E7500 Gamers: Could this be the end of Dual-Core Processors for Gaming?

Last updated on August 21st, 2017

With the beginning of an era of next-gen games those require heavy specs, soon we might see a doomsday for dual-core processors. In this article, we will discuss in details related to this issue by taking the help of a YouTube Gaming Channel, E7500 Gamers. We will focus especially on games like Watch_Dogs, COD Advanced Warfare, AC Unity and Far Cry 4.

Far Cry 4 doesn’t even work with dual-core processors that do not support hyper-threading technology. The term hyper threading refers to the ability of a processor to create virtual cores . In other words, it is the ability of a processor to fake the system that it has additional cores available. Similarly, games like Watch_Dogs and COD Advanced Warfare exhibited lots of stuttering issues. Let’s begin with a benchmark video on WD by E7500 Gamers:

As, you can see from the video that the game is not at all playable on a dual-core processor like Core 2 Duo E7500 though the rig is also powered by a GTX 650-Ti. In fact personally speaking, hyper threading technology on dual-core processors also proved to be useless, as I myself experienced the same problem with my old processor, Core-i3 2120, when I got WD around 6 months ago. I thought the game would run fine just with my GPU, GTX 660. In order to just play that game and write a review about it, I had to upgrade to a quad-core processor. Back then it raised a question in my mind-“Are dual-core cpu’s really  useless?”. We will answer that question but not so soon. Let’s research and discover some more facts related to this topic.

Moving to Unity, I don’t need to say anything. The game disappointed us from the very beginning before and after its release with its heavy requirements and countless number of bugs and glitches. But how does it fare against dual-core processors? Let’s have a look:

At the same hardware that has been mentioned above, the game looks pathetic. On my GTX 660, ‘am able to play it now smoothly @60fps in high settings, thanks to the third patch released just recently by Ubi, And talking about GTX 650 Ti, it’s somewhat close to my card but according to Kartik (Owner of E7500 Gamers), the game shows a maximum frame rate of 30 and usually varies between 15-20. Again this also raises the same question that I mentioned while describing the performance issues shown by Watch_Dogs.

What about COD Advanced Warfare? How well has Sledgehammer Games (developer of the game) optimized it for the PC port? Let’s see another benchmark video by E7500 Gamers:

In the video, Kartik clearly mentioned that the game initially could not run on his system displaying error messages like insufficient RAM and outdated processor. But finally he was able to play the game using a patch that was released to curb these issues. Frankly speaking, Advanced Warfare has been optimized in a better way as compared to the games that we have discussed about earlier in this article so far. Though there are some stuttering problems, the game is still playable at around 30-40 FPS.

But what difference does a processor make in gaming? Isn’t it the job of a GPU to render the graphical aspects in a game? How important is number of cores in a processor in terms of performance? We will just keep the answers to these questions brief and simple.

Source: pcpro.co.uk

The above image itself clarifies your doubt that number of cores actually does make a huge difference in exhibiting a good gaming performance. According to Mukul Sabhani, a Senior Systems Engineer at TCS (Gurgaon): “If you assume your whole body as a gaming system, then the CPU would be your head and the GPU would be your heart. If your CPU doesn’t meet the requirements to process and run the GPU then definitely your game will lag. You won’t be able to witness a smooth gaming performance.”

So, we can directly conclude that both CPU as well as GPU are important for gaming. If you have a good GPU then you atleast need a good enough CPU to maintain a balance in performance. Let’s check another benchmark video:

The dude experienced the same problem in FC4 like he did in Advanced Warfare. He was only able to play FC4, after a patch that was released to fix startup issues on systems having dual-core processors. You have seen that the game still lags though at high settings. But I don’t think it will be the same for low settings. You will be able to experience a smooth gameplay even on a dual-core processor of which I can assure you of.

Have you played Shadow of Mordor? Definitely you must have…..but you will realise something after watching this video:

You saw the above footage minutely? Now answer my question: How the hell the game works like a charm at ultra settings with a dual-core processor incorporated? We proved that both GPU and CPU are important to execute a good gaming performance. The better your processor is….the more smoother and lag-free will be your gameplay. But still we missed one more important factor, i.e. optimization. The Shadow of Mordor benchmark video itself proves that the game was perfectly optimized for PC port. Remember Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? Do you know the most important reason behind it’s success? The answer is simple: optimization.

My dear brothers, it is what experience that matters in a game…..not graphics. So, I would like to send a message to the developers by saying: “Atleast develop a game in such a way that maximum number of gamers can enjoy playing it and can appreciate your product. Because that is what especially defines a good game.” There are actually a huge number of hardware combinations possible to test a game for PC that is in stages of development. So, for perfect optimization developers have to optimize the game in such an efficient way that it works smoothly on all those possible number of hardware combinations.

But who cares anyway? Because in the end everything is just GOOD BUSINESS!!! It’s hard to say these words but this is the truth. You have to realize that…..this is how things work! You don’t have a choice to do anything!!! Gaming companies just sign exclusive deals with Nvidia, AMD or Intel whatever and compel us to buy expensive hardware. In fact, the same thing happened with me when I wanted to play Watch_Dogs. I had to upgrade my gear and hence became a victim of this monopoly. Not only me but also many gamers out there were victimised under those circumstances. And in return what we got???? Shitty and buggy graphics!!! Ubi managed to compensate the loss by releasing some updates but in the beginning we were all disappointed.

Fake promises result in huge criticism

As I mentioned earlier, soon we are going to see a doomsday for dual-core CPU’s. It has become evident that this is going to happen. O.K…let the game companies sign exclusive deals…let them ban the use of dual-core processors. But the question is, does that help them? We have a simple and straight-forward answer, i.e. No. Because if you look at the statistics, then more than half of the gamers in the world own dual-core CPU’s. If the game companies forbid them from playing their games then in turn it affects the former only. If people won’t be able to play your game then how are you planning to sell it? So, this is what the present scenario is all about.

Hope, you all agree with my views. Please share your opinion below:

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