How does the cpu of a computer affect gaming?

[train2face]

I am plan on building a new computer for gaming and I was wondering how the cpu affects fps and performance while playing games.

 

[tadej petric]

Depends on game and CPU. On some alot and on some ,1 frame. Also you cant compare intel atom and i7 extreme.

 

[biopolar]

I'd like to say that it mostly depends on what gpu you pair your cpu up with.

Saying if you decide to pair a Phenom x4 955 stock with a 7970HD/GTX 680, you'll experience some bottlenecking, or a loss of real gaming power because the phenom is not fast enough to utilize the gpu to its 100% performance. Say your gpu only ever reaches 50% and you only ever get 30fps.

Now, Upgrade the phenom to lets say a 6300 or a 2500k, what have you, these cpu's which are much more powerful will allow the 7970/GTX680 to perform at its greatest potential. With a change of cpu, your gpu can jump up to 100% according to load and your fps will reach 50fps+.

 

[train2face]

I'm planning to use a Intel Pentium G2020 Ivy Bridge 2.9GHz for the cpu and a EVGA 01G-P4-3650-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB. These were both recommended by another user.

 

[tadej petric]

I'm planning to use a Intel Pentium G2020 Ivy Bridge 2.9GHz for the cpu and a EVGA 01G-P4-3650-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB. These were both recommended by another user.

Both are good for price and your CPU will not bottleneck your GPU. But in games like Civilization V, TESV: Skyrim, Crysis 3... or some other CPU heavy games it would be better to have better one. On the other hand there are games like Battlefield 3, Sleeping dogs, Dirt 3... or any other GPU heavy game theres going to be 1FPS diff. So tell games you want to play and we could do better.

 

[train2face]

How about a Evo Phenom II x4 965 black edition with the same gpu?

 

[tadej petric]

How about a Evo Phenom II x4 965 black edition with the same gpu?

Its about the same (you should check i3) but it depends on a game really. So please tell games you want to play. Please.

 

[biopolar]

I'm planning to use a Intel Pentium G2020 Ivy Bridge 2.9GHz for the cpu and a EVGA 01G-P4-3650-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB. These were both recommended by another user.

Both are good for price and your CPU will not bottleneck your GPU. But in games like Civilization V, TESV: Skyrim, Crysis 3... or some other CPU heavy games it would be better to have better one. On the other hand there are games like Battlefield 3, Sleeping dogs, Dirt 3... or any other GPU heavy game theres going to be 1FPS diff. So tell games you want to play and we could do better.

I agree.

Rule of thumb : balance your gpu and cpu so that when you come across cpu-heavy or gpu-heavy games, you'll have no issues relying on one or the other component.

If you do go with the 650 TI, I think the 650TI Boost 2GB came out recently, for nearly the same price as a 1gb 650TI. More for your money

No bottleneck with the phenom, but for only $30 more you can grab a 3220 (an excellent choice) or a 6300( also good). If you currently have an intel board, best to stay on that track for now.

 

[train2face]

I plan to play
Minecraft
Team fortress 2
Skyrim
Battlefield 3
Battlefield 4 (once its released)
That's what i plan to play so far most likely will play more games.
I don't want to have to upgrade very soon (maybe the gpu eventually)

 

[tadej petric]

I plan to play
Minecraft
Team fortress 2
Skyrim
Battlefield 3
Battlefield 4 (once its released)
That's what i plan to play so far most likely will play more games.
I don't want to have to upgrade very soon (maybe the gpu eventually)

Minecraft - CPU intensive (you should be good)
Team fortress 2 - GPU intensive (you should be good)
Skyrim - CPU intensive (you should be good (maybe not ultra)
bf 3/4 - GPU intensive (you should be good(dont know for 4 but it should be about the same)

 

[train2face]

Instead of getting all new parts i could upgrade my old system. Would an intel pentium 4 3.20ghz bottle neck that graphics card or should i upgrade both at the same time?

 

[tadej petric]

Instead of getting all new parts i could upgrade my old system. Would an intel pentium 4 3.20ghz bottle neck that graphics card or should i upgrade both at the same time?

As far as I know all Pentium 4s are single core and they use non 1155/1150 socket. And they are really bad at lots of things (trust me, check my rig). Then you would need to replace mobo, CPU, GPU, PSU (theyre usually weak), HDD (old ones usually are slow and small) and thats whole computer. Sure you can keep case and that DVD thing but thats it. So the answer is yes, it will bottleneck.

Use old computer for youtube and school projects.

But its your money, only you can use it and the way you want it to be used.

 

[muppetlol]

CPU is like a piggy bank that can keep various amount of money , if you put a good Graphic Card that cost like $300 , and the piggy bank can only hold $200 , then you have a bottleneck which the CPU can't keep up with the GPU. Therefore a good CPU is very important

 

[train2face]

How can i know if the cpu will bottle neck the gpu?

 

[biopolar]

How can i know if the cpu will bottle neck the gpu?

You will be fine with the 965 and anything upwards from the phenom 965 on the AMD branch w/650TI.
You will fine with the i3-3220 and anything upwards from the i3-3220 on the Intel branch w/650TI.

There will be no bottlenecks.

 

[tadej petric]

How can i know if the cpu will bottle neck the gpu?

Bottle necking means that CPU cant bring enough data to card to make it 100% busy at some high end task. Just stress card and if its at 100% load then its ok. If not, well, you know.

 

[8350rocks]

How can i know if the cpu will bottle neck the gpu?

You will be fine with the 965 and anything upwards from the phenom 965 on the AMD branch w/650TI.
You will fine with the i3-3220 and anything upwards from the i3-3220 on the Intel branch w/650TI.

There will be no bottlenecks.

+1 AMD will save you some coin and get similar performance, but get what you want to, anything over the above mentioned CPUs is fine for your rig.

 

[tadej petric]

How can i know if the cpu will bottle neck the gpu?

You will be fine with the 965 and anything upwards from the phenom 965 on the AMD branch w/650TI.
You will fine with the i3-3220 and anything upwards from the i3-3220 on the Intel branch w/650TI.

There will be no bottlenecks.

+1 AMD will save you some coin and get similar performance, but get what you want to, anything over the above mentioned CPUs is fine for your rig.

See your not such fanboy now.
As he said anything will be good but Id have i3 for gaming. But for rendering you really cant beat AMDs price-preformance.

 

[8350rocks]

How can i know if the cpu will bottle neck the gpu?

You will be fine with the 965 and anything upwards from the phenom 965 on the AMD branch w/650TI.
You will fine with the i3-3220 and anything upwards from the i3-3220 on the Intel branch w/650TI.

There will be no bottlenecks.

+1 AMD will save you some coin and get similar performance, but get what you want to, anything over the above mentioned CPUs is fine for your rig.

See your not such fanboy now.
As he said anything will be good but Id have i3 for gaming. But for rendering you really cant beat AMDs price-preformance.

I was never a "fanboy" and the Phenom series given is adequate...if he is willing to go to a $130 price point on a CPU...the FX6300 is FAR more chip for the money, hands down. But he can get a Phenom series CPU for under $100.00

 

[train2face]

So which is better the i3 or the phenom and by how much?

 

[8350rocks]

They're about equal, the Phenom is a little cheaper and will perform every bit as well. If you are willing to spend a little more money...for $129.00 the FX6300 is ALOT more CPU than both the i3 and the Phenom series.

 

[bonzaiitech]

Here is the most simple answer you can get of how CPU and GPU affect gaming.
Imagine your CPU is your left leg, your GPU is your right leg.
The speed you go is the FPS.
Slow CPU and Slow GPU - You Walk.

 

[tadej petric]

Here is the most simple answer you can get of how CPU and GPU affect gaming.
Imagine your CPU is your left leg, your GPU is your right leg.
The speed you go is the FPS.
Slow CPU and Slow GPU - You Walk.

First off, hi to Tom's hardware, I hope you'll enjoy your stay here.

Second, pls try not to necro threads, this makes irrelevant info show up high in the forums (Ivy bridge is old, bang/ buck ratios are waaay different).

also now that I'm already posting, lemme just correct myself that BF 3 can get pretty CPU intensive as well.

And your "definition" is not exactly correct or at least good for this thread (if not anything else).
Here's why:

• 
  He had limited budget ==> anything he would get is probably gonna be a walk

• 
  When both CPU AND (exclusive and only AND) GPU are equally slow, the build is actually considered balanced

• 
  Speed depends on the application, if doing GPU heavy workload (like CUDA rendering and pretty games) your CPU can be a lot worse than GPU and still work fine. If doing some CPU heavy stuff (like CPU compiling and some smart/ unoptimised games) you can have near no GPU and it will still work equally as if you had 2k $ of GPUs. In your logic, some sports prefer right leg and some prefer left one.