M2TW and the CPU problem

[UndrState]

Hello everyone,
Medieval II is by far my favourite in the total war series, and I've played it for many years now, and many hundreds of hours. However, I've never been able to fully enjoy the game because my old "gaming" (*sigh*) laptop couldn't play most big battles without lag.
Well, now I'm ready to build a new computer, and I'll have a good budget to put it together. I've done some preliminary research, and feel pretty confident that I just need to buy the best parts I can afford (mid-high range) and all will be well...
...Except, then there's the CPU problem. The concensus here and @ The Org seems to be that Medieval 2 can't exploit multi-core CPUs, which leaves one with the somewhat counter-intuitive option of getting the fastest single core CPU to get the best preformance. On the other hand, at Tomshardware.com I've read some people say that a multi core CPUs' individual cores are faster than anything from the single core era, and that preformance can be aided by using the "Affinity" setting in task manager, so that M2TW can fully exploit that one core. Others suggest that won't help either.
My goal is to be able to play a Vanilla Med II battles with 2 full stacks clashing at a siege, zoom in real close to the action, and keep FPS greater than 30. I wish this were just a "throw money at it" kind of problem (I'm not rich, but I am patient), but it's not and I don't know enough about this kind of thing to get ahead of it.
I'm really hoping someone here could give me some certainty as to picking the right part for the job.
Thank you.

[irishron]

I doubt you will be happy with much, then.

This does only use one core. The fastest multi-core so far has been the main idea and Intel. Even then, if you get an aftermarket cooler for it and get a good stable overclock, no bets on an even 30fps zoomed in. The game is too old and it was too unoptimzed when released. This part of the hardcode was never updated.

[UndrState]

Okay, but any chance I can do better with a single core (surely must be possible to buy older processors, at least 2nd hand)? I'm just trying to get to the best case scenario, not live in a fantasy world.

I have often read your posts and take your word seriously irishron, so I would greatly appreciate your opinion - if you could build a computer from scratch with M2TW in mind, how would you do it?

[irishron]

Actually running the game on one core of a Haswell i5 will give you better performance than any single core ever produced.

[UndrState]

At that would be managed with the aforementioned "Affinity" option in task manager?

Would taking a I7 do even better?

(Last question, I promise) Overclocking the processor, I've seen mentioned often in related discussions. Is it about right to say that if done properly, including sufficient cooling, this will also improve performance?

[irishron]

From my own experience, I don't think affinity has much to do with it either way but I have never really tested it myself. Price/performance in jump from i5 to i7 won't be all that good unless you're into 3D rendering and doing your own animations where you need the power.

Overclocking done right will get you better performance.

[irishron]

From my own experience, I don't think affinity has much to do with it either way but I have never really tested it myself. Price/performance in jump from i5 to i7 won't be all that good unless you're into 3D rendering and doing your own animations where you need the power.

Overclocking done right will get you better performance.

[UndrState]

Okay, thank you very much irishron. You've given me a solid base to make my decisions from!