For example, I underclocked my GPU to become GPU limited in Supreme Commander; notorious for using 1 thread for the AI.
In this late game battle, I zoomed in on a group of units, which lowered my overall framerate:
Now because GPU utilization was at 99%, my frametime was relatively stable. Keep in mind, Supreme Commander is a jittery mess on the most powerful of systems; because it is not properly threaded. Look at Core 0 on task manager to see my CPU get utterly annihilated.
Next, I zoomed out of the battle to look at the map as a whole. My overall framerate increased by over 300%, but my frametime became erratic:
Even at 70+fps, the jittering is very noticeable. I think we would all rather have a low, consistent framerate rather than a high stuttering one.
A high framerate does not translate to a smooth gaming experience. I cannot begin to imagine what this game would be like playing on an FX series processor, because of the importance of single threaded performance.
Actually I think its more that games that end up CPU limited have a lot less optimisation and care taken with regards to how the game is written. If you take a game like Arma 3, it looks great but in multiplayer its always CPU limited. Its severely restricted on how many threads it uses and the scripts it runs are regularly a performance problem. But they are a small studio and haven't expended the resources to really make the game run smoothly. The same was(is?) true of Mechwarrior online, another CPU limited game that just needed more care put into the CPU aspects of the game.
It doesn't surprise me that games that end up being so CPU limited end up jittering more, because they haven't spent much time programming time on removing the problems.
ARMA 3 is a great example of this. If I increase the visuals to become GPU limited, my framerate will decrease but I will get a much smoother experience. This is why many users report that increasing the visuals on ARMA games can lead to a better gaming experience.
I just started playing Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. While that game is completely different than ARMA or other open-world games, it distributes its CPU load over 4 threads and even utilizes hyperthreading correctly.
GPU limited in SC Blacklist:
I love the even core distribution. I can get excellent performance with a low CPU frequency because of this.
Now I will clamp down CPU frequency to a low 1.0 GHz:
Now my GPU is not being fully utilized and my frametimes are quite erratic.
This makes me wonder if purchasing a CPU with poor single threaded performance is a wise choice; especially in games that do not distribute load evenly.
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