Building or upgrading your gaming rig can be an exciting adventure. But determining which component should be prioritized in terms of a CPU or GPU upgrade can be challenging, especially with so many different perspectives.
Well, we’re here to help you with that. This article will tell you everything you need to know to make an informed purchase decision.
So without further ado, let’s get started.
CPU & GPU Overview
The CPU & GPU are one of the most vital PC components that directly dictate the overall system performance. Before we compare them to determine which one is more important than the other, we need to know what are CPU & GPU and what is their functionality.
But before that, go through our epic guide about fix CPU suddenly overheating.
What is CPU?
The Central Processing Unit (CPU), also referred to as the processor, executes the instructions/operations of computer programs.
It’s the brain of your computer that runs everything from browsing online to opening spreadsheets or attending online meetings.
When playing video games, it is responsible for executing the game’s logic & physics. It registers the user interactions, calculates how they affect the game input, and sends the results to the GPU.
CPU frequency & core counts are the two most important factors when it comes to it’s functionality. A CPU’s clock speed represents how many cycles per second it can execute. A CPU with a clock speed of 3.2 GHz executes 3.2 billion cycles per second.
CPU cores are a CPU’s processors. Back in the day, every CPU only had one core that could focus on one task at a time. Today, CPUs can have two or more cores.
Older games were made with single-threaded operations in mind, so having a lower core but higher frequency will give better framerates in those games. But recent games are optimized for multi-threaded operations, so having more cores at decent clock speed will offer a much better gaming experience.
What is GPU?
The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), also referred to as a graphics card or video card, accelerates the rendering of images, videos or animations. It performs matrix-based calculations, which can render images much faster than traditional CPU-based rendering.
There are two kinds of GPUs: Integrated GPU, which is situated in the SoC along with the CPU. Dedicated or external GPU, which is a separate PC unit that comes with it’s own PCB module & memory units.
Basically, a GPU is a single-chip processor used specifically to manage and enhance video and graphics performance.
Some more guides on fix CPU temp jumping Up and Down.
Is CPU or GPU More Important for Gaming?
The GPU is a more important PC component for gaming than the CPU. However, you’ll get the best gaming experience when you have the right/balanced CPU, GPU & RAM combination. A balanced configuration will give you an optimal experience by preventing any bottlenecks.
CPUs generally last longer, so buying a cheaper one may be more than enough. GPUs age a lot faster but make a bigger difference in games. If you want the system to be one-and-done with no or minimal future upgrades, I’d say spend more on the GPU.
For better future-proofing (as much as reasonably possible), spend more on the CPU since the GPU is easier to upgrade later on.
At least, you need a decent mid-range GPU (e.g. RTX 2060 or 3060) with a Ryzen 5 or Core i5 CPU, 16 GB of RAM, and a freesync/g-sync 1080p monitor with a minimum 75Hz refresh rate for a pleasant gaming experience.
You also need to consider which types of games you’re gonna play. Some games are much more CPU-heavy than others. Simulators or real-time strategy-based games will strain the CPU. In contrast, most modern story-driven titles that offer amazing graphical fidelity will be much more GPU-dependent.
Additionally, if you want to stream your gameplay, you’ll need to consider having a much beefier CPU & GPU than mid-range options.
Choosing a CPU and a GPU as a Gamer
When you are looking forward to buying or upgrading your gaming rig, consider your budget & what kind of games & tasks you wanna do on your computer. You can also check the recommended requirements for the games that you’re most interested in.
Adding an extra 100 bucks to your GPU budget will have more impact on your gaming experience than increasing the CPU budget. Since GPUs are more expensive & have noticeable performance increases on each tier, each dollar you put in will offer more framerates.
Additionally, many budget-friendly/mid-range CPUs are more than adequate for gaming, but it’s more complicated to upgrade the CPU later on as you’ll probably need a new motherboard & most likely new RAM. Not to mention you’ll have to take apart the whole PC setup to install these new parts.
You might not see such a large jump in performance by upgrading your CPU since the framerates rely much more on the GPU side. It’s all about what kind of performance you can get for each of them working together.
If you have, say, a GTX 1070, & you want to upgrade your CPU from 6th gen Core i5 to 12th gen Core i5, you won’t see much of a performance gain even though the newer CPU is miles ahead of the older one in terms of raw power. It is because your PC is being GPU bottlenecked.
In comparison, if you decided to keep the 6th gen i5 & upgrade the GPU to RTX 3070, you will see a decent performance gain but still not to it’s full potential due to CPU bottleneck.
So buying a much beefier GPU will have a noticeable impact on games, but it still isn’t ideal as the build configuration is not balanced.
Balancing the budget will give you the most out of your build. You can split the budget between both CPU & GPU. Since GPUs have much more impact on performance, keep the bigger budget portion for the GPU & go for an RTX 3060Ti & use the rest to upgrade the CPU later on.
Know Your Gaming Requirements
Buying/upgrading your desktop setup, particularly the CPU or GPU, is very much subjective. You may want to play competitive multiplayer games with framerates as high as possible. You might wanna stream your gameplay as well.
Or you may be a casual gamer who loves to enjoy single-player narrative-driven games with maxed-out graphical fidelity.
There’s also your budget. If you’re currently tight on budget but have the ability to add/upgrade the PC components later on, making incremental & cost-effective upgrades to your PC might make more sense.
If you are a competitive gamer, you should focus more on the CPU. Competitive games such as CS: GO and Valorant will gain higher fps if you have a beefy CPU & a decent GPU since higher fps require higher CPU draw calls, which needs a high-performance CPU.
If you are a filthy casual who just wants to enjoy a chill single-player gaming experience with decent graphics, focus more on the GPU. But if you wanna stream your gameplay, you need to focus on both CPU & GPU as streaming games is very resource hungry.
Additionally, you can visit the System Requirements Lab to find out the system requirements of your desired games & assess an ideal PC config based on that.
Also, check out our separate post on how to find out what CPU Cooler I have?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the CPU or GPU more important for VR gaming?
GPU is way more important for VR gaming than CPU. You’ll also need a beefy GPU to enjoy VR gaming. But a good CPU is also necessary as it takes a lot of resources to run games in VR.
What is the best GPU in the market?
Nvidia RTX 4090 is currently the best GPU in the market. On the AMD side, the RX 6950 XT is the best Radeon GPU they have to offer.
Is CPU or GPU more important for streaming?
Usually, the CPU is more important for streaming. But with the rise of hardware-level GPU encoders such as NVENC codec, the encoding load is being reduced from the CPU side.
Summary
The CPU & GPU in your computer both play a vital role in what kind of framerates you can expect in different games.
Nonetheless, I would say that the GPU is more important for games than the CPU. Unless you are playing competitive games with very basic graphics, you’ll see a more dramatic gain in performance by upgrading the GPU rather than the CPU.
That’s about it. If you ever need help comparing various components or building a gaming rig, don’t hesitate to contact our experts in the comment section below. Have a nice day!
