Quick question: CPU vs graphics

[ste216]

Am deciding between a Conroe vs Pentium D (due to price and availability). I'll be doing some light gaming...if I got the Pentium D will a really good graphics card make up for the slower CPU? And by light gaming I mean mostly The Sims 2 lol

Thanx

 

[Shadow Conception]

You're only CPU bound if your video setup is maxed out. However, if you were to compare a 1.5GHz Celeron to a 3.0GHz Prescott, there would be quite a difference; the GPU would be bottlenecked due to the weak processor.

 

[lamere]

Getting a conroe to do 'light gaming'

hmm...kind of an oxymoron but to each his own

Hi

 

[Madwand1]

One way to tell if you're CPU bound is to drop the video resolution. If you're framerate doesn't go up, then you're CPU bound. If it goes up, then you're video bound -- a faster video card will likely let you maintain a higher framerate at higher resolution.

Online games tend to be more CPU hungry than typical modern FPS games; keep that in mind when looking at generic gaming advice, and always check your own needs.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

The newer games are not as processor intensive as before. If you have a good video card and you used Pentium D chips, then you'll be fine. If you have the same video card, and Conroe chips, it'll be a very small difference.

 

[Oxaqata]

The Pentium D would definantly be sufficient to run the Sims 2, even with a low end Graphics card.

 

[Geomagick]

Did you have an idea about what video card you were going to get? That would give us a better idea of how much of a difference there would be.