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AMD Processor for light gaming

J

jboggeye

n00b
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Messages
8
Hi, I'm going for a very cheap build for light gaming, something that would enable me to play Diablo3 and starcraft 2 when they come out.

Would I necessarily need a phenom II for the near future, or would something like the Athlon II 240 regor be suficient?
In other words, is investing in a phenom II x3 or x4 worth the extra cost light gaming needs?

Thanks
 
the 240 is fine..im running it right now and its runs great with a decent gpu. also overclocks like a beast got mine to boot up at 4ghz..but i like to run it at 3.7. also on stock cooler does'nt go above 45 full load :D
 
I just bought an x4 630 plus motherboard with onboard Radeon 3000 at Fry's for $129. That's an amazing combo, you really can't go wrong these days with anything.
 
The cheapest "optimal" chip for gaming is the 720, full cache and 3 cores. A recent toms article showed going from 2-3 cores had a noticable impact on gaming performance, while 3-4 was minimal.

Also, the full cache of a Phenom II is very useful for gaming fps. So the cheapest X3 with full PhII cache will be the best bet.

Of course you can get away with the 100 dollar Athlon II X4, or the Phenom II X2 550, but for a few bucks more youll get more milage out of the 720.
 
jboggeye said:
Hi, I'm going for a very cheap build for light gaming, something that would enable me to play Diablo3 and starcraft 2 when they come out.

Would I necessarily need a phenom II for the near future, or would something like the Athlon II 240 regor be suficient?
In other words, is investing in a phenom II x3 or x4 worth the extra cost light gaming needs?

Thanks
Click to expand...

i would really advise against building a gaming computer for games that are NOT out yet, especially a blizzard title

just my 2 cents
 
Don't agree with him, haha. I have no idea what planet Makmatsu lives on but Blizzard titles run on more computers than practically any other developer, so you are pretty safe building something basic for SC2 and D3.

I just built a full AMD X3 system for myself (see sig), and it runs anything I throw at it, and it was cheap. The three reasons I built this computer are Star Wars: The Old Republic, Diablo 3, and Starcraft 2.

Athlon II Quads are fucking super cheap and good too, but the guys are right, the L3 cache on the Phenom II is worth the boost for gaming.
 
Earley said:
Don't agree with him, haha. I have no idea what planet Makmatsu lives on but Blizzard titles run on more computers than practically any other developer, so you are pretty safe building something basic for SC2 and D3.

I just built a full AMD X3 system for myself (see sig), and it runs anything I throw at it, and it was cheap. The three reasons I built this computer are Star Wars: The Old Republic, Diablo 3, and Starcraft 2.

Athlon II Quads are fucking super cheap and good too, but the guys are right, the L3 cache on the Phenom II is worth the boost for gaming.
Click to expand...

thanks for the personal jab

so by your logic, since this is blizzard, why not just recommend him a s939 athlon shuttle with integrated gfx off craigslist? it's blizzard and they'll optimize it for that machine, no problem...:rolleyes:

now for a real response:
it is true that blizzard optimizes their games to run well on most machines, but it just doesnt make sense to build a computer NOW for a game that might not even show up this time next year... if you don't need a new build to play, for eg MW2 or something RIGHT NOW, why build it? unless the OP has some other uses that he hasn't stated, then i still recommend not building a computer RIGHT NOW to play D3 or SC2

here's something i just saw about SC2 beta delayed (again):
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/blizzard-starcraft-warcraft-zugzug,9029.html

also, if that athlon ii 620 is $90-100 right now, what if the OP waits till the game comes out (if ever) and the price drops 40-50%? it makes more sense to wait if you're on a tight budget (which at the moment, would be the only reason to pick AMD over intel, ie budget)
 
Malakai said:
The cheapest "optimal" chip for gaming is the 720, full cache and 3 cores. A recent toms article showed going from 2-3 cores had a noticable impact on gaming performance, while 3-4 was minimal.

Also, the full cache of a Phenom II is very useful for gaming fps. So the cheapest X3 with full PhII cache will be the best bet.

Of course you can get away with the 100 dollar Athlon II X4, or the Phenom II X2 550, but for a few bucks more youll get more milage out of the 720.
Click to expand...
Hit the nail on the head.

AMD and Nvidia Video card drivers are multi-threaded too. Even if your game is only multi-threaded for 2 cores, the more cores you have, the less likely you are to get bogged down.
 
Yeah I threw out the x4 because there are games that will benefit more from another core, with even more coming. The clockspeeds are the same as the 720 as well and cache doesn't always come into it. Either way, for light gaming there is a veritable cornucopia of choices for cheap these days.
 
My advice? Head on over to the FS/FT forums and make a Want to Buy thread. See what kind of offers you get. You should be looking at full-cache Phenom II's only, because the cache makes a difference in games. Look for the 550, 720, or any 9xx-series.
 
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