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General discussionIntel or AMD for older games(18 posts)(18 posts)
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Posted July 09, 2019
Hi guys,

I'm putting together a new PC build as my old PC has finally stopped working. I was planning on using an i5-9400f processor from Intel, but the new AMD processors look good and I'm tempted.

However, I have heard the occasional rumbling of AMD chips tripping on older games. I'm planning on playing a few games like Deus Ex, Fallout 3, Oblivion and the like. Do any of you have any experience running these on AMD processors, specifically any of the Ryzen series? I've heard some people say Intel is better for older games because they utilize fewer cores and Intel does better on single-core performance; that's not really what I'm talking about though, as these Ryzen chips can pretty much match that now as far as I've heard.

Any thoughts?
Posted July 09, 2019
I'm going to talk about the GOG version of the older games so i can't speak for steams (i would assume Steam would have a bigger issue with getting older games to run) but i have both a Intel and AMD PC and the games i have played all worked fine for me and this is over hundreds of titles pre 2010 including those you menttoned so it should work but there's never any guarantee since issues can creep up from dozens of reasons.

CPU's i have tried older games on is i9 9900K and Ryzen 2700X so if you are looking to buy something like 3700X, i don't think you will have any problems.
Post edited July 09, 2019 by ChrisGamer300
Posted July 09, 2019
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ChrisGamer300: I'm going to talk about the GOG version of the older games so i can't speak for steams (i would assume Steam would have a bigger issue with getting older games to run) but i have both a Intel and AMD PC and the games i have played all worked fine for me and this is over hundreds of titles pre 2010 including those you menttoned so it should work but there's never any guarantee since issues can creep up from dozens of reasons.

CPU's i have tried older games on is i9 9900K and Ryzen 2700X so if you are looking to buy something like 3700X, i don't think you will have any problems.
That's good to hear, thanks for letting me know :) I was gonna go with the Ryzen 5 3600 as I'm looking for budget performance with the possibility to add better cooling later on and overclock.
Posted July 09, 2019
For older games, the clock speed advantage is unimportant. Both will be fast enough for your purposes.

I'm only aware of one game with CPU difficulties - The Saboteur can't handle more than four cores (I'm assuming that includes hyperthreading, but I'm not certain). If you are interested in the game, research your motherboard to see if there is a configuration option to restrict core count, and reboot whenever you want to play.

Honestly, the bigger concern is with OS and GPU support. There are more game listings on GOG indicating incompatabilities with drivers XXX or newer, Intel graphics, or explicitly disclaiming Windows 10 suppport.
Posted July 09, 2019
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Mortius1: For older games, the clock speed advantage is unimportant. Both will be fast enough for your purposes.

I'm only aware of one game with CPU difficulties - The Saboteur can't handle more than four cores (I'm assuming that includes hyperthreading, but I'm not certain). If you are interested in the game, research your motherboard to see if there is a configuration option to restrict core count, and reboot whenever you want to play.

Honestly, the bigger concern is with OS and GPU support. There are more game listings on GOG indicating incompatabilities with drivers XXX or newer, Intel graphics, or explicitly disclaiming Windows 10 suppport.
There are games which CPU clock speed affects how the game works thou. Such as Dreams To Reality
Posted July 09, 2019
Doesn't matter that much actually, worse thing is if you really want to start hardcore nostalgiaing, you need to buy different gpu-s :)
Post edited July 09, 2019 by dewtech
Posted July 09, 2019
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Mortius1: I'm only aware of one game with CPU difficulties - The Saboteur can't handle more than four cores (I'm assuming that includes hyperthreading, but I'm not certain).
The Saboteur has been fixed to run on more than 4 cores alteast on GOG.
Posted July 09, 2019
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Mortius1: I'm only aware of one game with CPU difficulties - The Saboteur can't handle more than four cores (I'm assuming that includes hyperthreading, but I'm not certain).
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ChrisGamer300: The Saboteur has been fixed to run on more than 4 cores alteast on GOG.
Good to know, thanks.
Posted July 09, 2019
The only ones I've had issues with were Evil Genius and i76. Evil Genius seems to have been fixed at some point as I no longer have to use program lasso to restrict it to one core with everything else being on other cores.

IIRC, there may have been an issue with Sanitarium, but I think there was a workaround available, assuming it hasn't been fixed in the meantime.
Posted July 09, 2019
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lordwoo: Hi guys,

I'm putting together a new PC build as my old PC has finally stopped working. I was planning on using an i5-9400f processor from Intel, but the new AMD processors look good and I'm tempted.

However, I have heard the occasional rumbling of AMD chips tripping on older games. I'm planning on playing a few games like Deus Ex, Fallout 3, Oblivion and the like. Do any of you have any experience running these on AMD processors, specifically any of the Ryzen series? I've heard some people say Intel is better for older games because they utilize fewer cores and Intel does better on single-core performance; that's not really what I'm talking about though, as these Ryzen chips can pretty much match that now as far as I've heard.

Any thoughts?
I think the issue is with any multii core CPU, whether Intel of AMD.
Luckily, there are almost always work arounds. Some times it's as simple as using the compatiltiby mode most of which automatically set a program to run on only one core.
And still weird seeing Oblivion and Fallout 3 considered older games. If you thing they are old,.wait until you try running a unfixed early ..mid 1990's Windows game.
Irony is DOS games, with all the emulators out there, are a lot easer to get up and running then a early Windows game. Which is why GOG generally used the DOS version of game when it had both a DOS and Windows release.
Posted July 09, 2019
I know I read Mass Effect has issues with Ryzen, but I think someone made a fan patch that fixed it already. Also Deus Ex Mankind Divided made me disable half my cores or else it would freeze from time to time.
Posted July 09, 2019
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Mortius1: For older games, the clock speed advantage is unimportant. Both will be fast enough for your purposes.

I'm only aware of one game with CPU difficulties - The Saboteur can't handle more than four cores (I'm assuming that includes hyperthreading, but I'm not certain). If you are interested in the game, research your motherboard to see if there is a configuration option to restrict core count, and reboot whenever you want to play.

Honestly, the bigger concern is with OS and GPU support. There are more game listings on GOG indicating incompatabilities with drivers XXX or newer, Intel graphics, or explicitly disclaiming Windows 10 suppport.
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Kayx291: There are games which CPU clock speed affects how the game works thou. Such as Dreams To Reality
Blade Runner is a notorious example of CPU speed creating big problem with the game. Blade Runner is in actual realtime..which was a big selling point for the game back in 1997...and modern CPU make it almost unplayable at a few points. In the original you were given a minute to do something or you die, but you noly get half that with a modern fast CPU.

But issues with modern graphic cards are a much bigger problem.
And if you are going to game, you really need something b etter then an Intel Graphics chip. It simply was not meant to be used for gaming purproses.
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hedwards: The only ones I've had issues with were Evil Genius and i76. Evil Genius seems to have been fixed at some point as I no longer have to use program lasso to restrict it to one core with everything else being on other cores.

IIRC, there may have been an issue with Sanitarium, but I think there was a workaround available, assuming it hasn't been fixed in the meantime.
Interstate 76 was a problem child ten years ago, and it has just gotten worse.
Post edited July 09, 2019 by dudalb
Posted July 09, 2019
If you intend to use mods with Oblivion, make sure you get a CPU with good single thread performance, because Oblivion can only use one core and once that is at full load, your FPS will start to drop. And many mods will increase the CPU load, especially if they use scripts or add objects to the game world. I guess most current gen CPUs are ok in this regard, but older models, especially the AMD FX ones were pretty weak (I happen to have one of those, unfortunately). Of course, there is no reason to get one of those any more. Ryzen is much better, especially the newest ones. Just take a look at this list: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html
Posted July 09, 2019
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dudalb: Blade Runner is a notorious example of CPU speed creating big problem with the game. Blade Runner is in actual realtime..which was a big selling point for the game back in 1997...and modern CPU make it almost unplayable at a few points. In the original you were given a minute to do something or you die, but you noly get half that with a modern fast CPU.
Latest ScummVM have supported Blade Runner.
Posted July 10, 2019
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lordwoo: However, I have heard the occasional rumbling of AMD chips tripping on older games.
That was partially true for the previous generation of AMD processors build on Bulldozer I think, the FX series, it was simply way behind Intel in single thread performance, like 40%, so it was not recommended for older games.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-2500K-vs-AMD-FX-8320/619vs1983

I mean, you wouldn't have problems running Deus Ex, Fallout 3, Oblivion on it, unless you are one of those who needs like 200 FPS in every game they play.

New Ryzen processors were a major upgrade, and with the new 3000 series there should barely be any difference.
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General discussionIntel or AMD for older games(18 posts)(18 posts)
(18 posts)