processor help!?

Question

im buying a new pc but dont know whether to get a AMD or Intel processor. Can anyone tell me which would be better for gaming. Also i dont understand what the L2 Cache is because the AMD has 2x1m Cache but the Intel has a 4mb Cache, anyone know what that is :S ?

Answer 1

Read all about L2 cache on Wikipedia.

Buy the fastest CPU you can afford, brand really doesn't matter. Modern CPUs are so fast, it's hard to tell the performance differences. http://www.tomshardware.com has a handy CPU comparison chart.

Single core OR dual / quad core is only important if the game supports them.

HINT: The Gaming websites will tell you the minimum hardware, RAM and graphics requirements. Let that be your guide.

Answer 2

For gaming (and pretty much anything else at the moment) go with Intel. Intel are ahead in the technology stakes and are providing more bang for your bucks. L2 cache is the Level 2 cache and is a memory bank that is physically on the processor itself, this is obviously directely related to how fast things can be done by the processor, instead of the processor having to handle the job of writing and reading back from RAM it can put values into its L2 cache when performing calculations. The more cache you have generally the better performance you are going to get.

The best processor for the money at the moment is the Intel Q6600, this is a quad core processor with 4 cores running at 2.4GHz each. The E6750 which is around the same price is a dual core processor with 2 cores running at 3.0GHz each. The really good thing about the Q6600 though is that it is so easy to overclock, and with the factory CPU cooler you can have it running each of its cores at 3.0GHZ, so 4 cores at 3.0GHZ :)

You will hear people telling you that there are no games that take advantage of multiple cores yet, but they are beginning to arrive. The Crysis demo has just been released and this is the first game to make full use of all the cores on a system. Depends if you want to future proof yourself or be able to run current games easily without any overclocking.

Future proof - go with the Q6600
Dont know much about configuring systems - E6750

Answer 3

uh. yeah...... AMD's (in this case) has 1MB cache for 2 cores (so i assume its a dual-core). But if the Intel's is dual-cored, 4MB will be shared b/w the 2 cores.


Best thing is the AMD Athlon 4800 XP processor

Answer 4

don't think anything, see ur pocket and go to the store, all PC rates r increasing quality wise, if u r intrested in gaming, go 4 AMD processors, purchase any branded PC whatever in ur range.

Answer 5

just ask th staf if they think it is good for gaming or not