Kingdom Hearts 2

[GTarablus]

GTarablus, check his profile. he has an e2200, it's 2,2GHz, no longer produced. it's way better than your P4, still, it's not that good for pcsx2. KH has one of the lowest requirements, so it'll run fine, but many, many other games won't.

As I said, a CPU noob...
but for now i guess i'll be able to put a side KH2 for a while since I decided to go for KH 358/2 days on the NDS (emulated perfectly!)
Anyways I will be using my new and improved CPU for Modern warfare 2 and L4D 2 and these kinda games inculding some of my PS2 favs on PCsx 2 so it will be a win-win! just need to get my brother on the right track for a strong PCsx2 CPU and than i just kick back and watch him to all the work...

[raymondhs]

Hi, im also experiencing low FPS playing KH2, specially in the gameplay. for the opening fmv my fps could be around 60fps(100%). however in the game, it can only reach around 60-70% which is 35-40fps and it is not very nice to see..

my spec is
- amd turion x2 ultra dual core mobile zm-80 2.10 ghz
- 4g ram
- ati radeon hd3100 series 256mb dedicated
- windows 7 64 bit..

i'm using gsdx9 with logarihmic z on, speedhack 2x rate, and cpu configured.
i've been trying to tweak it.. but no significant result..

i hope somebody can teach me how? thx

[decode1984]

You guys must be overlooking AMD. Normally, I am a big fan of Intel but AMD has lower prices on CPU's. You can buy a nice dual core CPU and mainboard for $130. You can add another 2GB of ram for roughly $40.

$170 will get you everything you need. The CPU is an AMD Athlon II 2.9Ghz which I'm sure you can OC to at least 3.2-3.3Ghz. My machine will crush most games in PCSX2, but it is also a lot more costly.

[Saiki]

I have had alot of Overheating and unreliability problems with AMD processors. and ond 338mhz (that belongs to my grandmother, runs XP home) and a 2.8ghz that my bother owns. (it had also overheated, factory settings)

[idn]

You guys must be overlooking AMD. Normally, I am a big fan of Intel but AMD has lower prices on CPU's. You can buy a nice dual core CPU and mainboard for $130. You can add another 2GB of ram for roughly $40.

$170 will get you everything you need. The CPU is an AMD Athlon II 2.9Ghz which I'm sure you can OC to at least 3.2-3.3Ghz. My machine will crush most games in PCSX2, but it is also a lot more costly.

you're overlooking one extremely crucial fact - Athlon II even at 3,3 GHz is about as fast, as a C2D 2,0 GHz, maybe a little faster. nowadays you DON'T compare the GHz between different CPU families, they mean nothing. you can compare GHz only between models in the same family. OP has a P4 3,06 GHz, but that compares roughly to a 1,6 GHz in a single core of a modern C2D.

raymondhs, you can't do anything. your CPU is simply too weak.

[decode1984]

So you are basically saying that a P4 3.06Ghz will have almost the same performance as the Athlon II 3.3Ghz? You do realize that the Athlon II is a dual core CPU right? And the P4 is a single core with hyperthreading.

Even my Athlon x2 5000+ was crushing FFX and KHII. The Athlon II has the same Architecture as the Phenoms if I'm not mistaken. If he thinks that he won't have enough performance with that CPU, (which he should) he can always spend a bit more and get a Phenom I/II.

Most modern Dual/Quad cores should be able to run PCSX2 fairly nice. Athlon II's and Single core P4's are no where near the same in performance. I will however agree that the P4 is just simply too outdated to output anything remotely playable in PCSX2.

[idn]

So you are basically saying that a P4 3.06Ghz will have almost the same performance as the Athlon II 3.3Ghz? You do realize that the Athlon II is a dual core CPU right? And the P4 is a single core with hyperthreading.

please read again, I wrote "single core" for that exact reason. what I said was that AII 3,3 GHz was about as fast as a C2D 2,0 GHz, maybe a little faster (coulnd't find a direct benchmark, it's a lot slower than a C2D 2,8 GHz though). the comparison of OP's P4 was just to show you why you can't compare GHzs. C2D 1,6GHz is faster than OP's P4 because it has two cores, but that's obvious and irrelevant to the case. if you disable one core however (or use a single-threaded benchmark), the performance should be similar.

Even my Athlon x2 5000+ was crushing FFX and KHII. The Athlon II has the same Architecture as the Phenoms if I'm not mistaken. If he thinks that he won't have enough performance with that CPU, (which he should) he can always spend a bit more and get a Phenom I/II.

Phenom won't help a bit. remember that pcsx2 uses only two cores, and since Phenom's dual core performance is only a little better than Athlon II, the benefit would be very small.

AMD CPUs are a great value, run modern OSes and games without a hitch, but with things like pcsx2 or MAME, which extremely stress the CPU, they're just not good enough.

yes, you could run KH or FFX fine (though still not flawlessly), but what about gazillion other games? why not pay $80 more and be able to play almost everything?

of course, it doesn't apply if you're on a really tight budget, but I've wrote this before.

I will however agree that the P4 is just simply too outdated to output anything remotely playable in PCSX2.

I disagree. I played Disgaea on a P4 2,4 GHz. ;)

[decode1984]

Disgaea is a 2D game, with not much requirements for power. There is an article that I think you should read. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/272725...hlon-e8400 . It compares the Athlon II x2 250 to the Intel E8400.

They are both the same CPU minus the Intel having 4MB more cache than the AMD. The E8400 costs $167, while the AMD costs $67. Don't forget that the Intel chip needs an aging socket 775 board that is usually more expensive than the AM3 boards.

They measure only a 10% decrease in performance, while the 250 is also a cooler CPU. Personally, I would go for the Athlon II mainly because there is more upgrading options in the AM3 socket over 775. Don't forget that PCSX2 heavily relies on clock speed.

The Phenom II's are definitely a step up for AMD. While they are not as powerful as the Core i5/i7's, They are definitely the same/powerful as the Core 2's. The Athlon II 200 series are a completely different chip than the 500 series, while running cooler.

[idn]

Disgaea is a 2D game, with not much requirements for power.

I know, that's why I wrote that. you know what a joke is, yes? (it still ran well though ;p)

There is an article that I think you should read. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/272725...hlon-e8400 . It compares the Athlon II x2 250 to the Intel E8400.

They are both the same CPU minus the Intel having 4MB more cache than the AMD. The E8400 costs $167, while the AMD costs $67. Don't forget that the Intel chip needs an aging socket 775 board that is usually more expensive than the AM3 boards.

They measure only a 10% decrease in performance, while the 250 is also a cooler CPU. Personally, I would go for the Athlon II mainly because there is more upgrading options in the AM3 socket over 775. Don't forget that PCSX2 heavily relies on clock speed.

again, please remember that standard benchmarks measure standard desktop performance. I know that AMD CPUs perform well in this area (I even wrote that in my post, if you haven't read it carefully again), hovewer it does not translate to performance in applications like pcsx2, and this is what interests us most.

The Phenom II's are definitely a step up for AMD. While they are not as powerful as the Core i5/i7's, They are definitely the same/powerful as the Core 2's

in desktop applications, native gaming and multitasking solutions - yes, even better with some tasks. in pcsx2, MAME and other highly complex and demanding computational tasks - still not. and public benchmarks don't take them into consideration, because your statistical customer doesn't need to know.

Phenom II 3,2 GHz will never run pcsx2 as well as a C2D 3,2 GHz. also, Phenoms don't overclock that well, even Phenom II 965 (with a native clock of 3,4 GHz) has trouble reaching 4 GHz, while older e7400 (natively 2,8 GHz) passes 4,0 GHz barrier with relative ease.

again - pcsx2 devs recomment Intel CPUs for a reason, and that reason is not because they are Intel fanboys.