• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Modern games: Who bares the load CPU or GFX card?

kirkster

kirkster

kirkster

Associate
Joined
14 May 2007
Posts
843
Location
London
I keep going round in circles.

In modern games, what does the most work, the CPU or GFX? If I had say a 8800GTS, would it be wasted with a 6550 CPU? Likewise if I got a 1950XT, would that underwhelm a Q6600 and the CPU would be twiddling its thumbs?

I would like to know how much a CPU is working when a 8800GTS is maxed out in a game.

What games are heavy on CPU or GFX?

Are there any tables highlighting this info?

Steve
 
I have come to this conclusion that games that have multiple enemies or are mmorpg usually use more cpu and on the contrary games that have little enemies like single player games use a lot of gpu power.
 
Bloodust said:
I have come to this conclusion that games that have multiple enemies or are mmorpg usually use more cpu and on the contrary games that have little enemies like single player games use a lot of gpu power.
Click to expand...
That's pretty true I think. It depends what kind of game it is. Something like Supreme Commander will use all the cores you can throw at it, whilst Oblivion will only use one core but benefits from a powerful graphics card.

The latest games like Crysis will take advantage of both, though.
 
Oblivion lags on my X2 4600 and 8800 GTX when 6+ NPCs are on screen at once, especially when up close :( I'm thinking about upgrading my CPU but I'm not sure if it'd make a difference...
 
Well Ive just upgraded from a fx55 clawhammer, 1mb cache @2.78 to a opteron 185, 1mb cache on each core @ 1.78, and the diff its made to dirt is amazing.

With my fx55 cpu dirt was running real chugy on 6-8 car/buggy races and a tad unplayable on med detail at 1024x768

With my opty 185 cpu dirt runs completely smooth on 6-8car/buggy races, on high detail in 1024x768

All done with my ATI X1900XT overclocked to the XT-X version and 2gb ddr1 memory.. See in sig
 
So many variables.
As the screen res rises then the demand on the GFX card rises, as does adding AA/AF.
CM Dirt at 1600x1200 with 16AA/AF puts a lot of pressure on my 8800GTX but LOMAC absolutely hammers my CPU at the same settings.
 
It purely depends on the game. Example: Supreme Commander needs to calculate the movement and attack orders of possibly thousands of units, and it calculates the trajectory and damage of every single projectile, in real-time so it's extremely CPU-dependant.
 
The majority of games out their will be more dependent on the GPU than it will on the CPU.

Even on CPU dependent games, would you rather have a Nvidia 7600 and a Quad Core at 3.4GHZ or a Core 2 Duo at 3.4GHZ and a 8800GTX?
 
stickroad said:
The majority of games out their will be more dependent on the GPU than it will on the CPU.

Even on CPU dependent games, would you rather have a Nvidia 7600 and a Quad Core at 3.4GHZ or a Core 2 Duo at 3.4GHZ and a 8800GTX?
Click to expand...

Depends on the game and screen res;
FEAR at 1600x1200 i would have the later, Supreme commander at 800x600 i would have the former although it would still be fine on a C2D.
 
I think its safe to say that FSX is very CPU heavy. I know some people say that the addition of a top graphics card does not help, but surley with the new SP2 coming out a top card such as the 8800GTX would take some of the heat of the CPU. I hope so anyway :)
 
Does FSX have dual/quad support as that would make things a lot better. Its all a ballance with CPU and GPU, if a game is very CPU intensive then at you can up the AA/AF with no loss to performance. LOMAC on my AMD3700/7800gtx saw a massive boost when i changed to a C2D but only a marginal boost when i replaced the 7800gtx with an 8800gtx.
 
Generally speaking:

RTS = raw cpu speed to make it run faster

FPS = raw GPU speed to make it run faster

That is a rather large generalization though, for example, bioshock loves cpu power, and i'm assuming this is to do with all the extra physics in the game.
 
V|per said:
That is a rather large generalization though, for example, bioshock loves cpu power, and i'm assuming this is to do with all the extra physics in the game.
Click to expand...

Bioshock loves extra cpu power ? Im running at 40-60fps with my current setup and my cpu aint that good :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom