so... i can go ahead and OC my 3500 :D

newtekie1No, I believe that if you are wanting to buy a processor for gaming a single core Athlon is too weak(and too overpriced), and if you aren't buying a processor for gaming a single core Sempron will be enough.

I cant argue with that statement TBH but still most games remain single threaded so being a single core processor makes them no weaker at playing the game than a dual core, add to that the fact that in most cases the single core will overclock better than the dual core, talking AMD here then to play games ONLY the single core is sufficient but you are right, noone in their right mind IMO should be paying good money for a single core today, even just for gaming.

If you take 3D Mark 2005 for instance which is not dual core biased, the single core processor clock for clock = a dual core processor in score terms. Damn even in 2006 I acheived the not too shabby score of 5916 with a single core athlon 4000+, thats not weak and that was not with a current gen graphics card.

Your points are nice, but you forget that smart people, specifically gamers, don't buy processors base solely on what the situation is today.

There are more and more games coming out that already benefit from dual-core processors, and the number will only continue to increase. People buy processors based on what the future holds and what the trends are telling them.

As for single cores overclocking better, with the x2 3600+ reaching 3GHz, what does it matter?

newtekie1Your points are nice, but you forget that smart people, specifically gamers, don't buy processors base solely on what the situation is today.

There are more and more games coming out that already benefit from dual-core processors, and the number will only continue to increase. People buy processors based on what the future holds and what the trends are telling them.

As for single cores overclocking better, with the x2 3600+ reaching 3GHz, what does it matter?

Ahhhh now you are quoting current Gen as in 65NM and therefore AM2 which still for many needs an upgrade from socket 939, I refered to socket 939 I beleive earlier, how about an Opty 144 @ 3.1 Gig? No you are right which is why you will note I said in line 2/3 that none IMO should be paying good money for a single core.