Minimum framerate - cpu or gpu?

Warbie

Warbie

Warbie

Soldato
Joined
30 Sep 2003
Posts
6,189
I thinking of building a Conroe based system and am not sure where to spend my cash.

I don't often play at a high res (never more than 1280*1024) and like a frame rate that stays above 60 at all times. I'd rather drop the res right down than have fps that drop into the 40's.

In order to achieve the highest minimum framerate possible, in as many games as possible, do you think it best to splash out on the cpu or the gpu - or a bit of both? I read that cpu often has more affect on the minimum rate, but also that this varies from game to game.

At the mo i'm thinking of a 6600 and x1900, but would happily skimp on one and boost the other if it'll help keep a consistent rate when playing at 1280*1024.

Whatcha think?
 
I think an E6600 and an X1900 should be a pretty nicely balanced system. Although conroe's seem to be very good for gaming, and you might get better results with an E6400, and spending a little extra on the graphics.
 
I would say that getting the 6600 and the x1900 would be a perfect match. You wont have to worry about less than 60fps at 1280x1024 for quite a while.
 
If you get a Crossfire capable motherboard, and find you need more graphics power, you could always upgrade to crossfire by adding a master x1900 at a later date :). Dunno if its best to get a crossfire master card first, and adding a normal one later, or the otherway around if you consider a crossfire system.
 
Without a doubt the GPU. You will notice a gpu bottleneck even at small resolutions (albeit the framerate will be in the hundreds). You will notice differences in benchmarks on the internet on games, but the gap when using a different GPU is much more substantial. Spending another £100 on a GPU opposed of a CPU will give you much better performance in games.
 
GhostRider said:
Well how am i suppose to tell you if i don't know your current specs
Click to expand...

I'm asking if it's best to splash out on the cpu or the gpu in my next system, as in the one I don't have yet ;)
 
For MINIMUM framerate, cpu definitely matters.

When you read your typical review of hardware, with the benchmarks etc, they are nearly always looking at average framerates, which can be highly GPU dependent due to excessive peaks when you are gpu limited and there is not much action.

Back in 2004 I made an extremely intensive custom Doom3 benchmarking demo to illustrate the fact that games can be EXTREMELY cpu dependent, so much so that changing the resolution can make next to no difference to min framerate. http://www.hangtime.nildram.co.uk/nicefps2.rar for anyone interested.

Of course, there is a balance to be struck and you still need a good graphics card, just not at the expense of the cpu. Personally I would say an E6600 paired with a x1900xt would be an excellent choice, better than say getting a s939 cpu and a more powerful gfx card.
 
Corasik said:
I think an E6600 and an X1900 should be a pretty nicely balanced system. Although conroe's seem to be very good for gaming, and you might get better results with an E6400, and spending a little extra on the graphics.
Click to expand...

rofl at 6400, if he said hes looking at a 6600 and an x1900xt, what card are you suggesting he spend more on to drop down to a 6400?

anyways we cant tell you what to get if you dont give us a budget otherwise your lookin at an e6800 an 2 x1900xt's in crossfire
 
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