{"id":119812,"date":"2017-08-11T15:30:01","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T13:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=119812"},"modified":"2017-08-11T11:24:21","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T09:24:21","slug":"why-you-dont-need-an-expensive-processor-for-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/119812-why-you-dont-need-an-expensive-processor-for-gaming","title":{"rendered":"Why you don&#8217;t need an expensive processor for gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the performance of budget graphics cards continues to improve, more PC users are able to build systems with high-end graphics performance aimed at gaming or workstation applications.<\/p>\n<p>New top-end graphics cards are able to render games at a 4K resolution, while costing the same as previous-generation GPUs.<\/p>\n<p>AMD and Intel\u2019s high-end CPUs are also extremely powerful \u2013 however, they can be prohibitively expensive for average users and often make up a significant portion of a new PC\u2019s price.<\/p>\n<p>The trick is to find how much GPU and CPU performance your PC requires, and where you can save money by not purchasing an overly-powerful CPU.<\/p>\n<p>Certain applications, like gaming and 3D modelling, are limited more by GPU performance than CPU core count \u2013 meaning users can get away with a relatively-cheap processor and spend more on a GPU.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Gaming<\/h3>\n<p>Intel\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.intel.com\/content\/www\/us\/en\/gaming\/serious-gaming.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>marketing material<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0suggests that gamers require a powerful unlocked processor in order to gain maximum performance for both gaming and professional applications.<\/p>\n<p>AMD\u2019s high-end Ryzen processors are also marketed as chips for enthusiasts and hardcore gamers.<\/p>\n<p>However, gaming performance is generally dependent on graphics processing power \u2013 meaning users don\u2019t need an octa-core CPU to play games, even at 4K.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest consideration for 4K gaming is the processing power of the GPU.<\/p>\n<p>In certain gaming benchmarks, the low-cost 7th-gen Intel Pentium G4560 processor boasts the same frames-per-second score as its Core i7 counterparts when paired with a powerful graphics card.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.techspot.com\/review\/1325-intel-pentium-g4560\/page4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>gaming benchmarks<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0conducted by TechSpot, DirectX 12 titles such as Civilization VI and Total War: Warhammer are actively limited by a less-powerful processor and generally require a Core i5 to deliver above 60fps.<\/p>\n<p>This data shows that an Intel Core i5 processor is sufficient for most modern titles and does not bottleneck most graphics card configurations.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BDG-dQsHymE\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Professional<\/h3>\n<p>Less-powerful processors like the Intel Pentium G4560 are also sufficient for many GPU-dependent tasks besides gaming, including 3D modelling and design.<\/p>\n<p>As these workloads depend heavily on graphics performance, they can be run on an inexpensive processor.<\/p>\n<p>However, users will require a more powerful processor for strenuous multi-tasking, or tasks requiring increased multi-threaded performance, as the Intel Pentium G4560 has only two physical cores with four threads.<\/p>\n<p>Intel\u2019s unlocked processors (designated with a \u201cK \u201d at the end of the model number) are useful for consumers requiring fast clock speeds and high processor performance across almost all tasks.<\/p>\n<p>Purchasing an unlocked processor for mainstream gaming or video rendering is typically not necessary, however, and Intel\u2019s unlocked CPUs cost much more than their standard counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>While the CPU performance required for professional workloads varies depending on task, many workstation PCs would perform better with a more powerful graphics card than an overclocked, quad-core or octa-core processor.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article first appeared on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/gaming\/217058-why-you-dont-always-need-a-powerful-processor-for-your-pc.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MyBroadband<\/a><\/strong> and is republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Now read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/gaming\/215392-why-nvidia-graphics-card-owners-pay-more-for-top-gaming-monitors.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Why Nvidia graphics card owners pay more for top gaming monitors<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The trick is to find how much GPU and CPU performance your PC requires, and where you can save money by not purchasing an overly-powerful CPU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":114335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[9891,2664,1727,16909,24037],"class_list":["post-119812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-core-i5","tag-gaming","tag-intel","tag-processor","tag-ryzen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}