CPU vs GPU

[RJH]

I've recently come by a 1050Ti 4GB graphics card to replace the onboard/CPU
graphics (Asus H110/i3 6100 3.7) on my PC.

I've got a few games, mainly FPS and strategy, that I've amassed on Steam over
the years, but never got round to playing, and I'm interested to know how much
difference an improved CPU might make. The best I can go is a Skylake i7,
which will double the benchmark score of the i3, although the single thread
benchmark is quite similar.

The reviews seem quite fuzzy on the role of the CPU on graphics performance.
Anyone any view on whether the i7 upgrade will significantly help graphics
performance?

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

Post by RJH
I've recently come by a 1050Ti 4GB graphics card to replace the onboard/CPU
graphics (Asus H110/i3 6100 3.7) on my PC.
I've got a few games, mainly FPS and strategy, that I've amassed on Steam over
the years, but never got round to playing, and I'm interested to know how much
difference an improved CPU might make. The best I can go is a Skylake i7,
which will double the benchmark score of the i3, although the single thread
benchmark is quite similar.
The reviews seem quite fuzzy on the role of the CPU on graphics performance.
Anyone any view on whether the i7 upgrade will significantly help graphics
performance?

Fuzziness is due to different games bottlenecking on different things.
You won't get as stark a change as jumping from your built HD530 to the
1050Ti, but you should get a significant boost from going from that
(rather gutless) i3-6100 dualcore to an i7 quadcore even of a similar
era. I suspect at the moment your FPS games are bottlenecking on the
CPU.

Strategy games could be improved or no difference, depending on their
coding and whether you're waiting around for CPU to generate tactics at
the moment.

Cheers - Jaimie

[RJH]

Post by Jaimie Vandenbergh

Post by RJH
I've recently come by a 1050Ti 4GB graphics card to replace the onboard/CPU
graphics (Asus H110/i3 6100 3.7) on my PC.
I've got a few games, mainly FPS and strategy, that I've amassed on Steam over
the years, but never got round to playing, and I'm interested to know how much
difference an improved CPU might make. The best I can go is a Skylake i7,
which will double the benchmark score of the i3, although the single thread
benchmark is quite similar.
The reviews seem quite fuzzy on the role of the CPU on graphics performance.
Anyone any view on whether the i7 upgrade will significantly help graphics
performance?

Fuzziness is due to different games bottlenecking on different things.
You won't get as stark a change as jumping from your built HD530 to the
1050Ti, but you should get a significant boost from going from that
(rather gutless) i3-6100 dualcore to an i7 quadcore even of a similar
era. I suspect at the moment your FPS games are bottlenecking on the
CPU.
Strategy games could be improved or no difference, depending on their
coding and whether you're waiting around for CPU to generate tactics at
the moment.

Thanks for that. It's a marginal situation - replace the PC with something
more modern (and out-the-box Win11 ready*), or patch and mend.

I'll see how it goes with the card alone. i7s are going for £40 on ebay, so
may well give it a whirl.


* It's a curious thing. The motherboard is Windows 11 compatible, but it
doesn't support any Win11 compatible processors.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

Post by RJH
I'll see how it goes with the card alone. i7s are going for £40 on ebay, so
may well give it a whirl.

Worth the experimental price for sure.

Post by RJH
* It's a curious thing. The motherboard is Windows 11 compatible, but it
doesn't support any Win11 compatible processors.

That's pretty common - most CPUs from 2014+ have the TPS2 embedded in
them, so the mobo doesn't need to support anything particular except
have a bios option to use the embedded one.

I'm in the same boat, my 2016 z170 mobo doesn't support a late enough
CPU to be officially Win11 compatible. Of course the preconditions are
bypassed with just a couple of registry tweaks anyway so it's a
pointless limitation, hey ho.

I've set my games PC up to be ready to (ugh) move to Win11 when Win10
goes out of support.

Cheers - Jaimie