Cheapest processor that will run games at full speed?

[mantasuk]

No such thing exists. There is no such processor that will run ALL games at full speed. There are only compromises where do you want to stop paying more, for a few games that will become more playable.

[decode1984]

One of the reasons why there is none that will run it full speed is that this emulator is no where near complete. It's still WIP. By the time it does get complete enough, there will be faster processors out there that are cheaper.

[KrazyTrumpeter05]

Why go cheapest when it is better to go for quality, I would get a quad core Phenom of course because you can have it for awhile and it would still be a great processor. Getting a dual core would be a waste of money since phenoms are going for 200$ on average! Why I don't recommend Pentium processors, because I'm a hater like that and any real gamer knows AMD is better for gaming! ;P

That last sentence is totally false. There's no real difference between the two for PC gaming when comparing same tier processors. Besides, as has been stated many times on the forum, Intel IS better for emulation because of some of the extra processor features and they tend to be a bit faster clock for clock than their counterparts.

Anyway, not trying to start a flame war, so I'll be done in this thread.

[NHS2008]

I can recommend What I got. Phenom 2 X2 550 BE 3.1 GHZ. Runs most games full speed@native. and quiet a lot at 1360x768 res!
I dont have good dedicated GPU. I've Radeon HD 4200 built-in. does pretty good job. I can play God Of War @1360x768 internal res. at full speed.(may drop to around 80-85%0 in big huge environments!). And if you are lucky try unleashing your CPU to quad-core!!+ with proper cooling you can clock it upto 4.0 ghz (some have gone 4.2). so theoretically you can have 3.8 ghz quad core monster for as little as $99. Get ASUS M4A785TD- V EVO Motherboard for great combo prices roughly around 90-100$!
I will recommend Whats in my sig!

[rama]

Hmm, I don't know why so many people claim the 4Ghz for Phenom2 processors. Truth is, this is a pretty steep mark for these cpu's.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=591256
And yeah, 1.6v or more (that's what many of the 4Ghz people in that thread use) is way too much.

Cheap but fast means you'll want a hefty overclock, so get a cpu and mainboard that are known to overclock well.
For Intel cpus, check out the E5200 (uber cheap, oc to maybe 3.5Ghz).
I cannot say much about AMD systems, except that it is known that Intel currently has the better processors for pcsx2.

[SamSoNight]

The cheapest CPU for PCSX2 are the Athlon IIs. They cost not much and overclock really easy. Forget Core2 already, 775 is dead and buying a new 775 system is not smart. AM3 has future, even AM2+ has. There is no way around AMD in budget systems.[/align]

[^KamilskaZ^]

here some budget pc ur can go with ur saving money.

buy sempron 140 (all relative to my friends succefully to unlock and became athlon II x2
buy a mobo which chipset start from sb710 -750(this part on bios can unlock to just enable ACC
ram can depent on mobo using ddr2 or ddr3.

im sure when ur done with overclocking around 3.0ghz,ur pcsx2 really is ps2 but depent on the game.

since im stiil using black edition 7750 and multiplier unlock to which number i like it,i can play many game with a little time frame drop.

pcsx2 not depent on amd or intel processor but is how that emulator can trick the ps2 game recognize as ps2 console.

correct me if im wrong since this is my first post on this forum.

[Shadow Lady]

Eh... I wouldnt get a single core CPU in hopes of it unlocking, that is too much a lottery and you can end up with a very bad CPU instead if it doesnt work... really not worth it.

[decode1984]

Nowadays, you can get a nice cheap Dual/Quad core CPU. Why go down the technology train?

[Infel]

my c2d E6750 (oc'd to 3GHz) has been able to play pretty much everything i've tried so far, although these days, why not just go for an i5/i7?