CPU a bottleneck possibility in gaming?

[Conundrum]

I'm just curious to see what opinions people have concerning the possibility of this. I've never really thought much about it unless the box for the game itself listed my processor equivalent as below the recommended option.

Assuming you have a high-end (recommended or higher) processor. Let's say you've got the game in question on high graphics. The limitation is typically seen in either the video card itself, or available physical memory. At least in my experience, that seems to be the case. The less the game has to hit the hard drive to play it, the better. You don't want to be playing off of a swap file. Virtual memory BAD.

Anyway, I just thought I'd throw this question out there. Along with a curious question of what people might think is the best processor out right now, and what's the best one that's coming soon, if any... ???

I'm thinking of picking up a new gaming rig for myself and I'm tired of building my own. I just want something prebuilt and modify pieces. Like add a different video card or put in some more memory. Upgrade the CPU if it's a viable option and the socket/board/bios supports it. That sort of thing.

Lots of questions in this one, but all linked to CPU. That's a serious component for any rig. I've typically gone with AMD, and right now I'm using an X2 4400+. I've heard really good things about Intel's dual core though.

I welcome and even encourage people in this discussion to drop any ideas for a great deal on a gaming system. Doesn't have to be the best video card or highest amount of memory. As long as it's PCI-E and the board supports up to 4 gigs of RAM. I still wonder how Windows handles the addressing for over 4 gigs of RAM. I haven't given it any thought for desktop rigs. I'm used to working with servers.

Lots of ideas being thrown around here, but the central component being CPU. Perhaps even the main answer coming will be that it isn't a factor in most gaming systems. That it would be bottlenecked by the video card or memory. I've even heard people suggest that it has something to do with the access time to the hard drive. But if it's running in physical memory, how is that an issue?

I hope I get a good response and this thread turns into something interesting. I'll keep checking up on it and hopefully I'll find a lot of people with opinions to offer up.

 

[aznxk3vi17]

Despite your efforts, most games at normal resolutions with a high-end card like the 8800GTX will be CPU bottlenecked. Exceptions are crazy ones like Oblivion (I chalk it up to bad programming, as there are many other games that look just as fantastic, and nowhere near the strain). Maybe with resolutions like 1920x1200 with 16x AA and 16x AF, you'll get GPU bottlenecks, but realistically, most people don't play at those levels of quality. I myself play at 1920x1200, usually with 16AF and 0-4xAA.

 

[Conundrum]

Originally posted by: aznxk3vi17
Despite your efforts, most games at normal resolutions with a high-end card like the 8800GTX will be CPU bottlenecked. Exceptions are crazy ones like Oblivion (I chalk it up to bad programming, as there are many other games that look just as fantastic, and nowhere near the strain). Maybe with resolutions like 1920x1200 with 16x AA and 16x AF, you'll get GPU bottlenecks, but realistically, most people don't play at those levels of quality. I myself play at 1920x1200, usually with 16AF and 0-4xAA.

Interesting, so you're suggesting that most games do typically experience a bottleneck caused by the processor? This is the first time I've heard that suggested. I've been playing LOTRO a lot. It's my new addiction, and it's very graphics intensive on the high settings. It actually caches to my hard drive when I'm around a lot of people, but when I check the task manager it isn't displaying a limitation in either the physical memory available or the cycles for the proc. I just figured it would have to be the video card, but then why would the hard drive be caching instead of it just lagging period? *shrugs*

I just play with the recommended settings. I had some people suggest that it's a processor limitation. AMD X2 4400+... I would think that could handle the load. A new perspective is gained. I never considered this previously, but do you think there would be any benefit to be had if that's the case from a dual-cpu configuration? It always sounded like overkill to me before. Plus you'd need to have the game able to support using both CPUs I believe. The threading for the game and such. What was it? Quake3 that was the first game I can recall supporting dual processor rigs? I remember someone mentioning that to me once a long time ago.

 

[sthaznpride17]

Don't worry about LOTRO. I am having some issues with it too, as well as many others. People with 8800GTX's are having problems so that is some indication of an issue with Turbine, and they are working on it.

Currently, an C2D E6600 will run most games just fine. 4GB of RAM is plenty. A CPU bottleneck will occurs when you have a high end graphics card and an outdated CPU, like my system. Especially at low resolutions its just a measure of how fast the CPU can pump out the data than the graphics card.

 

[f4phantom2500]

If you experience a CPU bottleneck, just increase the resolution and details; your x2 4400 is still even a really good processor (if I were you I would just stick with it); if you get a high end graphics card (geforce 8800), just crank the resolution and details. I remember even reading on a recent article at THG that they put an 8800GTX into a rig with an X2 3800 and another rig with a high end C2D, and when they cranked the resolution and graphics settings there was little to no difference between the two.

 

[MarcVenice]

Heh I had the same problem with Lotro, so I threw it in the OOC channel, and promptly several people suggested upgrading to 2gb of ram, since 1gb would get you to 'lag' in area's with a lot of people in it. So try throwing in an extra GB of ram, should come at like 40-50 bucks.

I also really doubt aznxk3vi17's claims that most games are cpu bottlenecked. I have no conclusive proof of it being false, but I do seem to read that games are usually gpu bottlenecked rather then cpy bottlenecked. A gamer could skimp on his cpu as long as he gets a good videocard. It would be nice if f4p could a link to that THG article