Curse

NathanMurray · Feb 02, 2008, 09:36 PM // 21:36

Ok now I'm not one who is an UBER genius when it comes to computers but I can fix most issues by Googling it. So tell me then computer geniuses is a 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor any good. Your probably think why ask such a thing but I added to what would be need for GW2 (a thread made earlier) and someone (Who I can't remember to Give props to) said about Processors and stuff. So go ahead and work some technical magic boys and girls. Thanks In advance

thebob1313 · Feb 02, 2008, 09:50 PM // 21:50

It all depends on what you use your computer for. 2.53ghz will still run a computer fairly well(I just upgraded from a 2.6 about a month ago), however, when it comes to newer games, I am happy I no longer use the 2.6 Pentium 4. I could play games like Oblivion and GW, but It was on the lowest quality and my FPS was pretty low. In regards to GW2, I haven't heard anything about system requirements, but if it is anything like the new games that are coming out today, you are going to want a Dual core. I upgraded to an AMD Athlon X2 3600+, and I can't begin to tell you the world of a difference it made for me. The best part is, It cost me about $20 less than my Pentium 4 did. My advice to you if you are sticking with a Pentium 4 is to go ahead and start upgrading now, otherwise you may find yourself not being able to play games pretty soon.

Edit: Also, I forgot to mention the limits that old of a processor puts on the rest of your hardware. Older Pentium 4 Mother Boards supported only PC133 SDRAM, which is extremely pricey these days and VERY slow. In addition, the AGP slot back then was 4x, which I found to cause many problems with today's graphic cards that use AGP 8x (even though they claim to be backwards compatible.) So, to reiterate what I said earlier, it is time for an upgrade.

lordpwn · Feb 02, 2008, 10:04 PM // 22:04

Any good for what? If you're asking whether it'll run GW2, that's pretty hard to tell with the game so far away from release, and it also depends on your video card and the amount of RAM in your computer.

Just note that a 2.53 GHz Pentium 4's about as fast as a 1.8 GHz Athlon 64 or Core 2, and that's pretty slow these days. Actually, it's about as low end as you can buy without looking around for used stuff or getting totally cheated, and with the game around one year from full release supporting hardware that's already low end and on its way out of the market probably isn't a priority.

Then again, a lot of people seem to manage to play Guild Wars on hardware I wouldn't browse the web on, so I guess whether the game will "run" may depend more on your tolerance for slideshows.

Rainbow Ftw · Feb 02, 2008, 10:25 PM // 22:25

you see, to me and other "poor" folk that seems rly good, I run GW on a 1.4Ghz Pentium 4, on lowest graphics settings, sure I get fps of 1 in any 8v8, but it still works.

I Dont Do Coke · Feb 02, 2008, 10:38 PM // 22:38

Whoa... OC it until you upgrade.

Captain Miken · Feb 02, 2008, 11:34 PM // 23:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by I Dont Do Coke

Whoa... OC it until you upgrade.

If he's asking if his processor is 'good', he's probably not in a position to OC it.

NathanMurray · Feb 02, 2008, 11:35 PM // 23:35

No I'm not asking will it run GW2 I'm asking about the computer. I only got thinking about it after I read about that sort of stuff in a GW2 thread.

Biostem · Feb 02, 2008, 11:37 PM // 23:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by NathanMurray

Ok now I'm not one who is an UBER genius when it comes to computers but I can fix most issues by Googling it. So tell me then computer geniuses is a 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor any good. Your probably think why ask such a thing but I added to what would be need for GW2 (a thread made earlier) and someone (Who I can't remember to Give props to) said about Processors and stuff. So go ahead and work some technical magic boys and girls. Thanks In advance

Nowadays, the Ghz rating of your processor isn't all that important; it's things like ram, video card, and the bus speed & cache size of the processor that matters. As a reference, a Celeron CPU, which is a cheaper model, will have a slower bus speed and a smaller cache. A XEON, OTOH, may very well have a slower clock speed, but its faster bus and larger cache will actually allow it to perform better than a Celeron of a higher Ghz rating.

As another example; my laptop, which has an Athlon X2 64 running at 1.6Ghz, is actually comparable to my old desktop, which was a single-core P4 rated at 3.0Ghz. The thing that set my desktop ahead w/ GW, however, was that it had a Geforce 7900GS w/ 128MB or dedicated memory, whereas the Athlon was on a laptop w/ a crummy Radeon XPress 1150 that shares the system memory.

Tachyon · Feb 03, 2008, 03:12 AM // 03:12

2.53GHz Pentium4? To be honest, for gaming that CPU is shite!

NathanMurray · Feb 03, 2008, 07:42 AM // 07:42

Well honestly now that doesn't matter I'm scrapping and completely upgrading.

Rainbow Ftw · Feb 03, 2008, 12:21 PM // 12:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azagoth

2.53GHz Pentium4? To be honest, for gaming that CPU is shite!

seriously? to me it sounds good =/

Numa Pompilius · Feb 03, 2008, 12:27 PM // 12:27

WTH are you people talking about? A 2.5GHz processor is a midline processor, perfectly good for gaming.
If the OP is finding his computer too slow, it's far more likely to be due to his graphics card, his harddisk, or that he's got too little memory (anything below 1GB is too little, and more is better).

lordpwn · Feb 03, 2008, 12:52 PM // 12:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Numa Pompilius

A 2.5GHz processor is a midline processor, perfectly good for gaming.

It's a Pentium 4, known for its abysmal instructions per clock ratio so don't look at the clock rate.

See this link for a comparison of a Pentium 4 and an Athlon 64 running at the same clock speed, in a CPU-bound game that certainly doesn't support multiple cores. Note how the benchmark's 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 is about as fast as a 1.6 GHz AMD Sempron, a crippled variant of the Athlon 64.

Numa Pompilius · Feb 03, 2008, 01:13 PM // 13:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordpwn

It's a Pentium 4, known for its abysmal instructions per clock ratio so don't look at the clock rate.

Yeah, but thing is, it's still acceptable for gaming.

Quote:

See this link for a comparison of a Pentium 4 and an Athlon 64 running at the same clock speed

Notice that he's getting 40 frames per second. Even if he's a competitive fps player that's an acceptable framerate.
I stand by what I said: if he really feel that his computer is too slow to play games, it's far more probable he's limited by his graphics, his RAM, or his HD.

And the newer the game, and the bigger his screen, the more likely it is that one of those three is limiting.

MaDDoG1221 · Feb 03, 2008, 01:19 PM // 13:19

My comp is only 1.92 Ghz so should be no problem at all