Is a 2.6Ghz dual core processor equivalent to a 3.0Ghz single core processor?

[Akihiko]

You know, I've never been quite sure as to exactly how that works. Like do each of the processor cores operate independently of each other?
In any case, you should be fine though.

They each do their own tasks. The computer can split tasks between the two cores, instead of having it on the one, which would inevitably slow it down.

It depends on whether the game supports multiple cores. The source engine does, though. Infact, most old games which don't support multiple cores will still be playable even if it only uses one of your cores.

I would think it wouldn't matter if the game supports multiple cores or not since it's the Operating System that divvies out processing resources anyway.

The OS will see the game as one process unless the game itself allows it to be split up into multiple processes. That said. It will be a slight improvement, because although one core will be used entirely for the game, everything else can be shoved onto the second core.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Also, remember that newer processors can simply be more efficient.

A Sandy Bridge core i7 at 3.2 GHz is over 20% faster than a Nehalem core i7 at 3.2 GHz.

 

[the_dancy_vagrant]

Of course!

2.6Ghz x 2 = 5.2Ghz

Plenty there, hope you enjoy Half Life 2

Kind of depends on how well it utilizes multithreading. A single-threaded game wouldn't be able to use both cores, though happily the source engine is multithreaded now.

Also, the 3 GHZ thing is bollocks. It was probably aimed at people using pentium 4 processors, which are utter shit compared to any modern consumer processor (core architecture and whatever the AMD equivalent was).

Bolded for truthiness.

Minimum requirements for a PC game are really difficult to estimate due to the ridiculous variance in hardware out there.

That being said, HL2 ran smooth as silk for me on a single core P4 @ 2.2Ghz and an Nvidia FX5900 GPU. Look the GPU up...it was like, one of the crappiest cards of its generation.

 

[DMac the Knife]

I'm not 100% sold on the multi-core designs as they currently exist. With the exception of Snow Leopard, operating systems generally just aren't yet really up to splitting and integrating threads in a way that doesn't bring down the overall yield.

 

[razer17]

Of course!

2.6Ghz x 2 = 5.2Ghz

Plenty there, hope you enjoy Half Life 2

That isn't how it works at all. That would suggest that dual cores double the performance over single cores. It also suggests that a Phenom x6 would be 6 times faster than a single core, which is clearly not true.

also to be considered is multi-threading. Most games, especially as old as HL2 is by now, do not support multithreading, which means that there is very little difference between dual and single core chips.

Ok, so I'm only able to get PC games if my PC meets At least the recommended requirements. I want to buy half life 2, and I meet all of the requirments, only I have a 2.6GHz dual core pentium Processor, but Half life 2 requires a 3.0GHz single core processor. Do I meet the Recommended requirements?

Check out canirunit.com You select a game you want to run, it analyses your system and tells you if you can run it. It gives a detailed run down, showing which of your components best meet the requirements.

Also, your PC will run half life 2. My laptop, when brand new, before it became a barely working piece of crap, ran HL2 perfectly, albeit with low-medium settings. And my laptop is a 1.8Ghz Dual core, and with an integrated graphics chip which are notoriously shoddy at gaming.