Originally posted by: Barkotron
Originally posted by: josh6079
The lower the resolution the more CPU bound you're going to get. At least this is what I've heard. So if you can go higher than 1280 X 768, I'd try that as it might take more of the work load out of the hands of the intel and place it in the x1900xtx.
If you're CPU-limited at 1024x768, you're not going to get any better frame rates by putting the resolution higher. All you're doing is putting more work onto the graphics card, without lowering the work the CPU needs to do. The game might look better, but it won't run any faster. This tells you nothing.
However, if you lower the resolution and take AA/AF/HDR out of the equation, then the graphics card is doing less, so you'd expect frame rates to go up if the problem was a graphics limitation. If frame rates go up with a lower resolution and less AA etc, then you know that you're GPU-limited. If they don't, then you've shown that it's presumably an issue with the CPU.
I'm not suggesting he actually play at a lower resolution, but testing this would show if it really is a CPU limitation or not.