Best video card for a given CPU

[anthonymcinnis]

Hello all,

I have heard the term CPU bottleneck when it comes to gaming and wondered how I can avoid it with my CPU by buying the best GPU to match my CPU.

My CPU is the Sempron 150. It has a Passmark score of 989.

Would the 9800 GTX+ be a good GPU match for this CPU ?

Can someone confirm also that mechanically the way CPU's and GPU's work together. I know this is extremely over simplified:

1. CPU reads an instruction from video game memory.
2. CPU pass instruction to GPU to render image.
3. GPU renders image.

If the GPU is always waiting for the CPU then you have CPU bottleneck.
If the CPU is sending instruction to the GPU and it is not rendered fast enough then you have GPU bottleneck.

Thanks a lot for any responses.

 

[clutchc]

Almost any modern discrete video card will be bottle necked by a single core processor. The 9800GTX+ will work fine, but you will be only getting a portion of its capability out of the card. More importantly, does your power supply have the capability to drive the 9800 GTX+?