What is more important for games

• The GPU in general has a greater impact on game performance.

• A weak processor can become a bottleneck, leading to stuttering and unstable gameplay.

• Balance your PC components for optimal performance.

While a gaming PC is made up of many different parts, only two play a very active role in performance: the CPU and GPU. Both are processors and work in unison to deliver a smooth gaming experience, but which part has more impact?

GPU gives you more FPS

Generally speaking, the GPU (video card) has a much larger impact on your PC’s “pure” gaming performance. For example, you will get significantly more FPS with a $200 CPU and $500 GPU than with a $500 CPU and $200 GPU. This is because modern video games place a lot of emphasis on high-quality graphics and have to rely heavily on the GPU to render the image.

The GPU has to process a lot of elements to create the beautiful final image you get on the screen: high-resolution textures, reflections, shadows, foliage, lighting, ray tracing, etc. This is a very resource-intensive task, so the more powerful the GPU, the It handles the workload better. This means better, more compelling graphics and/or higher FPS, resulting in smoother gameplay.

The resolution of your monitor also plays an important role. If you have a 1440p or 4K monitor, you’ll need a very powerful GPU if you want to run high graphics settings and get more than 60 frames per second. Frame generation can help, but you’ll still need a newer GPU to use this technology.

FPS doesn’t matter if your CPU can’t handle it

It doesn’t matter how powerful a GPU is or how many frames it can deliver if it’s paired with a CPU that isn’t up to par. This combination creates a CPU bottleneck, meaning the CPU cannot meet the demands of the GPU. Once the GPU has finished rendering a frame, it will have to “wait” for the CPU to catch up, resulting in lower FPS and, more importantly, stuttering.

While the GPU does all the rendering, the CPU is responsible for a wide range of different tasks: it runs the OS and other background applications, handles game physics and logic, NPC AI, game objects, etc. renders what’s on the screen , for example particles, processor generates these objects and tells them where they are going. This is a simplification, but you get the idea.

When you play on a PC with a CPU bottleneck, you may notice that you have a pretty good FPS, but the game is laggy like crazy. FPS drops sharply when something happens on the screen or you are in a busy place. I played GTA V with a serious CPU bottleneck and my FPS dropped from a stable 30+ to below 15 whenever I crashed my machine.

CPU bottlenecks result in a very unstable and frustrating experience. This is why you can’t just upgrade your GPU and expect significantly better performance without any downside. It’s like installing a powerful engine in an old car. It may have a lot of horsepower, but the transmission, clutch and everything else in the car will fall apart under hard acceleration.

One trick you can use to reduce performance when you have a CPU bottleneck is to increase your graphics settings. It probably sounds counterintuitive, but in some games, increasing the settings takes the load off your CPU and puts it on the GPU. Overall, you’ll get lower FPS, but performance will be more stable, major FPS drops will be less noticeable, and to top it all off, you’ll be able to enjoy better visual fidelity.

Not all games use the CPU and GPU the same

Games can vary significantly in how they use your computer’s resources. Some games, for example Counter-Strike 2 And Stellarisare highly CPU-bound games, which means they rely heavily on the CPU to operate. These games still use the GPU, but it is not the main factor in performance.

The opposite of CPU-bound games are GPU-bound games. This list includes games from a variety of genres, especially first-person shooters and racing games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III And Forza Horizon 5. Some AAA games are so resource intensive that they can push both the CPU and GPU to their limits. Some examples include Cyberpunk 2077, Star fieldAnd Microsoft Flight Simulator.

It’s also worth noting here that not all CPU-centric games (or any games) actually require a processor with many physical cores. In many games, to achieve the best performance, it is preferable to have fewer, but faster and more powerful cores.

Keep your system balanced for best results

Considering everything I’ve mentioned so far, you need to build a well-balanced PC to ensure smooth gaming performance. Since the GPU affects FPS much more than the CPU, you’ll probably want to spend more money on it. In my personal experience, a GPU can easily be twice as expensive and you still won’t run into the CPU bottleneck.

However, prices are not the best indicator of gaming performance. Instead, make sure the processor is powerful enough to support the GPU. Start by checking out the bottleneck calculator, then look at some CPU benchmarks that use the GPU you’re planning to buy, and simply get a CPU that works well with your GPU without spending any money.

Bottleneck calculators are quite controversial, and their results should not be taken as gospel. Rather, use them to get a general idea of ​​good CPU and GPU combinations.

There are also very strong arguments for GPU bottlenecking (i.e. having a more powerful CPU than GPU). First, GPU bottlenecks are easier to deal with because you can simply lower your graphics settings. Gameplay will still be fairly smooth, although this will vary depending on the game.

While your FPS may suffer now, you still have some headroom for a future GPU upgrade when the next generation is released. Graphics cards are easier to install in terms of compatibility, and you can easily sell your old one to recoup some of the costs. What’s more, since the CPU is the cheaper of the two, it’s easy to justify shelling out an extra $50-$100 from your GPU budget.

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It’s important to understand how the CPU and GPU work together to run your games. While the GPU is usually the main workhorse, you still need a CPU good enough to support it. A good tactic is to slightly favor the CPU or GPU depending on the type of games you play, while keeping the system balanced.