# does a low cpu speed will effect game smoothness?



## theReaper0908

If I have a cpu speed of AMD Athlon 2400+ 2.0ghz and a game required 3.0ghz, but I have 2gb of ram, will the game still run smooth? or will I experience a little choppyness?

oh and what does the cpu speed does to games? I've always wondered that... Like you have ram to improve the speed, a video card to improve the graphics but I always wanted to know what does the cpu speed does


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## swarner

First of all whats the game in question? Company of Heroes Mabey?

Also on the back of a game box when it says:
Reccomended System requirements:
CPU: 3.0GHz
etc
etc....

It means that it needs a Pentium 4 3.0GHZ. and doesnt account for AMD CPUs

Your AMD Athlon XP 2400+ runs at about the equivalent of a 2.4GHz Pentium 4.

The game will run, Wheather it will run smoothly is anothering thing!


To answer your second question "What does the CPU do in games?"

The cpu is the Brain of your comp. every signal and address passes through it at some stage. the cpu passes info between your RAM,HDD,Video card etc.
the cpu also plays a major part in processing in game things such as physics and some graphical elements.


also what vid. card do you have?


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## theReaper0908

i got an ati radeon x1600 512 mb card

oh and im not talking about a specific game, I'm just talking in general, all the games out there


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## swarner

That system will run all modern games!

But it will by no means run games such as oblivion or company of heroes on high or possibly even medium settings, it will however run them!

your processor is deffintly bottlenecking your system and i would recomend an upgrade.

You have a good mid range vid. card but if you've got the money i would reccomend an X1900XT

Your 2Gigs of RAM is more than enough:grin:


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## theReaper0908

the thing that stops me of upgrading my cpu is because i heard u need to get one that supports ur mother board and all and I don't know how to check if its compatible and also cpu's are kinda expensive


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## swarner

If you want to know any details on what hardware is in your computer such as motherboard,video card, RAM, system temperatures etc i recommend you download the free program Belarc Advisor from here:http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

If you give me the make and model of your motherboard using this program i can advise some cheap upgrades!

CPU's have dramatically gone down in price since the advent of core 2 duo and thus the AMD price cuts!


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## theReaper0908

I really apprieciate you helping me

After running a scan with that program, there were 2 sections that had my system model as well as my main circuit board model

*System Model*

Compaq Presario 061 DF260A-ABA S4030NX NA210 0n41411RE101SALSA10
System Serial Number: MXM3270GC1
Enclosure Type: Desktop

*Main Circuit Board
*
Board: KM266-8235 
Serial Number: 137928-32509760
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD AM37312 03/17/2003

thank you so much for helping me

oh yea and in the scan report, under memory slots, it said i had 3 slots A0,A1, and A2, but I only have 2 slots and I'm pretty sure of it. Is this normal? or is there a hidden ram slot in my computer that I don't know about, lol.


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## ebackhus

Your system uses a *Socket A* processor, this includes the AMD Athlon, Athlon XP, Duron, and some Semprons. The highest you could probably get away with is a 3200+ (about the power of a Pentium 4 @ 3.2Ghz) but other factors come into play there. The FSB (Front Side Bus, where data travels between system components) is set at 133Mhz currently, which is just right for that particular CPU. If that can be increased then your ability to upgrade gets easier. If it's the highest it can go (which it may be, given the KM266 chipset) then you're stuck with just what you have.

Ok, I looked over the KM266 data sheets, looks like that chipset only support 200 & 266Mhz operation, so the 3200+ is out of the picture unfortunately. At this point you should consider moving up to a new system. I recommend building one, or having one built for you. You can still get hardware that will support your video card, but it'll likely be older or used hardware.

Hope this helps!


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## swarner

As ebackhus said you havve a dated socket A motherboard, and i wouldnt recommend spending money updating this system as the performance increase will not be worth it.

I recommend continuing to use this system for the moment and then building an entire new system some time in the future using an AM2 motherboard (AMD's newest line of processors run on these) or a socket 775 motherboard (Intels newest line of processors run on these).

Building a new system is expensive and can be difficult and frustrating for a firstimer!

Whatever you choose to do Good Luck:smile:


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## theReaper0908

thanks alot. i think building a new system is less expensive rather than buying one from a company like dell, compaq, or alienware pre-made already


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## ebackhus

Indeed! There's also the flexibility in there that allows you to totally choose everything you want. If you feel like taking this road and have questions I suggest talking to our Hardware team.


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