to upgrade..dual or single??

[Berzerk]

this is quite a hot topic on the net these days for the sorry few who are still on 939 boards

i got the choice between purchasing a 4000+ 2.4 ghz single core

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1366749

79.99 usd


and a 4200+ dual core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103543

155.usd

i had my heart set on the 4200x2 until i read about lil issues with the 4200 x2 in gaming,

is anybody here familiar with the 4200x2 manchester?

i dont do encoding only a little video editing from time to time, so i not really into the hefty application stuff, but this year may see the need for dual core optimized gaming.

and also from some benchies, the 4000+ performs almost identically to the 4200x2 in most games...

so im a little confused, what allyuh think?

[TrinireturnofGamez]

      Dual core , games are coming  out this year that will need the extra processor , the 4200 will be almost twice as fast in those or be able to turn on better features like advanced physics .


Crysis , unreal 2007 , Alan wake , all are multi threaded and need all the cpu power you can get .

[Prowl]

whats wrong with the 3800x2?

[.:Jedi:.]

The 4000+ is a great processor right now, but get dual core man. Apart from some of the recently released games being optimised for dual core cpu's, games that TrinithereturnofGamez mentioned will run sweet because of the multi threaded engines, and that 4000+ will struggle to keep up. Nutten wrong with the X2 3800. I guess he jus prefer the X2 4200............?

[Berzerk]

im pretty much set on the 4200+ x2 but ive read about issues in gaming. have any of you experienced anything on your dual core systems? and isnt the 4200+x2 better than the 3800+x2? benchies on toms hardware say so.

[Beomagi]

Almost all issues are easily solved by assigning the game process to a particular core. I've never had an problems on my turion x2 or pentium D. And i run a lot of pc games, new and old.
the 4200+ is faster, but unnoticably so. 2GHz, vs 2.2GHz (10% higher clock) - and no, almost nothing will run that 10% faster, because few apps, especially games, are cpu bound.

you save $22 - your choice really.

[Arcmanov]

Well, I have a 3800 X2 in my 939 system presently, and I can safely say it was a BIG difference in performance generally (compared to a single-core 3500), but in gaming, not so sure.  I saw more of a performance jump with the 7900 GS (video-card).

If you getting the dual core for that price, by all means buy the thing.  It actually makes more sense to get the best 939 CPU that you can, as migrating to socket AM2 will get you only a marginal performance gain, which isn't worth it when you consider that is new board, CPU and RAM that you have to buy.

As for problems, I havent seen any.  Before you install the X2 you should update your BIOS though.

[W1nTry]

I have a 4400 X2 and have never experienced a gaming problem using it. Granted my PC has been relegated to video and music lately since I game almost strictly onteh 360 now, however meh bros sweat WOW and dota on it and have never experienced any problems.