Does increasing graphics settings increase cpu requirments?

[tornados2111]

Just wondering if turning up the graphics in a game actually makes the cpu get used more so say if someone had a cpu bottleneck, would it be worth turning up the graphics or would that make performance even worse since the cpu is getting used more? Just out of curiosity, never truly understood this

[0s4x]

If you are bottlenecked by the cpu at lower than max settings, that means that your CPU is doing everything it can for you. Ask it to give you more (by raising the settings) and it'll just give you the middle finger and stomp off like a spoiled son/daughter you've just told to get a job. At least this is my understanding of the issue

[tornados2111]

If you are bottlenecked by the cpu at lower than max settings, that means that your CPU is doing everything it can for you. Ask it to give you more (by raising the settings) and it'll just give you the middle finger and stomp off like a spoiled son/daughter you've just told to get a job. At least this is my understanding of the issue

So you are saying that graphics performance is tied into not just the gpu but also the cpu? So a game can have different cpu requirements depending on what settings you run?

[mechanicalfluff]

So you are saying that graphics performance is tied into not just the gpu but also the cpu? So a game can have different cpu requirements depending on what settings you run?

In my experience, it depends on the game. On max settings, Skyrim used my cpu a ton more than my gpu, but bf3 used my gpu far more than my cpu. Try running in windowed mode (if you don't have a second monitor) and pull up a cpu/gpu usage program and see which one is running near 100%. Then just change settings to maximize performance:usage. Or, if you can save up definitely upgrade.

[Maverik5124]

My understanding is that the CPU does the necessary calculations (like where your character is and stuff like that) and if the framerate is higher it will have to do these calculations more often. So in my understanding turning up the graphical settings actually reduces a CPU bottleneck. Of course if turning up the settings results in like 20fps this is not practical

Edit: this is also why sli/cf configurations get bottlenecked more. They are able to produce more frames and thus need the CPU to do those necessary calculations more often

[911^NEmeSis]

One thing to try is to change the resolution of the game you are playing at. If you already have the settings maxed out, if the FPS remains similar it's probably a CPU bottleneck.