DC or not?

Hey guys,

I'm looking to build a new computer, and I was wondering about the whole dual core scene. The computer would be mainly for gaming, and I've heard the DC systems don't agree with gaming. On the other hand, I've heard that newer games don't see down to the hardware level, and don't know the difference (therefore only running on one of the processors). What opinion do you have on this? Should I go dual core, or no?

 

Right now, it's not much of an advantage for gaming to go dual core. Essentially, you are correct, games are not coded to take advantage of the multi-threading capabilities, so for the same amount of money, a single core processor will run a game faster than a dual core processor. In the not so distant future (probably within the next year or two) games, and operating systems (namely Windows) will be written to use dual core CPUs as well as 64-bit. At that time, there will probably be a distinct advantage to having a dual core processor.

If I were you, I'd go with a fast single-core processor and plan to upgrade in a year or so to a dual-core processor. If you are going with an Athlon 64, which I would recommend, I'd go with the 3700+ San Diego core. It's only around $200 and will run games very well.