How does Core 2 Duo stack up against P4 re:gaming

I await my new notebook, Vostro 1500, Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2.0GHz, 800Mhz, 2M L2 Cache and I noticed the system requirements for some games seem to be too much for what I ordered.

i.e. for Enemy Territory / Quake Wars
Minimum System Requirements
System: Intel Pentium IV 2.8 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
Video Memory: 128 MB
Hard Drive Space: 5000 MB
Other: Pentium IV 3.0 GHz processor and 768MB RAM required for Windows Vista

But this is what is listed for Bioshock

Minimum System Requirements
System: Intel Pentium IV 2.4 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 1024 MB
Video Memory: 128 MB
Hard Drive Space: 8000 MB
Recommended System Requirements
System: Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent
RAM: 2048 MB
Video Memory: 512 MB

What's the equivalant clock speed of a P4 in relation to Core 2 Due @ 2 Ghz?

Thanks.

 

Pentium 4's could not compete.
The closest thing would probably be a Pentium D @ 3.4 Ghz.

For the P4 line, the 3.8 Ghz P4 would get destroyed by the T7250, but its next player, the 3.46 Ghz extreme edition would beat the T7250 any day.

Your T7250 will have more than enough power for pretty much any game.In the Dell you ordered, your games are going to be limited by the gpu you choose.

K-TRON

 

Games are not generally too cpu bound, its 90% of the gpu that does the work. That said there are exceptions and a cpu does still play an important roll.

More and more games are starting to use more cpu power, this is a good thing really since cpus are getting much stronger but especially in the case of laptops we are limited in the gpu power so it helps compensate.

All in all you wouldnt want a P4 unless your life depended on it tho, its the hottest running consumer cpu on the market, takes a ton of power to run, not very strong, and just a bad investment. Even if gaming was the same the computer as a whole would be running alot worse.

 

Your c2d cpu is rated at over 4GHz in terms of P4 power, so you're wayyy ahead of the reqs.

Search around for cpu rate charts and it will show all kinds of mobile cpus and how they stack up in P4 terms.

 

actually, it's rated over 5GHz in terms of P4 power. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=107265

 

I had the Vostro 1500 w/ the 1.6ghx Core 2 and it ran Bioshock full settings flawlessly. the 2.0ghz will be more than enough

 

A single core on a Core 2 is rated at about 2.5x the performance level of a P4.

On a side note, your Santa Rosa laptop will actually overclock your CPU when gaming, giving you an even higher performance.

 

Huh? Really?

 

Even if the game is single-core supported, the C2D will definitely win. The architecture difference between the two is astonishing!

 

Quoted from somewhere:

The Santa Rosa platform comes with dynamic acceleration technology. It allows single threaded applications to execute faster. When a single threaded application is running the CPU can turn off one of the CPU cores and overclock the active core. In this way the CPU maintains the same Thermal Profile as it would when both cores are active. Many expect Santa Rosa to perform well as a mobile gaming platform due to its ability to switch between single threaded and multithreaded tasks.