Wondering if The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion truly takes advantage of dual-core processors? And if so, by how much? Does L2 cache size play a role in performance, and what clock speeds yield the biggest performance improvements? The chaps over at Firing Squad checked how 10 different Athlon 64, FX, and X2 processors perform in comparison to one another. Here's a taster:

Oblivion is definitely capable of taking advantage of the latest dual-core processors from AMD. At low resolution/detail settings, we saw performance improvements of over 15% in some cases. At the same time however, keep in mind that once you crank up the graphics settings in the game, you shift the load from your CPU to your graphics card - once you're running at 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 with HDR lighting, you're probably not going to see much of a difference in performance regardless of what processor you have installed in your system. In our testing on the previous three pages you saw the Athlon 64 3500+ hanging with the latest and greatest AMD processors, the Athlon 64 FX-60, Athlon 64 X2 4800+, and Athlon 64 FX-57. Oblivion also ran faster with the AMD CPUs with 1MB L2 caches. Here the performance difference wasn't as significant, but we still saw a nice gain of about 3-5% at 800x600.

If you're in the market to upgrade your CPU for Oblivion but don't want to spend a lot of money, obviously the 3500+ delivered an awesome price/performance ratio, particularly in light of the high-res results. If you can afford to spend a little more, around $330 (a little over $100 more than the 3500+), AMD's Opteron 165 CPU is a great value. The Opteron 165 is a dual-core CPU and runs at just 1.8GHz, 400MHz slower than the 3500+, but ships with 1MB of L2 cache per core and is known for being an excellent overclocker, often running at speeds in excess of 2.3/2.4GHz on air cooling. The most remarkable part is that these chips used to sell for just under $300, making them an absolute steal! AMD has wizened up and raised the price on these parts, but with Opteron 165 CPUs selling online at right around $320-$330 it's still a terrific value, especially once you factor in its overclocking potential and consider the fact that X2 3800+ CPUs ship at higher clock speeds (2.0GHz) but with only 512KB of L2 cache per core. You can easily make up the 200MHz clock speed difference with the Opteron 165, but there's no way you can ever drop 1MB of cache into an X2 3800+.