Is CPU Or GPU More Important For Gaming? It’s a big question that is on the mind’s of many people who are ready to upgrade their gaming PCs. Sometimes it’s easy to make PC component buying decisions. For example, it’s always better to have more storage and it’s always better to have more RAM. There are other choices, however, that are a bit more nuanced.
For example, if you have a certain amount of money and can either afford a new CPU or a new graphics card, how do you know which one is more important?
When it comes down to it, upgrading your GPU will provide more of a substantial gaming performance increase than upgrading your CPU. You only need to upgrade your CPU first if you have a dual core CPU. If you have a quad core CPU or higher, then you should upgrade your graphics card first.
What Is The Difference Between A CPU And A GPU?
CPUs are general purpose devices. They can do literally anything. In fact, there is nothing a GPU can do that a CPU cannot also do. The problem is that in order for a CPU to do GPU things, it has to do many steps to do it.
This makes a CPU very slow at certain tasks. GPUs, on the other hand, are far less general purpose devices. Instead, a GPU is specifically built to carry out a particular set of graphics related computations. While a CPU can do many things quickly to produce one complicated thing slowly, a GPU does many things at the same time to produce one complicated result quickly.
What Is A CPU?
You can think of the CPU as the brain of a computer. That is the place where all the decisions are made. All the number crunching stuff happens in the CPU. As you would expect, the CPU is an essential part of a computer. In fact, you can think of the CPU itself as the computer, and other components such as the motherboard, solid state drives and memory, are just needed to get information into and out of the CPU.
What Is A CPU Core?
A CPU core is also another word for a computer CPU. A core contains all the things needed for an entire, single CPU to operate. These days, there are 4,8,10, 16, and even 38 core CPUs. The more processor cores a CPU has, the more tasks it can handle in parallel.
Generally speaking, a CPU that has more cores is going to be more power-efficient than one with less, all else being equal. In 2022, there are still dual core processors but these are highly limited. Quad core processors are more common and 6 and 8 core processors have been making huge inroads into the mainstream.
What Is A GPU?
The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is a chip that is housed on a graphics card and features specifically designed circuitry that accelerates the rendering of images, video, and animations.
GPUs are designed to operate on many math problems all at once, which is great for games and videos as there are many pixels on your screen that all need to have specific color values. The GPU does all of this work while the CPU performs all of the other tasks.
Is CPU Or GPU More Important For Gaming?
When its time to upgrade, you may be wondering which part to upgrade to get the more performance increase. Before you do that, you need to determine what type of GPU you have. Some GPUs are not able to be upgraded. In that case, your only option is to upgrade your CPU or add more RAM.
Types of GPUs
1. Desktop Graphics Cards
A desktop graphics card contains a full-size GPU, a dedicated amount of high speed graphics RAM, and its own power regulation and noise suppression circuitry. This type of GPU is favored by gamers as it’s the easiest to upgrade.
2. Chipset Integrated GPUs
A chipset graphics processor exists as part of another, larger chip. In this configuration, graphics is not the main focus of the chip but instead a small component of it. There is no way to upgrade this type of GPU as it is effectively part of the motherboard.
You can, however, go into your BIOS or EUFI settings and increase the amount of system memory allocated to your integrated video processor.
This will increase performance a bit, but remember, if you give your integrated GPU more RAM, it takes that RAM from the rest of the system. So, if you have 8GB of RAM and allocate 2GB to your integrated graphics, you will only have 6GB of main system memory available.
3. Embedded GPUs
An embedded GPU is similar to GPUs found in desktop graphics cards, but they are detuned to provide better energy efficiency and more ideal thermal characteristics at the cost of some performance.
That makes sense because embedded GPUs are the type installed onto high end graphics card motherboards either directly or through an MXM or equivalent PCI express-based interface.
As you would expect, embedded GPUs cannot be upgraded. The good news, however, is that most embedded GPUs have their own dedicated video RAM next to them on the motherboard, so they don’t need to borrow from main system memory.
4. SoC / CPU-level GPUs (And APUs)
Unlike the 2nd type of GPU that is merely integrated into a computer’s motherboard chipset, a CPU-level GPU is built directly into a CPU. When AMD does this, they call it an APU, but it can go by a variety of names.
In this configuration, the integrated GPU can either be relatively low performance such as the one found in your phone, or they can be extremely powerful such as the ones found on the latest AMD chips with built in graphics and the latest gaming consoles that use them.
This type of GPU is similar to an embedded GPU as it cannot be upgraded, but it’s similar to an integrated chipset GPU in that CPU-level GPUs typically allocate a portion of main system memory to use as VRAM.
What Is More Important For PC Gaming: CPU Or GPU?
As long as you have a decent CPU, then the GPU is the most important part when it comes to PC gaming performance. This is because most games are not written to make use of more than 4 or so cores. Also, there is only so much general purpose work that needs to be done for a game to work.
So, in most games, the CPU only needs to fulfill a particular level of performance, and the rest of the experience comes down to how powerful the GPU is and how much video RAM it has access to.
The most demanding and most complex games, however, do require a high end CPU. Its more the exception than it is the rule, but there are indeed some games that lean more on the CPU than they do on the GPU.
While having more cores generally means your computer will perform faster overall, a CPU with more cores will not necessarily perform better in gaming compared to a CPU with less cores. For example, a quad core 4.0Ghz processor will perform better in games than an 8 core 2.0Ghz processor. This is because the workloads for most games are not optimized to be evenly distributed across so many CPU cores. Because of that, its more important for the CPU cores to have a higher speed rather than for there to be more of them.
Should I Upgrade My GPU Or CPU?
That depends on what CPU and GPU you currently have. It also depends on what game you are trying to get better performance out of. In most cases, however, upgrading the graphics card is the best option. This is most because CPUs these days are plenty fast enough to handle the non-graphics portion of most PC games.
Remember, while a dual core processor can be surprisingly powerful for general tasks, a dual-core processor will be a major bottleneck for your gaming performance, regardless of how good your graphics card may be. So, if you only have a dual core processor, you should upgrade your CPU first before considering upgrading or adding a graphics card.
Upgrading to a quad core processor will make any dual core PC much faster. It will also provide somewhat of a boost in gaming performance even if you don’t also upgrade your graphics card. Of course, if it is within your budget, its best to upgrade both your CPU and GPU.
If you are looking to upgrade your CPU, then you should check out either the i9-8950HK or the i9-9900K. Both CPUs have 8 cores and 16 threads, with slightly different clock speeds and other small feature differences.
When You Should Upgrade Your CPU First
The speed of your processor alone is not the only determining factor when it comes to which part to upgrade first, the CPU or the GPU. What type of games you play also must be taken into consideration.
For example, MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), adventure games, and open world games load many objects into memory and give the CPU quite a bit of work to do. So, if you play games like the Sims, World of Warcraft, or Age Of Empires, you may want to look into upgrading your CPU before you upgrade your GPU.
When You Should Upgrade Your GPU First
On the other hand, if you are just wanting more performance in general or are into FPS titles like Grand Theft Auto V or Elder Scrolls, its best to upgrade your GPU first. Remember, any game that is known to have really good graphics is going to benefit the most from upgrading the graphics processor rather than the CPU.
Things To Consider When Upgrading Your GPU (Graphics Card)
Before buying a new graphics card, there are a few key aspects that you need to take into consideration.
Monitor Resolution
Images look best on LCD panels when the resolution of the image matches the physical resolution of the display. If you have a 4k monitor, you are going to need a more powerful graphics processor than if you were using a 1080p display.
Remember, for every additional pixel that your computer has to generate, the more powerful your computer will have to be. You have the option of running an LCD display at something lower than its native resolution.
Due to the way LCD panels work, however, if the digital image is not lined up with the physical pixels perfectly, then the resulting image will be somewhat blurry. For this reason, it’s best to run your games at your monitor’s native resolution. So, it’s important to consider that when choosing a graphics card.
Refresh Rate
If you have a high refresh rate display, then you also need a graphics card that can produce at least as many frames per second as your monitor. For example, if you have a 144hz monitor and are looking to buy a new graphics card, you need to make sure that its a powerful enough graphics card to be able to produce at least 144 frames per second in the games that you like to play.
Memory
Most people are familiar with traditional system memory and most gaming PCs have 8GB to 16GB of main system memory. The graphics card, however, has its own memory. For 1080P gaming, you need a graphics card that has at least 4GB of RAM. If you are working with 4k material, you will need a graphics card with at least 8GB of RAM.
Form Factor
Graphics cards come in several widths and lengths. Some graphics cards take up one expansion slot, and other graphics cards take up two. There are short graphics cards and long graphics cards. Some graphics cards require two additional power supply connections. Other graphics cards get all their power from the PCI express bus.
So, take a look at the specification for the graphics card you are considering purchasing. Make sure its length, width, and height are compatible with your system.
Conclusion
Sometimes it’s easy to make PC component buying decisions. For example, it’s always better to have more storage and it’s always better to have more RAM. There are other choices, however, that are a bit more nuanced.
For example, if you have a certain amount of money and can either afford a new CPU or a new graphics card, how do you know which one is more important?
The CPU and GPU are pretty much equally as important as you cannot play a game without both of them. Upgrading your GPU will provide more of a substantial gaming performance increase than upgrading your CPU. You only need to upgrade your CPU first if you have a dual core CPU. If you have a quad core CPU or higher, then you should upgrade your graphics card first.
We hope this article helped you learn about the importance of CPUs and GPU when it comes to gaming. Thanks for reading!
