Is a core 2 duo processor too slow for gaming (ME2, SC2) and video playback (compared to an i5)?

I use my recently purchased laptop for gaming, browsing, torrenting, playing 720p video and not much else. And I don't mean cpu intensive games like Civ 5. I mean games like Starcraft 2 and Mass Effect 2.

Is a core 2 duo too slow for my needs? I can return my laptop and get a more expensive i5 that I don't like quite as much.

But only if you guys think a core 2 duo is too slow for gaming (Starcraft 2, Mass Effect 2 etc).

Frankly, I think the only reason 720p video stored on my hard drive chugs a little bit on occasion is because my hdd is very slow (I'm swapping it in for an SSD to address this). My GPU is powerful and I believe the core 2 duo is more than sufficent.

 

Any 2.4GHz and above Core 2 duo is usually fine for gaming but if you have the option to get the i5, go for it.

What's the specs of your laptop anyway? It's always the GPU that bottlenecks games and not the CPU.

 

For a properly setup media player, the GPU decodes the video stream (typically upto 40mbits).

MPC-HC is the first that comes to mind. Newer builds of VLC, too.

 

Thank you guys.

My laptop has a...

Core 2 Duo 2.2 Ghz CPU

ATI Mobility Radeon 4650

4GB of DDR2 ram

A Slow HDD which I be swapping out for an SSD. I think the hdd is the reason that 720p video stored on my hdd occasionally chugs.


I absolutely love it. But if you guys think the processor is too slow for my uses, I can still return it to get a more expensive i5 that I don't like the design of quite as much.

 

The CPU should be good enough to play current games but it won't be as future proof as the i5 (I think... Probably depends on which i5 CPU you're comparing to). SC2 is actually sorta CPU intensive too. Especially on maps with more than 4 players It's even recommended to have 2.4GHz duo core in fact

 

How much more is the i5?

If Starcraft 2 or any RTS is a priority, you'll need the faster processor.

What's your budget?

 

Thank you guys.

My budget is around $850.

I haven't noticed any problems running starcraft 2 on high. I think the reason I can't run it on very high is because of my gpu, not my cpu.

The i5 laptop would cost me $200 more.

I got my current laptop for $650 (it's the Sony Vaio VGN-FW). A similar specced one with an i5 (either the Sony Vaio F Series or the Dell XPS) would cost me atleast $850 and both look uglier than the FW imo.

I felt that the core 2 duo is more than fast enough for my needs. So I opted to just spend that $200 to upgrade to an ssd.

 

1) How slow is your HDD? I have an FW myself and I had no problems playing vids at either 720p or 1080p (scaled down to 900p because of res) with a 7200 rpm hd.
2) I played ME2 with a slightly faster CPU (2.53) at 1600x900 with everything at max or turned on (no VSync or AA though) and it was perfectly playable, so I guess you should be allright there.

 

I have a 7200rpm drive. But video playback does slow down a lot when I'm torrenting files in the background, which I frequently am.

It's only slow compared to SSDs. But I think it's the bottleneck for videoplayback while multitasking.

 

I cant see that being your HDD that is slowing it down 7200rpm is fine im running 720p and even 1080p on a 5400rpm and I have no problems at all.

I have used several core 2 duo and in my opinion they are top notch for bang for buck my current T9300 does everything I need it to and more however as the above posts say if your looking future proof you cant beat an I processor however for the next year at least your fine with what you got.

What processor is it to be at 2.2ghz? I recommend overclocking it upto maybe 2.4/2.5 to give you a bit extra oomf as my old T5750 did drag when running HD video on my Acer with a HD3650.

 

It's a T6600. A good processor.

Wouldn't overclocking it kill the battery life/generate excess heat?

Is there an easy way to overclock it. I honestly don't see it being worthwhile for a .2ghz performance boost.

 

a .2GHz performance boost is actually quite significant for some programs. And yes, overclocking will generate excess heat and eat up battery but well, it's quite worth it and you'll want your "gaming" laptop to always be plugged in anyway.

If you're using it not plugged in, then I can see that your GPU might be downclocking to prevent overheating or too much power consumption in power saver mode that it causes the mentioned lag.

 

with that much budget you can probably get a much better gaming/entertainment laptop

 

What software do you use to overclock?

Such as? A link to such a kickass gaming laptop for $650 would be nice.

 

I'm not an overclocker so I don't exactly know how to but if you search around you'll probably find a guide on how to overclock in the forums

As for laptop recommendations, try asking the guys over at What Notebook should I buy? They give good recommendations provided that you fill in the questions given in the stickies. Give them your budget ranget and they'll usually respond very quickly

 

HP DV6 is < $800, with an AMD Quad-core and a Mobility 5650.

There's also an Acer w/ Core i5 + 5650, at a similar price point.

 

Ugg, another "poll thread" with 2 wrong answers. What happened to the option "all/none of the above"?

 

You dont need a kick arse gaming laptop chap you said above you dont want excess heat or battery drain and that is what you will be buying, trust me unless you game 24/7 and like running Anti Aliasing until your eyes bleed what you have is fine.

I ran the mass effects and dragon age on full with a 2ghz T5750 and a HD3650 so you dont need a better setup than what you have if you are looking to play Bioware games. Pocket the cash.

On the overclocking side of things yes you may increase the heat and battery consumption slightly but hell im overclocking my 2.4 to 3ghz and at full load for 30 mins I dont get over 50oc. Overclocking your CPU is safe as long as you dont take it to far I used SysTool - System Tweaking and Overclocking Utility back when I had my old laptop but for vista/windows 7 I dunno as I have an inbuilt overclocker now. You can also flash the BIOS if you know what your doing.

 

My laptop cost me almost that low to build. And people have been trying to sell them like hotcakes here in the marketplace, general price consensus being ~750

I agree. Core 2 Duo means nothing! it could be 1.5ghz or 4ghz, and so could the i5 if you count the LV models.

Any Core 2 Duo over 2.6ghz is about as good as an i5.
You could overclock to that, or buy up a cheaper, lower clocked 45nm (t8100 and up) CPU which could overclock a lot better, probably sell your t6600 for more.
Keep an eye on ebay and dont pay over 30$ for something around 2ghz. Right now the market is so weird its anybodys game.

 

See my laptop specs in signature.
It runs ME1&2 maxed out just fine (along with numerous other games).
It was a decent mid-range laptop back in late 2008.
My cpu is P7350 C2D (2.0Ghz) - sufficient for most games and runs SC2 in High on 1024x768 (although I could max out the resolution, but that would cost me some FPS - it wouldn't be horrid, but slightly noticeable).

With a C2D that is 2.4Ghz or above, you won't run into any issues with games.

However, I would recommend you get the i5 if possible.
Due to it's newer architecture, it's inherently faster clock per clock when compared to the C2D generation.
For my current needs, my laptop is quite enough (though I do need a more powerful CPU because of 3dsMax).

 

u need a P8700 min and you shouldn't have a problem... you can easily get an old Asus G51VX with P8700+ GTX260M for $600... a newer core i7 refurbished G51JX would be $800...

 

how about a t9600 oc'ed to 3.1 ghz

 

Would 2.2 Ghz Core 2 Duo T6600 overclocked to either 2.4 or 2.5 Ghz be sufficent?

How would you guys recommend overclocking it?

I like my laptop a lot (love the design and price) and don't want to return it unless I need an i5 for gaming.

The overclocked Core 2 Duo is paired with an 512mb ATI Mobility 4650 HD, 4gb of Ram, a bluray burner (which I actually get use out of) and within the next week a 256gb Crucial M225 SSD (that I got a fantastic deal on and could afford since my laptop was so cheap).

With those specs, I don't think the processor would be a bottleneck. I think probably the GPU would be a bottleneck more than anything.

I am under the impression that the thing should perform very fast with those specs for most current games.

But let me know if you disagree.

 

You have a good setup with a budget CPU unfortunetely if you just upgrade the CPU you will be future proof for quite a while. Overclocking works to some extent but upgrading the CPU will then allow you to overclock even further.

Your CPU is a socket P so check this list and make sure your socket is the same:

List of Intel Core 2 microprocessors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Core 2 could still be the top powerful architecture, Intel could have milked Core 2 for all it was worth even for 2 years after the i series would have come out, basically, all i'm saying is that a Core 2 based processor is more than enough, at least the latest revision of Core 2 is. I play SC2 at max settings with 60-70FPS, this is on a higher clocked, and final revision Core 2 T9600 (2.8GHz thinking of making it an even 3 soon) on a ThinkPad W700, with Crysis i can run it on near max DX10 settings, except it's only at 15-25FPS, but i just love the shear intricacy and beauty of Crysis too much to sacrifice settings.

 

My [email protected] has never bottlenecked my gpu for any games let alone me2 and sc2.

 

the processor will be the bottleneck.. first , the T6600 won't reach 2.5GHz. Secondly , L2 Cache is so small and FSB is 800MHz that really any P8700 or T9400 would own it at their stock speed.. which 2.53GHz... and really , you might not be able to OC CPU as PLL could be locked.. what make is it?

 

I disagree with the calls for an i5. A Core 2 Duo with a clock speed of 2.4GHz will get you through almost any game; it will also be cheaper than ever since Core 2 Duo is a last generation processor. OCing in this price-competitive segment is usually not worth it as this category usually doesn't have robust cooling designs like Sager or MSI.

The rest of the money should be directed at the video card, preferably something better than a Radeon 5650 or Nvidia equivalent as these are mid-range cards that offer limited high performance. Like the poll suggests, games put their greatest demands on the GPU; as such, that's where any gamer should focus their money.

 

This is a Sony Vaio FW Laptop. Upgrading the gpu I don't think is an option.

But I could upgrade the cpu to a newer core 2 duo if it's not too expensive maybe.

Thank you.

All the Core 2 Quads and Core 2 Extremes also use socket P. If I upgrade to one of those, would it work? Or would my motherboard not support such an upgrade.

What would you recommend that I upgrade to? The T9600 or something like that?

Is there a cheap place to buy cpus? Ebay prices seem really high.

Thanks again.

 

x9100 for the win! I think that this can be called "his majesty" between the Core 2 Duos.
I never been so happy of an upgrade: currently its running stable at 3,60ghz and it peaks barely 83° under load.

 

I cant answer this im afraid but it would depend on your computer's limits for instance if its front side bus can only handle 800mhz then that is what you must choose etc, it would also depend on the wattage and power running through the laptop for the CPU that you select.

However like the other posts state anything around 2.5ghz with a 3-6mb cache and 800FSB is more than enough for you to run nearly all games out. Im running the T9300 o/c to 3ghz and it flys so the T9400 would be more than enough. Core 2 Extremes are awesome yes but they are VERY costly for what you get and can run hot especially when people can push these bad boys to 4ghz which is rotten fast!

You could upgrade to a really fast Quad core but what is the point when you have a HD4650 align this with a good core 2 duo and your sorted, dont waste your money. I can run Metro 2033 an antivirus test and Internet open with downloads on full and only reach 73% load with 2 cores, the quad core is for the future.

 

Upgrading the CPU is rarely worth the money, but in any case you'd want to check the compatibility of the chipset and the BIOS of that specific machine in order to determine the best CPU that you can pop in there. A C2Quad or Core 2 Extreme would not work in the VAIO FW.

Honestly though, if you want a decent gaming experience it's best to just build a desktop. Laptops are poorly suited for gaming, even those in the gamign category.

 

That is true mine sucks at everything so I put around 100 hours into games like nba live 06 and Nba 2k10 every year

 

That's a bit harsh. It's much more expensive to get a laptop that games well than a desktop, but saying laptops are poorly suited to gaming altogether is a bit far off the mark, when there are laptops out there that can run virtually every game released at 1080p will full settings. If you have the right machine, every game out there is playable; which is my definition of a machine suitable for gaming. Admittedly these are more DTR than laptops per se, but the point still stands.

 

the P8xxx and T9xxx are fine for most gamings provided a med to high spec gpu is present, as most games are more GPU constrained.

 

this is what u need.. a P8000 , 9000 or T9400/9600/9800/9900... the T6600 is out of the question.. it is extremely crappy..

 

OK, it's harsh to say that gaming laptops are poor for their intended purpose, but it is often true for the low-range gaming segment. You have to shell out major money to get a good quality gaming laptop.

 

I have a T6600. Is it really that bad?

If I were to swap it out for a T9600, would I be able to play Starcraft 2 with all the settings at Very High instead of High?

My current GPU is the Mobility Radeon 4650.

Would I just be better off over clocking my T6600 to 2.4 Ghz?

 

The T6600 is not "that bad". It is a competent CPU for most tasks. If your games and other programs are running fine with it, then why bother thinking about upgrading?
Playing SCII on Very High vs. High isn't worth it, IMO . . .

An SSD will give you a big performance boost.

 

It's ur GPU dat's bottlenecking your game..

My desktop with E2180 OCed to 3.0GHz and a HD5770 runs on Ultra because of the graphic card..

 

Put it this way you upgrade both and your able to play Starcraft 2 in ultra after spending shed loads of cash and then 3 months down the line a new game comes out that your only able to play in low probably Gothic 4 because its been made in 5 minutes by some bloke down a pub!

There is no point upgrading everything your setup is fine for medium to high gaming its just your CPU that needs a bit of an upgrade to keep you going a bit longer and faster until you get a new setup. You can only upgrade so far.

Here is your answer go for as high as possible for price personally you would be fine with the T9400 for bang for buck but your choice.

Good luck!

 

I just found out that my 2ghz intel core2 duo (t7300) is way too weak for mafia2, so I can only play in 1280*800 resolution >.>

 

Whats the deal about 1280x800?
With my system i play Mafia 2 at 1280x720, maxed out, with AA,AF and physix to medium.
I can crank the settings to 1680x1050 but im forced to drop AA and Physix.

Its not big deal if you consider that the standard resolution for mafia 2 is 1280x720.

And my system is in signature...i think that 9800mGT clocked to my speed is far more powered than 4670.

 

Oh, well then I guess the bottleneck is my ati hd4670 afterall. I made a thread were I asked which was the bottleneck: my 2ghz core 2 duo or my ati, everybody said it was my cpu since the minimum requirement is a 3ghz core2duo. So my cpu was under the minimum requirements, while my gpu was not.

I'm glad you told me you play at 1280*720 aswell, because I was really planning on buying a stronger cpu. Guess it would have made no difference.

 

T6600 is okay, as long you have a good gpu present.

 

CPU would make a difference if you are running at 2ghz my friend load and speed are two different things your CPU may not be at bottleneck on load but if the speed is too slow it will not be able to process quick enough.

I had CPU trouble with Mafia 2 when I was running at 2.5Ghz but not at 3Ghz.

 

Well if i'll upgrade my cpu it will be to the t9300 or the t9500 (respectivly 2.5 and 2.6 ghz), think it will be worth it since you had problems at 2.5 ghz?

 

The T9500 is only 100mhz more than the T9300 so dont waste your money if it costs more than a fiver to be honest as you can easily overclock the T9300.

I can push it to 3.1ghz max and it only reaches 54oc on full load! T9xxx series are worthy CPU's.

I only had problem because I was running Physx through my CPU and all settings on high with 1080p : )

 

my m11x plays SC2, a c2d is not going to struggle.

 

Far Cry 2 and L4D2 are very hard on the GPU so it sounds like you GPU is bottlenecking not your CPU. Assassins Creed is poorly optimised as well, you could maybe do with clocking or upgrading your CPU upto 2.5ghz but you should be ok with what you have.