Does Team fortress 2 require a good CPU?

Is it correct when I say that I don't have a good enough CPU for Team Fortress 2? At least higher than my T5470? Here's my thought on the subject: On the official page, it say the recommended requirement is single core 2.4 Ghz, and my dual core @1.6 which should theoretically be better than the recommended requirement. However, Team fortress 2 is single threaded, which means that I am only slightly above the min requirement which is single core @ 1.2 Ghz. So, during heavy gun fights my FPS drops to around 20s and Overclocking the GPU doesn't improve the performance. Any thoughts on this subject?

 

20 FPS seems totally okay, i played through Doom 3 with 8-15 FPS perfectly!

 

1.6ghz dual core is plenty fast, plus good GPU, your connection is more important.

 

They're referring to Pentium 4-like GHz. Every single CPU on the market can play TF2 very well.

That 8600GT should be very fast as well: try updating your video card drivers and cleaning up your system.

 

Thanks guys but i believe you misunderstood my argument. The requirement is indeed in single core format, but I believe that since the game is single threaded which means at any given point the game only use one core to the Max (Per task manager), I am only able to be slight above the min requirement which is rated at 1.2 GHz, instead of the 2.4 required by recommended requirement.

 

ok....so one core is rated at 1.6....which equals about 3.0ghz+ in pentium4 talk which is what they are rating it by.....so your fine.

core 2's run differently than the P4's just more efficient so they cannot be rated the same

 

The CPU is only rated higher if it is running with both cores, so when the game only fully utilize one core all the time, doesn't it mean I am only give it CPU power equivalent to that of one core which is 1.6 Ghz. If I convert that to single core (That as in one core of the dual core cpu cores), I still won't hit the recommended 2.4 GHz.

I hope that clears up what I am asking a bit.

 

i think you mis understand.....the entire processor is not rated at 1.6, there are two SEPERATE processors rated at the same speed working together.

 

But....
I need to bold this part in my own statement real quick. sorry but here:

So technically, am I correct when I say I am not hitting the requirement, since ONLY one core is used, the one core in a dual core at 1.6 isn't as strong let's say as a one core dual core rated @ 2.4 FOR this game.

Sorry, if I sound offending but I am not intending it. It's just with my ESOL English, I can't express what I am trying to say fully, and that gets frustrating at times.

 

Even though it runs only on one core, one core is fast enough. A Core 2 Duo at 1.6GHz is far faster than a Pentium 4 at 2.4GHz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_Myth

 

i play with a pentium 4 , 2.4 GHZ CPU, and since Core 2 Duo is hella faster then mine , no tf2 doesnt require a good cpu

 

what he said..

the cores do not depend on each other for their speed, one is 1.6ghz, the other is 1.6ghz and one just running by its self will not yield performance losses.

and i didnt take offense...i see what your saying though

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I didn't give up and did some research.
But I recently discovered a source engine command that let it runs on both cores, teh catch is it's buggy.
Anyways, I have noticed that Overclocking the GPU doesn't give me a boost in performance, but when I enabled the double core trick, it gave me about 10 - 12 fps especially during heavy gun fights.

Also, I ran the game in windows mode and here's what I observed during big areas with heavy gun fights within the same game/server.

No Dual core trick:
Core 1: 97%-100%
Core 2: around 10%
FPS: 24-28

Dual Core Trick
Core1:100%
Core 2: 50-80%
Fps: 35-42

That is very significant!
I ran it @ 1024 x 765 with everything high, except texture at medium, 0 AA, and 8x Af. This is done to make sure my low DDR2 memory bandwidth won't get in the way.
Again overclocking the GPU show no evident boost in performance.
so, I really do think CPU plays a role in TF2, especially at areas where theres alot of thiings going on.

With that said, Valve needs to make TF2 support Dual Core officially, so the command will no longer be buggy!

 

whats the trick? i was just noticing this last night. i only have a 1.5ghz c2d so it will help me out.

 

Interesting topic. I myself have found the whole processor clock speed thing confusing. Having been used to my Pentium IV 3 ghz machine the arrival of processors such as Pentium M & Core 2 Duo at lower clock speeds has caused confusion. I knew the architecture of the newer processors was better allowing for much more performance per hertz but when you see core 2 duos as low as 1.66 ghz I always wonder how they match up to say my Pentium IV 3 ghz. The clock speed seems so far behind I do wonder if overall it is generally faster. Game boxes do not help because as someone rightly mentioned their recommended requirements are always based on the old P4 clock speeds. Is their perhaps an approximate formula that can be used to make comparisons? My laptop has 2.4 ghz core 2 duo in it. In old Pentium clock speed terms, just how much faster is it? If the technology to go that fast on the old Pentium 4's excited, what clock speed would be needed to match the 2.4 ghz Core 2 Duo, 6 ghz? 8ghz? Same goes for the Pentium M, my girlfriends laptop has 1.6 ghz Pentium M in it - is this faster than a Pentium IV 3 ghz?

 

The 1.6 pentium m is about the speed of a 2.4 p4. The Core 2 has almost double the performance per clock of pentium 4, at each core. In a perfectly multithreaded application your core 2 duo is abou a 8-9 ghz p4. In single threaded applications it is about a 4-4.5 ghz p4. But these numbers varies with the kind of application.

The e6600 2.4 ghz desktop core 2 duo is faster than the pentium D 965 dual core at 3.73 ghz. The laptop version is a bit slower thanks to the 800 mhz fsb.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/10351/8

 

agreed. dragonpet, there are two things going on here. on the one hand you have two processors in your cpu, which is good, but isn't doing much for 1 intensive single threaded app running. Its possible that the other core can handle the operating system tasks while you are gaming, for a slight benefit.

But- there is another side of this altogether:

A core 2 SOLO - a single core version of the most recent "core 2" processors - is much faster at 1.6ghz than, say, a pentium 4 processor at 2.4ghz (likely even more).

The important distinction to make is that the processor speed requirements on the box are in terms of these older pentium 4 chips, specifically. That means if you have a newer processor at a lower clock speed (even a single core processor)- you are still golden.

I hope all that makes sense, and you english is excellent.

edit: i see you've done some fun benchmarking. anyway, it seems like there is some fundamental problem here. an 8600m gt with a 1.6ghz core 2 duo should not be getting framerates like 30 at 1024x768 in tf2... considerably higher... maybe like twice that?

update your video card drivers, laptopvideo2go.

 

Not a general one. You could come up with a reasonable scaling factor for Pentium 4 vs Core 2 (I'd put it around 1.8-2.0 roughly)

So one 1.5GHz Core 2 core would be as fast as one 3.0 Ghz P4 core.
However, this doesn't apply to other CPU's (AMD ones, for example), and it doesn't take into account multiple cores either.

 

the amd to p4 ratio is easy, its listed on the amd box. athlon 3000+ = p4 3.0 ghz

 

Thanks! Can the frame rate really be higher? The FPS I had posted is when I look out the battlement on 2Fort with a heavy and a medic gunning like crazy, and a demoman on ourside with the usual snipers.

I have updated my driver from laptopvideo2go even since I received my laptop and it is not the only driver that demonstrate such a low performance during large areas on TF2, thus, it led me to believe that my CPU is the bottleneck.

Should I request a replacement with Dell? I have had this laptop for a good 5 months now, if there's a problem I would definitely want to get it sort out before the 1 year limited warranty expires.

Also for the poster that asked for the trick:
Go in the console and type: mat_queue_mode 2, the number is the thread to split it into. Even though it isn't common but be warned! It does sometimes makes the game crash randomly, especially during heavy fights!

 

At any rate, Source games are kind even to older hardware. My ancient P4 could get decent FPS in HL2 so I figure TF2 shouldn't be a problem for it. Thats what I like about Source based games. You don't need a computer from the future to run them okay.

 

Hope you are joking...Doom 3 with that fps is a slide show.

 

No... There really aren't. There are two cores, not two processors.

 

Man I have a dual core 1.7 Ghz * 2, ATI X1950 GT, 3 GB Ram, Broadband connection. The game runs 'perfectly' at 1450 * 900, 4XAA, 8*AF.

You should be fine, what GPU do you have?

 

It is in my sig, but here, it's the 8600m GT DDR2.
The score is obtained with both OC and non-OC, as mentioned in my previous thread, Overclocking the GPU does little to no good.

Also, if anyone is reading this that owns Dell's 8600m GT, what fps do you guys get during heavy gun fights?

 

i have an 8600m gt ddr2 and in heavy fights i get 20-30 fps but just running around or in small fights i get 45-60

 

Sweet, sound like what I am getting. Now's compare settings. what setting are you running at?

 

all high with medium shadows, no AA, 8x AF, no motion blur.

 

Thanks!
After upgrading the driver, I use 1280 x 800, 2x AA, All high, no V-sync, and no motion blur. I get 25-30 during heavily animated areas, and 40-50's when nothing is happen. Does this sound right for a 8600m with only DDR2?

 

@ Dragonpet: I have the same CPU as yours, maybe 200MHz more. But my Logitech LCD has the CPU monitor, and never is a single core at 100%. I'll pay more attention tonight and get back to you.

It plays real well on my computer, btw .

 

sounds right. i forgot to add that i run at 1280x800 also. i just find it weird that when i run low settings my fps doesnt change.

 

I get a very low framerate with my P4 2.4GHz and my overclocked, unlocked 6800. Actually, only in intense battle situations, like you. I've experienced exactly what you've experienced. I most definitely believe that the CPU matters much more than the GPU in this game. The game was poorly designed, I think. At least it was poorly designed, compatibly. If it were a singleplayer game, we wouldn't be having these issues. Hell, maybe it has something to do with the player's chipset or AGP rate or FSB speed. Maybe even, they just specify lower than actually needed system requirements, to sell more copies! Because I was psyched when I read the requirements. "My system will run TF2 perfectly!" $55 later, I'm spending hours trying to make the game PLAYABLE. Not right, not right at all. The crooks.

Here's the best place to read up on how to exterminate low FPS with the Source engine, although I'm just gonna wait until I get a new system to play TF2.

http://www.tweakguides.com/HL2_1.html

A little information on my system. Keep in mind my system runs games like FEAR, Far Cry, Doom 3, Quake 4, Half-Life 2, CSS, TRA, Fable... All with high graphics settings, resolutions from 1024x768-1600x1200, and with usually a 45 average framerate (45fps). If a first-person shooter goes below even 30 FPS, it's usually not very playable. Console first-person shooter games get a constant 85 FPS (I'm guessing, probably very close). Anyway here's some more information on my system:

My FSB : DRAM frequency ratio is 1:1. I have 1GB Kingston RAM.

My 128MB 6800 is AGP 4x, and unlocked to 16pp,6vp. The core GPU is overclocked from 325MHz to 355MHz. It runs cool, and without artifacts.

My CPU actually supports hyper-threading technology, but my crappy motherboard doesn't, so my P4 2.4GHz is not running at it's full potential. BUT, with TF2, it shouldn't matter. ("Hyper-threading enables multi-threaded software applications to execute two software threads in parallel, thereby improving system responsiveness." -Intel) "Multi-threaded software applications," which TF2 is not exactly.

So in conclusion... There are no problems with my system. I take very good care of it. This game needs a good CPU, bottom line. Min. system requirements should specify a 3.0GHz CPU, in my opinion. But hey, whatever. Can't wait to build a new, badass computer and kick some ass in this game!

BTW, here's two console commands for all Source games to DEFINITELY enable if you have a multi-core CPU!
r_threaded_particles 1
r_threaded_renderables 1

 

With shame, I gotta take back everything I said about the system requirements. I updated my BIOS and it runs much better now.

 

how exactly do you update your bios?

 

Wow, it actually is taxing one core a heck of a lot more than the other. I didn't notice this until now

 

is css really that cpu intensive? when im playing both of my cores are 100%

 

@Dragonpet,
You are probably experiencing the problem described in this steam forum post, where there's performance issue especially wiht the CPU, making it way too demanding on one core.

75 pages.. have fun reading, but the short story is that, you are right, Team fortress 2 is more CPU demanding at the moment, due to a software bug, the bad news is Valve seems to have take off the person that was working on this performance issue and put him to work on L4D, or Left 4 Dead.

 

Basically, yes.

If you upgrade your CPU, you'll notice an increase in fps.

Just wondering, are you using XP or Vista? 2GB is perfect for XP but the bare minimum for Vista.

 

the dual more 'trick'/unofficial command is mat_queue 2

Only for intel cpu's, don't use for AMD's.

Performance seems to increase at the cost of reliability, but i also found it a bit 'jumpy'/stuttering during game play...

also you won't be able to alt-tab or change graphics settings in game, it'll crash.

turning off dynamic lighting and transparent water helps fps a fair bit.

also SLI with source games such as TF2 seems to cause some flickering shadows/screen with some people...fair few posts on this at the nvidia sli forums...