Processor ratings

[Frank]

Why does the majority of games say something like:

Minimum specs:
Intel Pentium 4 or AMD processor at 2.0 Ghz.
...

?

It's simply bullocks. Are the people who make those specs so braindead, or do they expect the general public to be?

 

[Albuquerque]

Why does the majority of games say something like:

Minimum specs:
Intel Pentium 4 or AMD processor at 2.0 Ghz.
...

?

It's simply bullocks. Are the people who make those specs so braindead, or do they expect the general public to be?

LOL, I had the same question a few months ago seeing a box that recommended a 3Ghz processor "or equivalent". These days, a 1.66ghz C2D would lay waste to a 3.0ghz processor of almost any previous flavor... But how would John or Jane Doe consumer know this?

The unfortunate problem is setting a performance metric for processors across both brands, their various models and architectures. It doesn't help that PentiumD's are still out at the same time as C2D's.

The sad problem for non-technically-savvy buyer: What, I have one of the brand-new 3.4ghz Dual-core Intel processors (950D), what do you mean another Intel Dual Core thingie at 2.26ghz is somehow faster than my 3.4ghz model?! They're both Intel, what the hell are you talking about?!?

And then how do you explain the 1.66ghz Intel model being faster than a "4000+" model from AMD? None of it makes sense anymore, not that it ever did, for the customer who thinks of a computer as an appliance.

Kinda like "standard" performance metrics for video cards -- there's just too much going on. I bet we get it solved eventually, but I'd wager against anyone figuring it out in the next few years.

 

[Frank]

Yeah, when I bought Company of Heroes and some other, equally performance hungry games last week, the shop boy told me I could exchange them for other games if my computer wasn't up to it, even while I had opened the wrapper and tried them out. That was a new experience to me.

But the general complaint is not new. It really irritated me when I had a P-M laptop with a great GPU and an equal PC with a Sempron that most games simply said: You need a 2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 processor. Or: An Intel Pentium 4 or an AMD Athlon at 2 Ghz.


While I understand that it isn't easy to come up with a full spectrum, why would they give such specific specs if they try to sell that game to anyone who could run it? It's ignorance or bad marketing, at the very least.

 

[Npl]

Yeah, when I bought Company of Heroes and some other, equally performance hungry games last week, the shop boy told me I could exchange them for other games if my computer wasn't up to it, even while I had opened the wrapper and tried them out. That was a new experience to me.

Wow, thats a small shop or a big one?
Wonder what they do with the unwrapped games? (Appart from the fact that you could write down serials and use "backups")