If all I wanted to do was game and do homework, would a dual core CPU be fine?

I'm a real penny pincher so saving any amount money would be good. I'm off to college next year and I figure that an immense amount of graphical power wouldn't be all that necessary so I was thinking about upgrading this old PC my friend is giving me with a Radeon 6870 and just a Core 2 Duo or i3 since it only has a Pentium 4 currently. Would I get decent graphics on games like Fallout 3/New Vegas, Mass Effect 2, and Final Fantasy XI with the aforementioned CPU and GPU? My definition of decent is like the higher medium settings without any hiccups in gameplay. Thanks for your time

I'm a real penny pincher so saving any amount money would be good. I'm off to college next year and I figure that an immense amount of graphical power wouldn't be all that necessary so I was thinking about upgrading this old PC my friend is giving me with a Radeon 6870 and just a Core 2 Duo or i3 since it only has a Pentium 4 currently. Would I get decent graphics on games like Fallout 3/New Vegas, Mass Effect 2, and Final Fantasy XI with the aforementioned CPU and GPU? My definition of decent is like the higher medium settings without any hiccups in gameplay. Thanks for your time

POkemonfreak101

The GPU would do excellent with those games, i just upgraded to a 6870 but even my 5770 could handle those games with max settings without any hickups. I have no clue if an i3 would work well though.

A core i3 is plenty. I've got a friend who plays all those games on a Pentium Dual Core just fine. For around $50 you could get an AMD Athlon ll x2 245 Which would be fine for those games. For around $90-$100 You can get an AMD Phenom ll x3 or an Athlon ll x4 Quad Core Which would obviously be even better

I have a dual-core and it hasn't yet held me back. I still get 50-70 fps in games like BFBC2 which supposedly run a lot better with quads (I don't doubt that they do but 70fps seems plentiful to me).

You guys are forgetting that putting an AMD processor in would require buying a new motherboard...chrisb422