Will a cheap graphic card still improve performance of a fast CPU?

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lowbrightness

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Hi, my computer has a fast CPU-- i7 4790K 4.0GHz. The passmark benchmark is 11205. Now, if i buy a very cheap GPU (say, around $50), will that still improve all around performance and make my computer noticeably faster?
 
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what they are trying to say (at least what normally gets said in a case like this) is that a low end gpu will not let the cpu be fully utilized in games. it won't slow down but rather the card won't be able to keep up with the cpu so you won't get the full benefit of the high end cpu you have. this is called a "bottleneck" as the slowest part will keep the rest of the system from living up to its full potential. there will already be cores sitting idle anyway as games rarely use more than 4 cores and the i7 has 8 threads. some games are very cpu intensive and your i7 won't be hurt in those cases. resolution and settings may have to be lowered but the cpu is still a beast and will do it's part when asked to.

in other uses such as web...
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Math Geek

Math Geek

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faster in what way? it'll be possibly a small increase in it's ability to play games but no gpu will make a cpu run faster. they do 2 different things.

the onboard video the i7 has is pretty low end so a cheap gpu would allow for slightly better game performance though it would still not be anything worth actually using to play a game on.
 
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nitrium

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Well it won't go SLOWER compared to the integrated solution the OP is using now. Even a $50 GPU is faster than Intel's integrated solution, so certainly he'll get a modest performance gain relative to current setup in all graphically heavy applications (e.g. Photoshop and Acrobat) and games. So yes, a cheap GPU will "still improve all around performance" (that is very different to "CPU performance").

 
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cbag

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It won't slow down your CPU... However if you do anything with graphics or 3d gaming it will definitely improve the quality of the game. IGP on the 4790K is not very good.

For the following comparisons I'm looking at the Bioshock Infinite graphs:

See here and notice the resolution is very low at 1280x1024 but the FPS is 45.6: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8227/devils-canyon-review-intel-core-i7-4790k-and-i5-4690k/4

A $60 card such as the R7 240 would yield 42 fps @ a much higher resolution 1080p but still low quality. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r7-240-and-250,3717-6.html

However you should go for something in the $100 range at minimum like the 750 ti which is capable of 1080p ultra quality graphics with average fps of 57 and very low power supply requirements http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-750-ti-review,3750-10.html
 
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lowbrightness

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thanks.. but the other guy says the opposite -- that it will decrease performance (apparently including gaming). I am not sure whom I should listen to?
 
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RobCrezz

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Depends on the GPU. a Half decent card will improve the benchmarking as the GPU benchmarks will get much better performance, a crap card which is slower than your integrated graphics would lower the score.

If you arent gaming or doing anything where a GPU is of use, then I wouldnt bother. If its just for benchmarks then your $50 would be better spent on the used market, get a last gen mid range card like the 660.

New low end cards are just traps for people who dont know any better, they are low performance and bad value for money.
 
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Math Geek

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what they are trying to say (at least what normally gets said in a case like this) is that a low end gpu will not let the cpu be fully utilized in games. it won't slow down but rather the card won't be able to keep up with the cpu so you won't get the full benefit of the high end cpu you have. this is called a "bottleneck" as the slowest part will keep the rest of the system from living up to its full potential. there will already be cores sitting idle anyway as games rarely use more than 4 cores and the i7 has 8 threads. some games are very cpu intensive and your i7 won't be hurt in those cases. resolution and settings may have to be lowered but the cpu is still a beast and will do it's part when asked to.

in other uses such as web surfing and streaming movies and such it won't make a bit of difference as the cpu has little to do here anyway and tends to sit idle a lot. again not slowed down just has a lot less work to do so spends a lot of time doing very little.
 
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lowbrightness

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That makes a lot sense. Thanks man!
 
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