Help With Specs

Now this might seem like a ridiculous question, and if it is, I do apologise in advance.

I just got myself a Q9450, which is a 2.66Ghz processor.

My previous PC was a Pentium 4, and was a 3.2Ghz processor.

Which one would run the latest games better? Have I taken a backwards step?

The spec on the box for Crysis recommends the processor should be 3.2Ghz or faster.

Will this run on my PC?

What is the most important thing I should look at when it comes to running games without any problems??

Please advice.

Cheers

Yeah it is a crazy question but it is all good ;). A Q9450 is a great processor and a P4 is MUCH slower than any quad core. You did good. :P Yes it should run fine.

The most important thing I think is the GPU.

Yeah it is a crazy question but it is all good ;). A Q9450 is a great processor and a P4 is MUCH slower than any quad core. You did good. :P Yes it should run fine.

The most important thing I think is the GPU.

jjj13

I can take a quad core and underclock is so much that even a P4 @ 2.0 GHz will beat it.

Hey thanks for taking time out to answer. I appreciate it.

Cheers.

Clock speed is just a frequency - there's a lot more to how fast a processor is than just clock speed. Think of it like horsepower - an 800lb card with 200Hp is going to be pretty damn quick, but a 1500lb car with 200Hp isn't going to impress as much.

The Core architecture is more efficient on a clock-for-clock basis than Pentium 4 by a huge margin. A Core 2 Duo processor clocked at 1.86GHz is about equal to a 3.3GHz Pentium three. Your Q9450 is clocked nearly 1GHz higher, with more L2 cache and a slightly more advanced architecture than even the original Core 2 Duo. The difference is like night and day, you've taken a huge step forward.