Will my CPU bottleneck my GPU?

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GreekTzatziki

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Apr 19, 2016
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Hello everyone! I'm planning to upgrade from my hideous integrated gpu to the gtx 1050. I currently have an amd Athlon ii x3 455 CPU and I'm not planning to upgrade it as I would need a new MOBO and it is out of my budget. The thing is, as my CPU is really old, will it bottleneck games like civilization VI, world of warships and hearts of iron IV, combined with the gtx 1050 an 8 GB of ram? If it does, will I still be able to play thise games decently?
 
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OnkelCannabia

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Nov 9, 2013
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I don't know about the games in particular, but it is pretty simple. The GPU is massively superior to the CPU. I don't think there is a single game that will be able to make use of the 1050 performance and not be bottlenecked by the CPU. The 1050 will pretty much always be working at a fraction of its potential. Basically any game old enough to run on your CPU you can run with its graphics settings maxed out, but most modern games will not run on that CPU in general. CIV 6 is a game I'd expect to profit more from CPU than GPU. The other games I barely know anything about. A quick google of World of Warships revealed that the 1050 should easily be able to handle it on max settings.

Check if these games run fluently on a CPU as old as yours. If they do, the upgrade might be worth it. I doubt it though. It might be easier to by a used GPU for below $80 and save the rest of the menu for a new PC in the future.
 
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spdragoo

spdragoo

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Not sure about Hearts of Iron or World of Warships. Civ 6 is pretty CPU-intensive; the graphics will be fine, but you might see some issues with the time it takes the AI to complete its turns.

That being said...in terms of "integrated" graphics, these must be the ones built into the motherboard (not the CPU), as that Athlon is a chip harvest of the Provost/Deneb Phenom IIs (which didn't have integrated graphics). That being the case, do you happen to have your motherboard model? Depending on the exact motherboard, you might be able to upgrade your CPU to a full Phenom II CPU -- something like the X4 920 to 945 or X6 1045T/1055T models at a minimum, but you might be lucky enough to go up to the X4 975/980 or even X6 1090T/1100T. You might be really lucky enough that it's a Socket AM3/AM3+ motherboard that can handle the later FX chips, like an FX-8300/8320/8350/8370. Again, not the best CPUs to buy for a brand-new system, but a fairly inexpensive upgrade (maybe $100-200USD tops) for your existing system that at most should only require a BIOS update (i.e. no need to completely reinstall Windows or buy any other new hardware).

While you're at it, are you using a 32-bit version of Windows or 64-bit? If 32-bit, make sure you've got the full 4GB of RAM that it will take (preferably as two 2GB sticks for dual-channel mode). If 64-bit, see if your motherboard can handle 8 or 16 GB of RAM (again, buy a paired kit so you can use dual-channel mode).
 
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OnkelCannabia

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I have an old PC I put together using spare parts. It has a Phenom II X4 965 and it really isn't keeping up with most games. I always have CPU bottlenecks. The old RAM with low clock speeds doesn't help. He might not see the results he is hoping for if he upgrades. All that is just my opinion though. He'd have to check benchmarks for the games he wants to play to see if the CPU can keep up.

 
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GreekTzatziki

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My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-800GM-D2H and Im pretty sure it's the 4th revision. I have made previous threads on wether my mobo supports am3+ but i didnt get clear answers. Yes, I have the 64 bit version of windows and it can handle up to 16 gb 1600mhz.

 
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spdragoo

spdragoo

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Technically, your GA-880GM-D2H supports the 1st versions of AMD's FX CPUs (https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880GM-D2H-rev-40#support-cpu)...but I wouldn't necessarily recommend those, especially since you would need to update your BIOS to version F3.

At the same tier on the CPU chart (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html) is the Phenom II X4 965; although just a tad slower per core (3.2GHz vs. 3.3GHz), its L3 cache allows it to perform much better (https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/88?vs=202) -- note how it's better even in single-thread benchmarks (thanks to that L3 cache). Also, the minimum requirement for Civ6 is a Phenom II running at 2.6GHz or faster (https://www.pcgamer.com/you-wont-need-a-burly-system-to-run-civilization-6/), so you should see some improvement in performance. If you want more cores, the 2nd choice would be that Phenom II X6 1065T: it's slower per core, but has double the cores of your Athlon, & also benches well against the Athlon (https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/147?vs=202).

Yes, your CPU will still hold you back somewhat, but it won't be anywhere near as bad as it currently is.

EDIT: Sorry about the bold tag.
 
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