For all those who are considering upgrading or new builds... READ THIS

[cwbys21]

Squilliam said:

cwbys21 said:
Since I seem to have found a hot bed for PC parts knowledge, and I was thinking about making a thread about this anyways. What is the difference between a Pentium D and a Core 2 Duo? I was looking around this can you run it thing and it said I couldn't run a game because it required a core 2 duo. They are both duo core processors, so what is the difference? Also, it said I failed Mass Effect because it requires a 6800 gt and I have just a 6800, what is the difference there that would make my computer fail?

Edit: The 6800 comes with 12 pixel pipelines whilst the GT came with 16. Also the card was clocked at 325mhz instead of 350. Also the memory clock was about 300mhz slower. Its about 20-30% slower by my rough estimate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Pentium_D_microprocessors#.22Presler.22_.28dual_core.2C_65_nm.29

Yep pentium D is dual Core. The question is how fast?

Minimum System Requirements:
Operating System:
Windows XP or Vista
Processor:
2.4+GHZ Intel or 2.0+GHZ AMD
Memory:
1 Gigabyte Ram (XP)
2 Gigabyte Ram (Vista)
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 6 series(6800GT or better)
ATI 1300XT or better (X1550, X1600 Pro and HD2400 are below minimum system requirements)
Hard Drive Space:
12 Gigabytes
Sound Card:
DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card and drivers

Recommended System Requirements:
Operating System:
Windows XP or Vista
Processor:
2.6+GHZ Intel or 2.4+GHZ AMD
Memory:
2 Gigabyte Ram
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or higher.
ATI X1800 XL series or higher
Hard Drive Space:
12 Gigabytes
Sound Card:
DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card and drivers – 5.1 sound card recommended

I would say that you could run it, but you're scraping the bottom for the minumum graphics requirements. it wouldn't look pretty and it may run with a few slowdowns but you could do it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161209 a radeon 2600pro 512 for $70 with MIR on the AGP bus if you have the older interface.

If you have PCI-Express then you can pick anything you want. (Just incase you want to upgrage.)

 2.8 ghz I think is what you are asking for, if you are even asking for it.  And going by that wiki list, it is a pentium d 920 since I got my computer before july 2006.  and that stuff after the link to the video card I don't understand.  agp bus and pci-express, I assume that has to do with the motherboard to attach a new card and I have no idea how to find that out or what it means.