How important is a cpu for gaming?

moonhill

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Hello,
I have a GTS 250, 4 GB of RAm, Core 2 intel cpu and this game doesn't run smoothly. Actually the original GTA IV worked a LOT BETTER than this one. Can anyone tell me whats wrong? Is it my PC or the game that has problems?? I think I have more than needed specifications to play this game on PC,but don't know why it can't run smoothly. Lotsa graphic flaws in the game. You see buildings,items and etc. appear to you only when you get close to them and stuff like that. What bothers me is that I have to play such a beautiful game with the least settings :(

PS: It also says that the recommended CPU for this game would be a Quad edition. Would having a Quad or a similar one to Quad( like an i7) truly make a difference in the game performance?
 

moonhill

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raidur wrote :

What game are you speaking of? Another GTA IV?




Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes of Liberty City
 

loneninja

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GTA IV was ported over horribly, and requires a top of the line computer to run high settings, it's no surprise that your GTS 250 is required to run at lower settings. I can't say for sure, but Episodes of Liberty City may not run as well as the base game, possible it hasn't been patched to run better like GTA IV was after it came out.

Oh, and yes the CPU is important for gaming too, a cpu actually does more than the gpu during gaming. Your gpu renders an image and puts it on your screen, and the better gpu the better you can make the game look. However, your cpu does everything else, it has to go through the game code and make thousands of calculations to control AI and everything else. A dual core cpu still runs most games fine, becuase most games are only programmed to run off 2 cpu cores, however GTA IV and other newer games, can use more threads and do show performance gains using a quad core vs a dual core.

Exactly what processor do you have right now?
 

loneninja

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BUT, a CPUs importance in gaming goes lower as your setting go higher and as the CPU gets better.

For example a the performance increase from the upgrade from an Athlon 64 X2 to a Athlon X4 would be SUBSTANTIAL, while an upgrade from a i5-750 to a i7-960 would be minor.

Also, When the res and the setting go up, the CPUs importance goes lower and the GPU becomes more dominant. For example, A HD5970 with a Pentium D is better than a 8400gs with an i7.

For the most part that is correct, but I would take the I7/8400gs before the P D/5970 any day. At least with an I7 I would have a good machine that sucked at gaming, a P D would suck at everything, even be unable to play games due to a cpu bottleneck, lol
 
cpu's are for gaming BUT not as important as graphics cards . The gts 250 is a pretty average sort of card these days .
Also important is your monitors resolution . Higher resolution screens need top of the line cards to complete the required calculations .

Updating your cpu is a waste of time IMO , but adding a 5850/ 5870 to your computer should ix the problem [ depending on your monitor ]
 

moonhill

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Intel Core 2 Duo 2.80Ghz
 

moonhill

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So the best VGA option in ure opinion? A GTX 280?
 

Crashman

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Former Staff


If you want Intel, get an i3-530 and if it's not fast enough, overclock it. Tom's just did an article that proved it's about the second-fastest gaming processor, behind AMD.

For AMD, an X3 will do and once again, if the model you choose isn't fast enough overclock it.

You'll see a lot of recommendations for an i5-750 or faster, but even the games that supposedly use quad-cores...don't do a good job of it. When you do run into a problem where the CPU isn't powerful enough, it's usually the clock speed that needs to be improved (not the number of cores).
 

randomkid

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But an i7+mobo is $400, while a 5970 is $600....
Ill still take the 5970 lol.
He he he... that is assuming you can still upgrade the CPU. But what if, let us say, you are stranded in an island with just this PC ( that you can no longer upgrade ) and an internet connection your only link to the outside world. What would you choose?