CPU or GPU more important for 1080p gaming?

[marbled]

Hi all,

 

Like a lot of people I've been waiting for the new CPU/GPU reveals to put together a new gaming build. However the costs so far for the higher-end 3000 series GPU and 5000 series CPUs make me think that I probably won't be buying both a next gen GPU and CPU for my 1080p budget build!

 

I've seen a lot of comments that at higher resolutions the GPU matters a lot more for gaming than the CPU, but at 1080p if you were faced with a choice between e.g. a 3600 + 3060 or a 5600 + a 5600XT (great naming conventions there AMD!), which would you think would deliver better performance? And why is that the case? This is obviously hypothetical until everything's out and benchmarked, I know, but I'm curious about the CPU/GPU relationship at 1080p.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[minibois]

2 minutes ago, marbled said:

at 1080p if you were faced with a choice between e.g. a 3600 + 3060 or a 5600 + a 5600XT (great naming conventions there AMD!), which would you think would deliver better performance? And why is that the case?

The RTX 3060 and Ryzen 5 5600 aren't out yet, I'm going to pretend their performance will just be a class higher above what the current equivalents have in performance.

 

Depends on the game being played too.

Most games will perform better with the first combo, some games (like CS:GO, Minecraft, etc.) are CPU bound and will perform better on the second combo.

And there will be a third class of games, whose performance is capped at 60fps, where neither combo would do better or worse than the other.

[Shimejii]

Every game is different so saying whats best for one will not always apply to others.

 

Again they are both important for this usecase. Having a Crap CPU but a 3080 wont really do much good, Same thing having a 10900k but a GTX 1030 also doesnt really make any sense. Its Balance, and the 5600+5600XT Should perform better than the 3600+3060 (although thats TBD, id say more then likely the 6600XT GPU would be a more fair comparison).

[boggy77]

if you're after 240 fps in cs:go, the cpu will be more important. for most other scenarios, the gpu will still be the more important factor.

in the end, it's a combination of both, as you want a balanced system, but it does depend on the games and refresh rate of your screen.

[SnowyMus]

In some recent games at 1080p, you may find the GPU the limiting factor, especially with things like supersampling or features like raytracing being turned on.

 

In most games at 1080p, the CPU will be the limiting factor. Even in these instances, it's important to have a good enough GPU to keep up with the CPU. For example, you could have an amazing CPU but use only integrated graphics, and as a result, you won't get very high performance. Even games from the mid-2000's like Crysis or even Half Life 2 can still be limited by a relatively weak GPU.

[xg32]

1 hour ago, marbled said:

Hi all,

 

Like a lot of people I've been waiting for the new CPU/GPU reveals to put together a new gaming build. However the costs so far for the higher-end 3000 series GPU and 5000 series CPUs make me think that I probably won't be buying both a next gen GPU and CPU for my 1080p budget build!

 

I've seen a lot of comments that at higher resolutions the GPU matters a lot more for gaming than the CPU, but at 1080p if you were faced with a choice between e.g. a 3600 + 3060 or a 5600 + a 5600XT (great naming conventions there AMD!), which would you think would deliver better performance? And why is that the case? This is obviously hypothetical until everything's out and benchmarked, I know, but I'm curious about the CPU/GPU relationship at 1080p.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

in this case i'd heavily favor the 3060+3600 combo