Why powerful processor is needed in low resolution(ex 720p) for gaming?

[cool.dx.rip]

Few days back nowhere in forum i have seen a geek adviced a folk to buy more powerful pro than his gpu because of 1366*768 resoultion.Would any one tell me why processor should get high priority in low res gaming system?

 

[Jaepheth]

Few days back nowhere in forum i have seen a geek adviced a folk to buy more powerful pro than his gpu because of 1366*768 resoultion.Would any one tell me why processor should get high priority in low res gaming system?

Depends on the games it'll play.

If those games have a lot of simulation then you'll need a powerful cpu regardless of resolution. (e.g. Kerbal Space Program, Sims 3, Civilization, etc)

 

[Markbnj]

The processor largely does one sort of work, and the GPU does another, and that includes physics and potentially other calculations that are unrelated to graphics. So both are important.

 

[cmdrdredd]

At lower resolutions you become CPU limited more so than GPU limited. Meaning your performance at say 1024x768 is determined more by how fast your CPU is because most GPUs wouldn't even break a sweat at that resolution. They will be waiting for the CPU to catch up. As you move to higher resolutions like 2560x1440 the GPU is doing a lot more work and you get to the point that your GPU is more important which is GPU limited. In these situations your CPU is important but when you go from 3.8Ghz to 4.5Ghz there is less of a difference in gaming performance.

The following graph is a bit outdated but for illustrative purposes will work fine to show what I am talking about. It uses the same GPU but changes the CPU to a faster/more powerful one. Notice that as you go up in processing power on the CPU side the FPS increases at 1280x1024 resolution while at 2560x1600 it's almost no performance increase as the GPU does not change.

 

[cool.dx.rip]

Guys which combo you will take for gaming(giving priority to strategy,racing) in 1366*768 RES (keeping in consideration that this Res and rig will not upgrade atleast in 5yrs and also no OC will be done)
core i7 4770k + 7850 2GB
OR
core i5 4590 + r9 270x 2GB

 

[Seba]

If no overclocking, then why a "K" CPU?

Also, the second combo should be cheaper. You should compare CPU+GPU combos in the same total budget.

 

[nurturedhate]

Agreed with Seba on comparing similar priced systems but I would take the 4770k/7850 every time over the other system, especially if it is wanted to last 5years.

 

[toughtrasher]

Imo, you still need a good processor even lower resolutions because you're still essentially playing the same game, so the engine and whatnot is still running regardless of graphic resolution.

 

[Blitzvogel]

Strategy games in particular tend to be CPU killers. Stock up on RAM too. Either graphics should be fine for the next couple years, but maybe not for 5 as console developers get better and the graphics of PC versions of games will ramp up in accordance.....

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Remember that things like screen resolution primarily add workload to the GPU and not the CPU, if you want to target a low resolution system/monitor then you'll not need a very good GPU but you'll still need a good CPU if you want to maintain good frame rates.

While there's lots of graphics settings you can turn down to lower the load on the GPU (resolution is one of them!), there's rarely any settings you can turn down to lower the load on the CPU. This means you always need a reasonably decent CPU if you want to game as it can be a limiting factor for frame rate. This is especially true if you want to push very high frame rates for gaming monitors (e.g 120-144hz), you can always turn down video settings to get your GPU to render at 120hz but if your CPU can't calculate 120 game states per second then you're not going to get 120fps and you're out of luck.

It does differ from game to game though, games like MMOs or large scale RTS or anything with large number of AI or physics tend to push the CPU quite hard, other games less so. One thing to keep in mind is that which component is the bottleneck can differ between games.

 

[Majcric]

Guys which combo you will take for gaming(giving priority to strategy,racing) in 1366*768 RES (keeping in consideration that this Res and rig will not upgrade atleast in 5yrs and also no OC will be done)
core i7 4770k + 7850 2GB
OR
core i5 4590 + r9 270x 2GB

The first combo. In the next 6 months the i7 is gonna become more the norm. neither GPU will make it 5 years. In combo 2 both parts will become outdated sooner than later.

 

[Denithor]

i7 combo for me as well, except I would suggest the 4790k instead of the 4770k. An i7 from the current generation could actually still be a viable gaming chip 5 years from now.

Whichever GPU you buy, on the other hand, will be hopelessly obsolete in 2-3 years. But it's far easier to upgrade a GPU when needed than a CPU.