How much would a processor effect gaming?

Well, i have almost no experience with processors so let me start off with the question what do processors effect?

And how much does it effect gaming?

So if i get a sager 8662 with the following specs:
15.4 inch screen 1680x1050
Core 2 duo processor 2.53GHz (p8700)
GTX 260m 1GB vram
4GB ram
320GB HDD 7200 RPM

Is the processor too slow?
if i was playing crysis how much would the processor effect the FPS?
Should i get a 2.66 GHz (T9550 or T9600)processor for better gameplay or does it not effect it too much?
or how about a 2.00GHz (Q9000)quad core?
the T9800 at 2.93GHz is too expensive do that is just out of the question.

Thanks

 

Get the lower end processor. Games these days rely on the GPU. To a lesser extent, the amount of RAM, and for loading times, your hard drive speed. Most CPU's these days run games just fine. Games wont be written for Quad core for some time anyway.

 

Okay thanks!

But what else is effected by processor speed?
Will a faster CPU effect things such as boot time?

 

Your only going to notice a big difference if you upgrade from a very low end CPU to a top of the line. CPU's really only important if you do a lot of audio/video editing, or other CPU intensive tasks. Dont even worry about Quad core, just get a mid range, or settle for whats already offered with the laptop, and you'll be fine.

Unless you have money to burn.

 

What games are you playing? Use the search function to see which games rely more on the CPU, but generally, most games are still GPU limited (ie. your CPU is fine).

 

CPU will most likely be the least important part of your laptop (unless it's for "populated" games such as RTS's, WOW (for vastly populated raids), grand theft auto 4 (supports quad I believe) etc.

 

I will be playing some RTS games but mostly FPS and 3rd person/tactical shooters.
Ill just stick with the 2.53GHz processor or maybe even get the 2.40GHz one to save some money.
Thanks for the help guys

 

I play Crysis on a 2.13 Ghz P7450. 2.20 is the recomended for vista. I do find if i dont overclock to 2.2 i sometimes get a stutter in sound. With it overclocked to 2.2 2.3 2.45 I dont have any issues.

The 2.53 should serve you well.

 

The amount its going to effect your experience its dependent on a ton of factors, the gpu(s) in use, the settings used, the game being played.

Current day core2duo or core2quad's seem to work well 2.4ghz or higher.

Below that point is where you are most prone to finding a large enough bottleneck from your cpu to effect your gaming.

Faster is always better, but if the price takes a huge surge forward for only a small % of cpu speed its not worth it, plus there is always overclocking...