Christmas Upgrade

[D4RK5iDERS]

Hello all!

I'd just like to ask a few questions about an upgrade I've been thinking about

Currently, I have:

• CPU: AMD Athlon X4 630
• Motherboard: Asus M4A785TD-V Evo
• GPU: 3GB AMD 7950
• 12 GB RAM (2 x 4 GB and 2 x 2 GB )

I can run all games on high/ultra, but often have to compromise on Anti-Aliasing. Would upgrading the CPU + Motherboard to a 4770K and Asus Z78 Pro help with general performance in gaming, you'd expect an old (ish) CPU like this to bottleneck. I know that it would increase performance of the computer - Link

This is an example of what I currently get in Heaven Benchmark, although, I'm not too sure how reliable that is to make conclusive choices about CPU ...



Side note, I think a new case and CPU cooler #1 or #2 is in order too

 

[D4RK5iDERS]

I played Far Cry 3 on ultra settings, without AA at all, I can maintain always above 30FPS, but with AA on x8 (HDAO) the FPS suffers. It can stay up in the thirties (rarely 40's) but most of the time (single and multiplayer) it remains between 25 - 35 FPS and as you can see on the screenshots below, the fourth purple line from the bottom is CPU usage, it gets high at some points (80 - 90%) but I noticed in MSI afterburner that my GPU was most of the time at 100% load.

Would the burden on the GPU go down if there was a better CPU?

 

[Netroxen]

There isn't really a "Burden" on the GPU by having a bottleneck. The CPU essentially processes the frames and then passes it to the GPU for compositing. If the CPU is limited by how many frames it can process then the GPU will essentially wait, thus decreasing performance because it isn't running optimally or at it's full potential.

Indeed I can guarantee you'll see an FPS increase if you upgrade to something like the 4770k.
Also, as far as anti-aliasing is concerned, that's more dependent on your video memory and since your 7950 has 3GB I wouldn't suspect that it's having a noticeable impact by using it. It's your CPU that's limiting if anything...

As an example, look at your screenshots, in all of them the graphics card isn't running at 99%-%100 GPU usage, this is a tail-tail sign that you have a bottleneck.
On the plus side, you have some tasty power that you've yet to unleash!

 

[D4RK5iDERS]

Thanks for the reply Netroxen, I was just a bit unsure about the CPU's role in gaming.