Does CPU matter for gaming?

[salad10203]

I am on a tight budget and I have want to upgrade my rig: 280 gtx, q9550, 6gb ddr2. I want to prepare for the dynamite games coming up: BF3, Skyrim, etc. I was thinking a 560 ti, will my q9550 be a bottleneck. Or are cpu's only a bottleneck when gaming on low specs?

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

I am on a tight budget and I have want to upgrade my rig: 280 gtx, q9550, 6gb ddr2. I want to prepare for the dynamite games coming up: BF3, Skyrim, etc. I was thinking a 560 ti, will my q9550 be a bottleneck. Or are cpu's only a bottleneck when gaming on low specs?

your q9550 is still an amazing cpu.

It should be able to run your games on high settings at default 1440x900 res.

Cpu are important to games up to a certain extent.

 

[jaguarskx]

Your Q9550 will be fine. It is not old enough and slow enough to bottleneck your video card. You still have a few more years of optimal game performance from that CPU.

 

[legendkiller]

IF a CPU(Any) Can run GTx 590/6990 than it'll be for the next few years... Overclocking CPU Is recommended if you dont want to bottleneck two 590/6990 so if the 7000 series GPU comes than it'll be a great performance, IDK about GTx GPU yet... You can get the Q9550 to 3.6GHz at stock Voltage+HeatSink...