Originally posted by Brtnboarder495Originally posted by jensen-natorOriginally posted by Brtnboarder495
Not sure what's been said in this thread thus far, but the GPU is most important when it comes to playing most games. You can upgrade your GPU pretty easily in most desktops, but the CPU is more difficult. Provide more information and maybe we could help you out.
One, try reading the topic before saying, not sure what's been said in this thread... Especially since it's not even a page long.
And two, you couldn't be more wrong. Where graphics cards do help improve games, sims, etc, they can only run off of what your CPU can give it and how fast it does it. I have the first true dual core processor(very out of date) and I use to have a 7300GT graphics card. Looking for a little boost, I upgraded my ram from 1GB to 2GB(all my motherboard would allow, yes again, a two year old computer which in the computer hardware world, is pretty ancient) and I got a nice new GT 220 graphics card with 1GB dedicated ram. My old card only had 256MB. So there is a big difference there, but my processor isn't fast enough to put my new card to it's full potential. In other terms, my card got bottle-necked, stop at a certain point, shall I keep going? Haha. So where if my computer had a good enough processor yes, that would have been a pretty nice improvement with the graphics card alone. But that wasn't my case and I'm sure it's not Danny's case either. We have older computers that yes, can use the upgraded graphics card, but it's only going to let us go so far with it.
Sorry man - but you're wrong again. The architecture of a GPU is FAR more important than the dedicated RAM. RAM can be a bottleneck for high-performing GPUs, but putting lots of RAM on a crappy GPU doesn't speed it up.
Bottom line - you need an on par GPU, RAM and CPU setup, but if you have to prioritize, choose the GPU over the CPU. RAM is cheap and 2Gb is baseline, but 4Gb is preferred. An Intel Core Duo 2Ghz CPU (very old by today's standards) paired with a recent GPU will provide better heavy 3D gaming experiences than a 3 year old GPU and new Intel Core i7 CPU.
But hey, I only build computers and have years of experience
Years of experience? We're the same age, hahaha. [sillyme]
And the ram on the graphics cards aren't the only thing that matters. You also have the Core Clock, Shader Clock, and effective clock memory speeds. As well as how many steam processors are on it. When it comes down to it, you need all the parts to be up to par, it's just the CPU is the more expensive, more time consuming, and most of the time something you can't just switch out with another on most motherboards.(saying you have an old computer with a motherboard that came with a dual core, you're not going to be able to switch it out for an i5 or i7.)
And my processor is a Pentium D Smithsfield. Witch isn't as good as Core Duo, haha. I know 2GB of ram is baseline, you don't have to tell me that, but I did research online before buying(the smart thing to do) and my computer would only support 2GB max. I wanted 4, but it wouldn't allow it. So I got the best Ram I could for DDR2 667 ram I could get. With my processor, ram, and graphics card setup, I basically have my computer maxed. Getting a newer graphic card would basically be pointless since everything else is high as I'm going to get it. That's why whenever it is I do need to get something new, I'm getting a new computer altogether.
Don't talk down to me like I don't know anything about computers. Especially when we're the same age, ha. Oh, and let me add this. I'm not trying to show you up or anything. I'm not a computer pro or anything, but you shouldn't be acting like you are either. Just giving the guy some computer knowledge. The main thing is, if his computer is as old as we expect, he might not even have PCI Express slots. So it's just all a bunch of stuff you have to take into consideration when upgrading computers. Compatibility is always something you have to look at with older computers.