Just Curious what is the oldest Intel and AMD CPU that can stil play all of today's modern games?

[Azurael]

How long does it take for a CPU generation to be declared obsolite?

[KnoT]

Define "play"

[RVRY]

I think 8th gen is probably the oldest you can go intel-wise without delving into HEDT.

Most modern AAA games do see benefits from having 6 or more cores

[Zando_]

Ballpark would be Ryzen for AMD, Skylake quad cores for Intel, as far as getting a solid experience in most games. 

[Bob__]

1 minute ago, Azurael said:

How long does it take for a CPU generation to be declared obsolite?

well a lot of them can do it but it would need to be at high settings/high resolution

[Azurael]

2 minutes ago, KnoT said:

Define "play"

A smooth 60FPS on mid settings.

[jaslion]

4 minutes ago, Azurael said:

How long does it take for a CPU generation to be declared obsolite?

When it is obsolete.

 

There is no set time.

 

Basically if you get a cpu a bit stronger than the consoles AND it has at least the same amount of threads you last that generation and then some.

 

But other than that little to say. It's why 8 thread cpu's are the current minimum and that will change with the current consoles becoming the only ones.

[KnoT]

1 minute ago, Azurael said:

A smooth 60FPS on mid settings.

Then it all depends on a game as example Hogwarts Legacy needs rly modern CPU to get there 

If anything you can call CPU obsolete when you cant even launch new games cuz they are missing certain instruction sets like AVX

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Azurael said:

A smooth 60FPS on mid settings.

RIGHT NOW (thats the big thing) a i7 2600k can do it. I DO NOT give it more than a year before it can't. There are already games that don't work on that cpu and those are the real next gen titles.

 

So basically to be windows 11 compatible AND be ok I'd say the minimum would be a ryzen 2600

[Radium_Angel]

I built a Xeon e5-2690 v4 (Broadwell, 5th gen Intel) with a 1060 GTX 6GB that played Cyberpunk 2077 on high settings (no raytracing obviously)  at 60 FPS. I don't know how well CP 2077 is optimized, but 5th gen still seems viable.

My dual Ivy Bridge Xeon workstation, with a 1660 Super, plays games just fine at 60fps (though admittedly, it's still on Windows 8.1, so my testing is somewhat limited)

[Azurael]

5 minutes ago, jaslion said:

When it is obsolete.

 

There is no set time.

 

Basically if you get a cpu a bit stronger than the consoles AND it has at least the same amount of threads you last that generation and then some.

 

But other than that little to say. It's why 8 thread cpu's are the current minimum and that will change with the current consoles becoming the only ones.

Hyper Threading does not count when counting these 8 threads right?

[podkall]

9 minutes ago, Azurael said:

A smooth 60FPS on mid settings.

depends game, things like Celeron/Pentium even those that don't sell anymore can still run League of Legends,

 

because League of Legends is 10+ years old game,

 

8 minutes ago, jaslion said:

RIGHT NOW (thats the big thing) a i7 2600k can do it. I DO NOT give it more than a year before it can't. There are already games that don't work on that cpu and those are the real next gen titles

so game dependant, many games don't require strong CPU and won't really increase their demand for it over years

 

but there are things that come with having slow CPU with few/1 cores, for example you will experience more stutters, loadings will increase, and things like multitasking or even just playing YouTube in the background can be hurtful on performance

Edited May 5, 2023 by podkall
edit

[Azurael]

1 minute ago, podkall said:

because League of Legends is 10+ years old game,

I am talking about modern games.

[jaslion]

6 minutes ago, Azurael said:

Hyper Threading does not count when counting these 8 threads right?

Yes it does. that is why I am saying threads not cores.

[YoungBlade]

32 minutes ago, jaslion said:

RIGHT NOW (thats the big thing) a i7 2600k can do it. I DO NOT give it more than a year before it can't. There are already games that don't work on that cpu and those are the real next gen titles.

 

So basically to be windows 11 compatible AND be ok I'd say the minimum would be a ryzen 2600

The OP said "all of today's modern games" and "smooth 60fps on mid settings" - the 2600K doesn't cut it for Cyberpunk 2077, Warzone 2, Hogwarts Legacy, The Last of Us Part 1, and several others, even if overclocked to 4.4GHz.

 

It lasted for over a decade, but the 2600K's time as a gaming CPU that can handle anything has already died.

[Alcarin]

An acquaintance of mine had been running a haggard old Phenom II x4 CPU until recently, when he upgraded to a Ryzen 5 5600.

 

The Phenom II was able to "run" many relatively modern games, up until probably the beginning of the PS5/XS generation. Due to it missing modern instruction sets, it's not capable of running current gen games I believe, at least not without serious workarounds.

Feasibly I'd assume the earliest AMD CPU that can run modern games is the FX 8000 series. For Intel, I wouldn't go with anything less than a Haswell i7. 

[podkall]

12 hours ago, Azurael said:

I am talking about modern games.

that depends what do you call a "modern game"

 

the equation is simple, newer games usually tend to be more demanding unless they are like esports title and even those get demanding

 

but if the game already exists, depending on the type of content that can be added the game can require same demand 10 years down the road, or it slowly increases it's demand, or it stays because there is no content being added

 

if you're curious you can try searching things like "random cheap CPU benchmark" and see if someone has recently tested it on something like Cyberpunk

 

let me give it a shot, I found this: