Gaming & Hardware (CPUs)

[Maverick2002]

Admittedly I'm a bit behind the times when it comes to understanding bottlenecks in current games on current hardware. In a ~$1500 gaming computer built today (Core i7, GTX275, 6GB RAM, Velociraptor, etc), what is the "general" bottleneck? Is it still a fight between the CPU and GPU? How close is it? Do games take advantage of multiple threads/cores yet or no? In other words, I realize Core i7 is fast, but what's the point of 4 cores if only 1 is used (in relation to gaming)?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Games use different threads for graphics, AI, sound, etc. and did so even when processors were single-core. Most of the tasks are single-threaded though, so the AI task might only use 1 thread maximum even with 8 cores.

There are only a couple of games out that I know of that really benefit from quad-core, Supreme Commander and the shoddy console port of GTA IV. Most games do benefit from a dual-core CPU, some even require it.

For gaming right now, a $900 PC with E8500 & 4 GB RAM will be just as good as the $1500 i& system. The reason to buy a fast i7 quad is "future proofiness" for games released a year or two from now.

Velociraptor: buying a couple of 640 GB or 1 TB 'black' WD drives for the same price as a single velociraptor might make more sense.

 

[Pantlegz]

i7's are still faster, even in games that only utilize one core/thread, I think anandtech has something about this in a recent cpu preview. as far as bottlenecks go it's hard to say, I fell mine is my cpu(even at 4Ghz) and maybe my HDD. I would say a quad at 3Ghz+ and a high end GPU shouldn't bottleneck much, if any. But I'm a generation behind and have no first hand experience here.

Most games scale well to 2 cores, and more and more are able to use 4+.

and I'm going to have to disagree with Dave, the raptor is a must imo. for a boot/OS drive anyway. I always laugh at people that have top of the line systems that lag down due to slow HDD's.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Maverick2002
Admittedly I'm a bit behind the times when it comes to understanding bottlenecks in current games on current hardware.

In a ~$1500 gaming computer built today (Core i7, GTX275, 6GB RAM, Velociraptor, etc), what is the "general" bottleneck?

You shouldn't be "behind the times" with all the threads you've started. Are you reading them?

When you say "built today", does that actually mean you assembled components and loaded an OS?
Or does it mean you've created a wish list at Newegg?

 

[Maverick2002]

By behind the times I mean I haven't read every single AT article released the past few months. I just have a general overview. The last time I built a system was ~3 years ago (and I'm still using it today). I just didn't know if anything changed between now and then in terms of bottlenecks, e.g. if something went light years ahead of something else. By today I meant wish list.