CPU with GPU

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by mrdarkgod, Jul 6, 2010.

  1. mrdarkgod

    mrdarkgod MDL Member

    Feb 13, 2010
    189
    49
    10
    #1 mrdarkgod, Jul 6, 2010
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2010
    I've never found a website that matches up CPUs with GPUs so that the performance from both is balanced, giving just the right amount of processing power so they each keep up with one another.

    If you don't know what I am talking about: You wouldn't run a Penium III 1GHz CPU with an ATI HD Radeon 5970. You'd want a high-end CPU to keep up with the 5970.

    At the moment I have an AMD Phenom X2 550 (3.1GHz x2) with a Saphire ATI HD Radeon 5770. I thought it would keep up with the video card but apparently my CPU is still a bottleneck to some degree based on the "Windows Experience Index", yet I know that shouldn't be taken literally, just generally since there are so many performance factors to consider. I've checked out stats and made comparisons with a conclusion that I should (in theory) have it clocked to 3.6GHz (x2). This was based on looking at the performance of various AMD CPUs and GPUs.

    I recently went out to buy another Saphire 5770 to CrossFire it, but now I'm waiting for (you guessed it right if you're a geek...) the AMD Phenom X4 975 (3.6GHz x4). That should keep up with a CrossFire setup with equal balance for gaming, but the CPU isn't even out yet. It was supposed to come out in the first half of this year. Hopefully it doesn't get canceled due to the X6 being phased in. I know that the games and applications I would be using would have to be designed to take advantage of multiple cores, so this would be assuming everything does... which it won't.

    Recently I found out that NVIDIA and Intel had a little debate about how much faster the NVIDIA 280 is to one of Intel's CPUs (I forget which one). Apparently NVIDIA thought it was 100x faster but Intel figured it was "just" 14x. Still though, if that is true, it would suggest that video cards are well ahead of any CPU out there by Intel. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for AMD since they're behind in performance, yet it is AMD that I will always support due to them being the underdog (they need the financial support).

    AMD has Fusion coming out at the beginning of next year which combines the CPU and GPU into one. That will be a savior for those that don't take these things into consideration. But in the meantime, how do people know which CPU is a good choice based on the GPU they use (or will get) and vice versa? How do we know we're getting the performance we should and that they're both keeping up with one another with no bottlenecks or slacking performance?

    Cheers,
    mrdarkgod
     
  2. Smorgan

    Smorgan Glitcher

    Mar 25, 2010
    1,855
    1,051
    60
    I just got back on the website even thou I check too much...
    The windows experience this is not even worth bothering with such as it is since it really doesn't rate the machine for what its worth...
    The only good way I'm going to presume to rate a machine is not by having the best GPU and CPU money can buy but testing how fast it does certain tasks such as converting a HD movie from one codec to the next. Which basically means the faster the CPU the faster it will convert. Now about the GPU it may be faster but the problem with that is that the software to take advantage of it is not good enough yet (meaning its still 1.00 software). I would suggest not worrying about what the gpu takes of the cpu since the CPU will probably be faster than the GPU even if the GPU has more power as of right now....

    I would suggest however having a modest CPU with a good graphics card such as the Nvidea 480 fermi I believe....
     
  3. Acceleracer

    Acceleracer MDL Novice

    Jul 13, 2010
    5
    0
    0
    I think the integrated GPUs are to slow for real gaming!