overclocking and game compatibility

[Mach 1]

Just wondering about something I recently experimented with. On a second desktop I'm running a AMD phenom 2 , 4 core rated at 2.8Ghz, overclocked to 3.2Ghz with the rest of the system meeting the minimum specs to run a game. The minimum game specs included a processor (intel) rated at 3.2 with a 3.4 turbo speed. So I figured my 3.2 would work. It wont play the game, get error message saying minimum requirements not met. Why is this? Is the game seeing the rated 2.8GHz spec somewhere and is programmed to not even load? If the CPU can run at 3.2 no problem, should not it play any game thats requires a 3.2Ghz CPU?

 

[EarthDog]

Does it meet the other requirements like GPU, RAM, etc? What game and what requirements?

 

[Bill_Bright]

with the rest of the system meeting the minimum specs to run a game

You will find that most helpers prefer to see for themselves. It is not that we don't trust or believe you. It is that it is easy to overlook something. And many users will say "I tried everything and it still does not work" only to find out they didn't try anywhere near everything, or they did something not normally recommended.

So if you want specific help, I agree with EarthDog and we need to know what game you are trying to play. We also need your computer's system specs - to include make and model numbers of your components, or the computer make and model if factory built.

And in addition to EarthDog's questions, are all drivers current?

 

[Mach 1]

I thought this would be a quick answer and common knowledge to those who do this as a hobby.

specs. are Phenom II x4 920 overclocked to 3.206, mainboard is ASUS M4A785-M, memory 8GB DDR2 (800mhz) overclocked to 916mhz, GPU is GTX 1050 2gb, and the game I tried playing is Far Cry 5.

all drivers and windows updates are good to go

The only requirement not met is the CPU in stock form.

I don't expect it to play well on this system, just wondering why i get nothing if the CPU, when overclocked, should meet the minimum specs

 

[EarthDog]

I thought this would be a quick answer and common knowledge to those who do this as a hobby.

You're trying to compare Intel requirements and clocks versus amd. AMD CPUs were a lot slower per clock. Doesnt it list an AMD processor for minimums?

Edit: FC5 requirements say this...

Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz or AMD FX-6300 @ 3.5 GHz or equivalent

You dont have an AMD fx cpu... you have an older AMD CPU which does not meet its requirements. Your clock speed is still 300 mhz short of that minimum as well. Try pushing it to 3.5 and see if it works...I have no idea if it recognizes generations.

 

[Johan45]

It's quite likely the DDR2 throwing the error. IMO your system just isn't up to the task.

 

[EarthDog]

That doesn't help his performance case...but the spec just says 8GB without a mention of DDR type (though pretty sure both cpus on min rec. run ddr3).

 

[Mach 1]

You're trying to compare Intel requirements and clocks versus amd. AMD CPUs were a lot slower per clock. Doesnt it list an AMD processor for minimums?

Edit: FC5 requirements say this...

Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz or AMD FX-6300 @ 3.5 GHz or equivalent

You dont have an AMD fx cpu... you have an older AMD CPU which does not meet its requirements. Your clock speed is still 300 mhz short of that minimum as well. Try pushing it to 3.5 and see if it works...I have no idea if it recognizes generations.

Minimum: Intel Core i5-2400 | AMD FX-6300 @ 3.5 GHz or better

Your are correct, I did a quick lookup of the intel cpu specs which stated 3.2 and assumed the AMD specs would be the same. I didnt even notice the AMD 3.5 requirement until now. So i guess this opens up another question- why wouldnt the requirements be the same across different processors?

- - - Auto-Merged Double Post - - -

If I go to "can you run it" webpage, it says my ram meets the minimum specs. So I ruled that out.

 

[EarthDog]

Because AMD processors were notably slower per clock than Intel at that time. It needs to run faster to do the same amount of work an Intel could do.

 

[trents]

There is much more to performance of a CPU than clock speed. Two CPUs running at the same clock speed can differ dramatically in their performance because of differences in architecture.

 

[wingman99]

When you get error message saying minimum requirements not met. It's reading the system specifications. Games don't usually read clock speed.

 

[EarthDog]

When you get error message saying minimum requirements not met. It's reading the system speculations. Games don't usually read clock speed.

System Specifications. You were hopefully autocorrected there.

 

[UltraTaco]

If it read system speculations, it would speculate due to higher clocks, you *could* run the game and let you pass!

 

[Johan45]

From the short reading I did FarCry5 needs SSE 4.1 which is not supported by PHII, only FX CPUs and up. The game is not going to run on that system.

 

[UltraTaco]

I know a little off topic, but slightly on topic. If the CPU doesn't support certain instruction set, will it not run altogether or can it still brute force through the hard way using excessive megahertz?

 

[Bill_Bright]

I thought this would be a quick answer and common knowledge to those who do this as a hobby.

Sure would be nice if that easy. It is important to note the ATX Form Factor standard allows 10s of 1000s of different hardware components from 1000s of different manufacturers to work together, and that's great! Without that standard, there would be no do-it-yourself PC industry and we all would be stuck with limited options for "proprietary" computers from a few makers - just as we see in the notebook industry today where there is no ATX Form Factor type standard.

As long as these devices comply with the ATX Form Factor standard, it leaves a lot of flexibility for the makers to make their own offering unique - not just with their competitors, but within their own product lines. It also leaves a tremendous amount of flexibility and options for consumers to make their computers unique.

But flexibility and uniqueness are liabilities too. It means of all the ~1.6 Billion Windows computers out there, each and every one becomes a unique computer within minutes after first boot.

So beyond "is it plugged in?" and "is it turned on?" not much else is quick and common knowledge - without knowing specifics.

 

[Mach 1]

Because AMD processors were notably slower per clock than Intel at that time. It needs to run faster to do the same amount of work an Intel could do.

I had no idea of this. I guess I just figured CPUs of the same speed would perform equally. You said "at that time". Have things change with today's processors?

 

[EarthDog]

Yes. AMD's Ryzen CPUs have closed that gap significantly and are more or less on par with Intel... though Intel still has higher clocks and can overclock more from its all core boost.

 

[UltraTaco]

It used to be upside dwn in the athlon days, where they could get more done per clock cycle, hence lower frequency didn't mean slower AMD.

 

[Kenrou]

There seems to be a workaround for Phenom/Athlon, try it at your own risk (got it from the steam forums, google-translated from russian):

"This problem occurs on processors that do not use the SSE4.1 command set. In order to run the game on an unsupported processor, you must:

1) Download from here the emulator SSE. sde-external-7.49.0-2016-07-07-win (https://software.intel.com/system/files/managed/2f/ac/sde-external-7.49.0-2016-07-07-win.tar.bz2).

2) Next, unpack the downloaded archive into the folder with the game. That sde.exe was in one folder with FarCry5.exe;

3) Create a shortcut from sde.exe. Open the properties of the shortcut and in the object parameter there will be written something like "Far Cry 5 \ Binaries \ sde.exe" adding this parameter to the line -- FarCry5.exe
It should look something like "D: \ Games \ Far Cry 5 \ bin \ sde.exe" -- FarCry5.exe

Pay attention, it is necessary to take into account two minuses together and a space after them.

Also, in the compatibility parameters of the shortcut it is worthwhile to put the option "run as administrator".

4) Now you can start the shortcut. A console window will open with the name sde.exe (you can close it). A couple of minutes may seem that nothing happens but then the game starts."

"Try to download Nvidia Profile Inspector, it needs to do the manipulations that are described in this video (

) If this did not help, try downloading a more recent version of the sde emulator.*And if this does not work, then I don’t even know what solution can be offered."