Video Card performance limit

[chadster]

Hello, I've noticed in many video card reviews, they have "CPU Scaling".. meaning your video card is being held back?? Umm.. I have a P3 550mhz and Matrox G400 32mb.. would a GF4 Ti4200 help me significantly in current and future games, or would it just be held back by my outdated CPU? Because if it is, I'd just buy a new system altogether. Thanks in advanced!

 

[zCypher]

If you wish to play future games, your 550 processor will be insufficient. It is already insufficient for currently available games. It will doubtlessly hold back a new GF4-anything video card. You need a new mobo + CPU + memory. Then buy the video card.

 

[SSP]

If you upgrading your CPU, that G400 will be the bottle neck. If you upgrade it to a GF4, then the cpu will be the bottle neck. So, if you get something like a GF2 DDR instead, you should see a noticeable speed gain, and don?t have to spend an arm and a leg.

ED - if you have the money, do a serious upgrade. That'd be best.

 

[jakobkraft]

Originally posted by: SSP
If you upgrading your CPU, that G400 will be the bottle neck. If you upgrade it to a GF4, then the cpu will be the bottle neck. So, if you get something like a GF2 DDR instead, you should see a noticeable speed gain, and don?t have to spend an arm and a leg.

I agree. A GF2 DDR with a 700MHz processor kept me happy for a good long while, and though you couldn't play a lot of current games with ALL of the goodies turned on you'll find you can play them well enough.

 

[BFG10K]

meaning your video card is being held back??

Yes.

would a GF4 Ti4200 help me significantly in current and future games,

No, your platform is far too slow to run most 3D games made in the last three years. Although you'll be able to crank up the detail levels without a performance loss you'll still experience a slideshow at all detail levels and resolutions.

Of course your system will scale nicely when you get a faster platform later although if you still have the G400 when that happens it'll be seriously holding you back.

So my advice is to simply buy both the fastest platform and the fastest video card you can afford, at once.

 

[Bovinicus]

I have a GF2 in my 667MHz P3 box. The CPU does seem to hold back the video card a little bit, even at that speed. At about 1GHz the GF2 becomes the bottleneck. So, you will see a noticeable performance improvement from moving to a GF2, but it will not be as dramatic as it could be.