Heavy C/G PU Game

[Anay]

Greeting. 

I just do not know how to distinguish a Heavily CPU-based and GPU-based game or maybe both. What is the trick? Thanks.

[ZimFreak]

CPU heavy games tend to have a lot of different things happening at once. RTS games where you have AI and pathfinding code for hundreds of independent units are good at sucking up CPU usage. Other games that are famously CPU-heavy are ARMA 3, MS Flight Simulator X, GTA V, The Witcher 3, Civ 5, Starcraft 2,  Rise of the Tomb Raider, Crysis 3 and Ark. Mostly modern RTS, RPG, and Free Roaming games.

 

GPU heavy games are The Witcher 3, RooTR, GTA V, Crysis 3, Project CARS, Shadow of Mordor, BF 4, Batman Arkham Knight. 

 

Knowing what will be CPU-based and GPU-based essentially comes down to knowing what each component does, then you should be able to estimate its workload. And I may not be the best one to ask about this exactly but basically the CPU handles all the under-the-hood code and math, like figuring out if a bullet collided with anything or figuring out how much damage you should take and if you're still alive after. The GPU handles everything related to actually drawing that picture on the screen. So it will figure out what is visible by the player at the moment, how to draw those objects at the right position and angle and layered correctly, then the real work comes with applying the post-processing effects. Just like SFX in movies, games use advanced filters to make the colors pop, or smooth out edges, or blur out the non-focused part of the frame, blend shadows, apply lens flare and motion blur etc etc etc. All of this processing takes time, and will make a game run poorly if the GPU can't keep up.

 

You can gain quite a bit of insight just watching videos about GPUs and CPUs like these

CPU Cores for Gaming: How many do you need? - Q1 2015 Update

 

How much VRAM do you need? - Tech Tips

 

[Anay]

Hey Zim. You are impressive. Thanks for your detailed-answer. And thanks for the video link.

 

Now, do you think lower the game setting will reduce CPU load too?

[Ryoku]

33 minutes ago, Anay said:

Hey Zim. You are impressive. Thanks for your detailed-answer. And thanks for the video link.

 

Now, do you think lower the game setting will reduce CPU load too?

Not much, that would lower gpu load more.

[Anay]

2 hours ago, Ryoku said:

Not much, that would lower gpu load more.

And screen resolution. Is it affect CPU load also when gaming?

[ZimFreak]

On 11/30/2016 at 9:30 AM, Anay said:

And screen resolution. Is it affect CPU load also when gaming?

Resolution will definitely affect CPU performance as well as GPU. Higher resolutions probably have more impact on the GPU than it is on the CPU, but it definitely affects the CPU and lowering resolution can definitely help if your CPU is struggling to keep up.

[Anay]

12 hours ago, ZimFreak said:

Resolution will definitely affect CPU performance as well as GPU. Higher resolutions probably have more impact on the GPU than it is on the CPU, but it definitely affects the CPU and lowering resolution can definitely help if your CPU is struggling to keep up.

This is pretty helpful Zim. Glad you are here, thanks.

[ZimFreak]

9 hours ago, Anay said:

This is pretty helpful Zim. Glad you are here, thanks.

No problem! That's what we're all about here.