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High-End Processor With a Low-End Graphics Card or Vice Versa?

John V.
By John V.
in New Builds and Planning
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Posted

I am planning to do a Budget Gaming Rig at some point in the near future.. And there is one thing bugging my mind.
Which is more preferable? A High-End Processor With a Mid Tier Graphics Card or A Mid-Tier Processor with a High-End Graphics Card?

Thanks For the Replies 

                                               - John V.

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What constitutes a mid end, or high end cpu/gpu?

 

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Definitely mid-tier CPU and high end Graphics. 

Wanna know how I know? Well, thats exactly what my computer is. Some Intel Core 2 Quad with a GTX 970. Runs great on triple A titles like GTA V.

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Gaming should be biased towards a stronger GPU.

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A high end processor with a mid-tier GPU is my choice. CPUs are socket bound compatibility-wise, and therefore suffer from more restrictions (socket and RAM) than GPUs. On the other hand, GPUs are almost like a drop in replacement for any modern PC. This is the perfect choice for longevity, considering you will be upgrading your GPU in the future.

 

For a budget gaming rig, it's almost always the other way around, since you don't have that extra money to spend for a faster processor. Gaming is mostly GPU intensive, so it's wiser to spend most of it on the GPU when you're budget constrained. Sure, you might need to replace the whole platform for a future upgrade, but there's not a whole lot of options to choose from when money is short, and gaming performance is an immediate priority.

Quote

The problem is that this is an nVidia product and scoring any nVidia product a "zero" is also highly predictive of the number of nVidia products the reviewer will receive for review in the future.

On 2015-01-28 at 5:24 PM, Victorious Secret said:

Only yours, you don't shitpost on the same level that we can, mainly because this thread is finally dead and should be locked.

On 2016-06-07 at 11:25 PM, patrickjp93 said:

I wasn't wrong. It's extremely rare that I am. I provided sources as well. Different devs can disagree. Further, we now have confirmed discrepancy from Twitter about he use of the pre-release 1080 driver in AMD's demo despite the release 1080 driver having been out a week prior.

On 2016-09-10 at 4:32 PM, Hikaru12 said:

You apparently haven't seen his responses to questions on YouTube. He is very condescending and aggressive in his comments with which there is little justification. He acts totally different in his videos. I don't necessarily care for this content style and there is nothing really unique about him or his channel. His endless dick jokes and toilet humor are annoying as well.

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Shahnewaz said:

A high end processor with a mid-tier GPU is my choice. CPUs are socket bound compatibility-wise, and therefore suffer from more restrictions (socket and RAM) than GPUs. On the other hand, GPUs are almost like a drop in replacement for any modern PC. This is the perfect choice for longevity, considering you will be upgrading your GPU in the future.

 

For a budget gaming rig, it's almost always the other way around, since you don't have that extra money to spend for a faster processor. Gaming is mostly GPU intensive, so it's wiser to spend most of it on the GPU when you're budget constrained. Sure, you might need to replace the whole platform for a future upgrade, but there's not a whole lot of options to choose from when money is short, and gaming performance is an immediate priority.

Idk...I can't really agree with that. To replace your mobo and CPU can still easily be cheaper than replacing your GPU. Given, it's more work, still cheaper.

Screenaninator: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro

Procrastinator: AMD FX-8300

Stickaminator: 16GB Crucial Vengance DDR3

Powermathingy: Corsair RM850i

attachamajiggy: Asus M5A97 R2.0 f

Remembrerthing: 240 GB Crucial SSD, 2TB Toshiba HDD

 

 

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Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400

6 or 8Gb Ram sticks

And R7 370. That would be great, cheap gaming PC Which would able to play GTA V Online on High Graphics settings while 50-60FPS, That would cost like 250euros

 

HP Probook 4540s

MoBo: HP 17F6 HM76 Panther Point

CPU: Intel Core i5 3210M 2.5Ghz

RAM: 8Gigs Hynix HMT DDR3-1600

GPU: AMD Radeon 7650M 2G (OC, from stock 500Mhz to 570-590Mhz)

Kingston SSDNow UV400 240gb

Standart 1366x768 16:9 Built in display

Mouse: Acme MA06 (it is cheap, but in games like GTA V Online, shooting is such good pleasure to own everybody!  )

And 40370mwh battery for outside fun

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9 hours ago, JoePro87 said:

Idk...I can't really agree with that. To replace your mobo and CPU can still easily be cheaper than replacing your GPU. Given, it's more work, still cheaper.

I don't think so. To fully upgrade your platform, you need to upgrade your CPU, RAM and motherboard, with the possibility of your CPU cooler as well. Which costs $250 minimum just for an i5-6500 and an H110 board. Add in RAM, CPU cooler or any better CPU or motherboard, and you are talking $300 or more, the same price of an R9 390.

 

It could be cheaper if you are just replacing one or two parts, but you don't do that with any decent or better builds, say an Sandy/Ivy Bridge or Haswell i5 build. You have to upgrade it all. But...

 

For a budget build like an i3-6100 and a GTX 950? Yes, upgrading the CPU can be cheap, but if you are doing that this quick, you have definitely wasted money. You should have bought the better processor in the first place. On the other hand, an Sandy/Ivy Bridge or Haswell i3 builds need a complete upgrade, there is no choice.

Quote

The problem is that this is an nVidia product and scoring any nVidia product a "zero" is also highly predictive of the number of nVidia products the reviewer will receive for review in the future.

On 2015-01-28 at 5:24 PM, Victorious Secret said:

Only yours, you don't shitpost on the same level that we can, mainly because this thread is finally dead and should be locked.

On 2016-06-07 at 11:25 PM, patrickjp93 said:

I wasn't wrong. It's extremely rare that I am. I provided sources as well. Different devs can disagree. Further, we now have confirmed discrepancy from Twitter about he use of the pre-release 1080 driver in AMD's demo despite the release 1080 driver having been out a week prior.

On 2016-09-10 at 4:32 PM, Hikaru12 said:

You apparently haven't seen his responses to questions on YouTube. He is very condescending and aggressive in his comments with which there is little justification. He acts totally different in his videos. I don't necessarily care for this content style and there is nothing really unique about him or his channel. His endless dick jokes and toilet humor are annoying as well.

 

 

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2 hours ago, Shahnewaz said:

I don't think so. To fully upgrade your platform, you need to upgrade your CPU, RAM and motherboard, with the possibility of your CPU cooler as well. Which costs $250 minimum just for an i5-6500 and an H110 board. Add in RAM, CPU cooler or any better CPU or motherboard, and you are talking $300 or more, the same price of an R9 390.

 

It could be cheaper if you are just replacing one or two parts, but you don't do that with any decent or better builds, say an Sandy/Ivy Bridge or Haswell i5 build. You have to upgrade it all. But...

 

For a budget build like an i3-6100 and a GTX 950? Yes, upgrading the CPU can be cheap, but if you are doing that this quick, you have definitely wasted money. You should have bought the better processor in the first place. On the other hand, an Sandy/Ivy Bridge or Haswell i3 builds need a complete upgrade, there is no choice.

There are too many unknowns in this case to be certain. And no, you don't always have to upgrade all of it. You can easily reuse RAM, especially since it's not THAT important to gaming, as long as you have enough of it. Also, you can get coolers for next to nothing, so that's not a big deal

Screenaninator: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro

Procrastinator: AMD FX-8300

Stickaminator: 16GB Crucial Vengance DDR3

Powermathingy: Corsair RM850i

attachamajiggy: Asus M5A97 R2.0 f

Remembrerthing: 240 GB Crucial SSD, 2TB Toshiba HDD

 

 

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20 minutes ago, JoePro87 said:

There are too many unknowns in this case to be certain. And no, you don't always have to upgrade all of it. You can easily reuse RAM, especially since it's not THAT important to gaming, as long as you have enough of it. Also, you can get coolers for next to nothing, so that's not a big deal

Like? Re-using RAM? Sure. Can you re-use your RAM when upgrading from Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge or Haswell to Skylake? No. But can you re-use your RAM from Skylake to Skylake? Yes. Can you do that from Sandy Bridge to Haswell? Yes too. Are either upgrades worth it? Absolutely not.

 

You have to be realistic. People don't upgrade their CPUs every 2-4 years. CPUs are generally the lower limiting factor in gaming performance, and hence they stick around in builds far longer than GPUs, even when we are talking about stepping up to 1440P resolutions.

 

And then there's socket compatibility. Even if you have compatible RAM that you can re-use, there's a good chance your motherboard will not be compatible with new CPUs.

 

The golden example of my point is LGA2011 builds. Much more expensive, but way longer lasting.

Quote

The problem is that this is an nVidia product and scoring any nVidia product a "zero" is also highly predictive of the number of nVidia products the reviewer will receive for review in the future.

On 2015-01-28 at 5:24 PM, Victorious Secret said:

Only yours, you don't shitpost on the same level that we can, mainly because this thread is finally dead and should be locked.

On 2016-06-07 at 11:25 PM, patrickjp93 said:

I wasn't wrong. It's extremely rare that I am. I provided sources as well. Different devs can disagree. Further, we now have confirmed discrepancy from Twitter about he use of the pre-release 1080 driver in AMD's demo despite the release 1080 driver having been out a week prior.

On 2016-09-10 at 4:32 PM, Hikaru12 said:

You apparently haven't seen his responses to questions on YouTube. He is very condescending and aggressive in his comments with which there is little justification. He acts totally different in his videos. I don't necessarily care for this content style and there is nothing really unique about him or his channel. His endless dick jokes and toilet humor are annoying as well.

 

 

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I have the same question as @Atmos - what exactly IS a high-end, vs mid-range, vs low-end GPU?

 

I was trying to think of what I'd perceive them as, and I'd like to know if my ideas are way off.  I realize that "high-end" in one category might not exactly match in another, but approximately, am I anywhere close?

 

  • Low-End - costs $69.99 or less (US$), or for the GPU, hits maximum 24 fps at 480p with low settings in CS:GO as of 2016
  • Mid-Range - costs between $70.00 and $249.99
  • High-End - costs between $250.00 and $399.99, or for the GPU, maintains a minimum of 120fps in FireStrike Ultra without needing SLI/Xfire; for the CPU, has a single-threaded score at least twice as good as the best low end CPU's multi-threaded score in Cinebench, again as of 2016
  • "Quick! Admit this person to a mental hospital! Stat!" - costs $400.00 or more
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Sorry for the late reply guys..well the specific specs that i was looking at was:

Intel i5-4590 and a NVIDIA 750 Ti 2Gb GDDR5 vs Intel i3-6100 and a GTX 970 

 

Thanks For the replies and the suggestions though!

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Or Maybe an Intel i5-4590 with a Radeo RX 480 vs Intel i3-6100 and a GTX 970

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