Will processor speed affect how your video card will perform ?

[LoafeR]

Hi there. I'm currently running a P3 600mhz, with 384 PC133 SDRAM, Geforce256 32mb DDR. I've been thinking of upgrading to a better Geforce card ( either a Gf2 MX400 or Gf3 ). What I'm concerned about is whether the speed of my processor will affect the performance of my videocard ? Or will it not because Geforce cards are pure GPUs ?

Please advice. Thanks

 

[spanky]

look here

towards the middle of this really long page, there are a few charts about scalability. hope that give u a better idea.

 

[Rand]

Processor will definitely have a significant impact, both on overall game performance and how efficiently your graphics card is utilized.
To put it in layman's terms, with a slow processor your graphics card will effectively be sitting around twiddling it's virtual thumbs waiting on your processor to feed it.
While Hardware T&L is nice, but it is by no means removes the processor from the equation. The processor can still have a very significant impact on gaming performance.

One other comment, you stated that your considering swapping your GF DDR for a GF2 MX400. I would strongly suggest not making such a purchase, in the vast majority of situations a GF DDR is considerably faster then the GF2 MX400.
Unless your running at very low resolutions, the MX400 is simply way to bandwidth limited and it's more powerful GPU is of little benefit over the GF DDR.
There are very few ituations in which a GF2 MX400 will match up to a GF DDR.

The GF3 Ti200 would be a much better option, though in that case you will become primarily processor limited limited. For you, a GF2 Ti/GF4 MX440/Radeon 7500 would all likely perform comparatively to a GF3 Ti200 as your processor wil definitely be holding the GF3 back from it's full potential.

If your set on getting something of the calibar of the GF3 Ti200 then I might suggest the Radeon 8500 as an alternative. The R8500 tends to be slightly faster then the GF3 with a considerably more advanced feature set in many areas. It's also priced fairly comparably to the GF3 Ti200.

Another option would be to wait for the GF4 Ti4200 which will be faster then the R8500 and GF3 Ti200, and has a 3d feature set comparable to the R8500. Though in other areas it's feature set still slightly behind that of ATi. The GF4 Ti4200 should be released soon at a price point only slightly higher then the R8500/GF3 Ti200.

Either way, if you do choose to get a GF3/Radeon 8500/GF4 I would strongly suggest a processor upgrade as well. Otherwise you'll see little benefit to anything much better then a GF2 Ti level card.

 

[Acanthus]

i Highly reccomend a Ti200, they are just over $100 at pricewatch right now, and perform great!

 

[jiffylube1024]

The GF2 MX 400 will not be much of an upgrade from a GeForce 256 DDR. +/- 10% increase (and I'm leaning on a spead loss, as the GF2 MX is significantly slower than the GF2 regular, and GF2 regular was not that much faster than GF1 DDR).

As for the CPU speed: yes, CPU speed plays a big factor, and with a P3 600 only, I'd recommend either upgrading to a Celeron 1.0A and overclocking it to 1.33 Ghz (piece of cake, btw) if you have lots of PC133 SDRAM in your machine... Otherwise I'd recommend upgrading to a P4 or Athlon XP and keeping your GF DDR for a bit longer. However the GF3 Ti200 is an excellent deal right now, you just won't see much of an upgrade until you get into the 1 - 1.5+ GHz range.

 

[vss1980]

GF2 MX400 is definitely a step down:

My Duron 900@1.12GHz + GF DDR system easily outperforms my friends T-Bird 1.4GHz + GF2 MX400 in most games and almost equals his 3DMark2001 score.

I also agree, upgrading CPU will be far better at the moment than upgrading video card. So far there is only one game which may force people (me) to upgrade graphics card when its released due to its use of new features, that being the next Unreal game.

Luckily I have been able to test the Geforce DDR card in a PC ranging from a P3-500 (not far off of you), this Duron 900MHz machine, and an Athlon 1.4GHz and you definitely benefit from a more powerful CPU. You dont get huge gains in perofrmance, but some games like Unreal Tournament are able to run much much better and at higher resolutions with faster CPU's due to the fact that the card is not getting bogged down when the CPU runs out of power.

Also, in all honesty, if and when you do go to upgrade your graphics card, you'd be wasting your time on anything not GF3 based or faster (excluding the GF4 MX) as the performance increase is not significant enough to justify the money and also because there will be no new additions to the 3D features you get until you hit the GF3 or higher area of cards.

 

[RobsTV]

Both Processor and Video are equally important.
But, a good video card can sometimes make up for a very poor CPU.
Good CPU can't help poor video though.

Just tried installing Nascar Racing 4 on a friends new Compaq with a 1200MHz or 1400MHz Intel.
Even with graphics at 640x480x16, and with everything turned off or down, it only managed 15fps using D3D.
Problem was he only had cheap Intel onboard 3d video. CPU didn't mean squat in that case.

Was able to get 25fps with K6-2 @ 600MHz and GF2 MX at same low quality settings.
Duron 750 with GF2 MX at 800x600 and medium quality, scores around 40fps.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Well...a lower end card will perform better with a faster CPU to a point. A Mid-Range card like GF3 will perform even better with a faster video but will not drop as much with a slower one. a GF4 or other top end card will definately improve with faster CPu, but less so than a slower card.

I feel that the GF3 scales the best with the CPU speed.

 

[Killrose]

Your CPU is holding back your current vid card, and will hold back anything you buy. Don't bother with the MX400, as like most have said, the Gf1 DDR is probably better, especialy at higher resolutions and 32bit.

If it was me, I would replace'em both, but that's just my problem hopefully and not yours

 

[BFG10K]

The CPU performance is always extremely important, even in seemingly completely video card limited situations. The CPU/platform is the starting place for everything and if it's slow everything else will be slow.

Get the fastest and most powerful CPU you can afford whenever upgrading.

 

[dbal]

<< Processor will definitely have a significant impact, both on overall game performance and how efficiently your graphics card is utilized.
To put it in layman's terms, with a slow processor your graphics card will effectively be sitting around twiddling it's virtual thumbs waiting on your processor to feed it.
While Hardware T&L is nice, but it is by no means removes the processor from the equation. The processor can still have a very significant impact on gaming performance. >>


Excellent concentrated info Rand. I just wanna add that in a 1.95P4 an a Radeon VE :disgust: case like mine it all happens the other way round. CPU is feeding and the card terified says: "No, no more I can't handle it,wait a sec".

 

[LoafeR]

Hey all,

Thanks alot for all your inputs. Your answers has cleared up a few questions I have now. Thank you all again.