running Call of Duty.
Even if i'm NOT playing multi-player.

 

[Jeff7181]

Do you need a 64-bit processor? No.
Would getting an Athlon-64 setup right now be more futureproof than any of the alternatives? Yes.

The games you listed will run perfectly find on an Athlon XP if that's all you can afford.

Some other people are saying Athlon XP's run "today's games" just fine. What's your definition of "today's games?" To me, Far Cry is one of today's games, and the Athlon 64 definately has a performance advantage over the Athlon XP. Same with UT2k4. But... if the OP is only playing yesterday's games... CS, WC3, etc. then an Athlon XP will be just fine.

I really see no reason to go the Intel route since socket 478 isn't going to be around much longer, and a Pentium 4 typically costs the same as an equivalent Athlon 64... so why not go the more futureproof route and get the A64?

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
errr....if by heavily overclocked xp 2500+ you mean a barton that runs at about 2.4 ghz +, then it'll kick the crap out of a 2.8C P4. An AMD chip at that speed has a PR rating of 3600+ or 3800+.

Hmm, the XP PR ratings are wildly inflated (unlike A64), but yes an XP 3800+ might be almost as fast as a P4 3.2C .

oh come come. The XP PR ratings were accurate with the 533Mhz P4Bs

Its only with the P4Cs has the rating been skewed and even then a 3200+ preformance more like a 3000+, not something as extreme are you point out

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Rix13

Originally posted by: Hans5849

Originally posted by: ShaunyR
I was wondering if I really needed a 64 bit processor for games out today like counter-strike, warcraft 3, and other games. Should an athlon xp be fine?

counter strike has been out for ever, what makes you think that you would need a 64bit proc to run it.

isnt there going to be a new counter strike based off the Half life 2 engine,, Counter Strike : Source?

yea, will be. but right now theres only cs and cs condition zero, which is equaled or bettered by csrealism.com high res/poly patch for cs. neither will tax a modern system though.

depends how you want to play. 1600x1200 fsaa etc all the goodies on or no? we already have games like far cry straining new systems. best deals are bartons or amd's 64bit offerings. ut2k4 runs smoother with more cpu sapping options on with my barton then my plain xp.

 

[ja83]

Athlon XP's run today's games just fine. I am just hoping my Athlon XP 3000+ will be able to run HalfLife 2 and Doom 3.

 

[DKlein]

Do you think a 2.5GHz XP could run D3 or HL2 or STALKER fine? I never get an answer for this question...

 

[Connoisseur]

I didn't mean to quote the PR rating as actual fact, but I showed it just as a matter of comparison. Although the 2.5ghz xp might not be necessarily as fast as a 3.6ghz p4, we can kinda gauge the performance from previous comparisons. I'm pretty sure the 1.8ghz 2500+ xp can compete quite well with a 2.4ghz P4. Given that comparison, I feel confident in saying a 2.5ghz XP can easily compete with a 3ghz P4. Personally I believe the ranking system goes like this :
Games: A64>XP> P4
Note I haven't covered an overclocked p4. Frankly, I don't know how well they overclock. If they can get really high speeds then they can beat the xp.

 

[Jeff7181]

more like... A64>P4C>AXP>P4B>P4A

 

[Mermaidman]

Good grief. ShaunyR deserves a straightforward answer:

NO--You do not need a 64 bit CPU for those games, which would be very happy with an AthlonXP.