homepage Forums Technology Hardware & Software - PC CPU vs Graphics card?

I'm looking at buying a new computer, so am doing a spot of research first. My primary games tend to be flight sims, with maybe a few FPSs chucked in. When I asked my friendly local computer shop about it, he said that for flight sims, I'd be better off getting a better graphics card than a better CPU - i.e. Graphics card is more important than CPU.

I remember reading somewhere that the reverse was true. Can anyone confirm or deny what the computer store guy said?

Thanks

What games do you play?

If it were me, I'd get a quad core clocked to at least 2.5GHz. That would leave you with plenty of $$$ to buy a decent GPU.

Just get the Intel� Core� i5-2500K, not expensive but 1 of the fastest out there and easy to overclock.
As for the graphic card, maybe get a 2 gig version so you are future proof, and COD seems to like it and if you check everything with rise of flight its using more then 1 gig memory as well.

Thanks for the tips!

At the moment I'm playing IL-2 and Strike Fighters 2, but would like to get into some CoD, RoF, and DCS, when I have a computer that can handle them (hence the new one).

Ordinarily, today's games are graphics card limited. Normally, one buys the best graphics card they can and gets the CPU they can afford to go with it.

On the other hand, IL-2, IL-2 CoD, and Microsoft FSX tend to be CPU limited.

Thus, it really comes down to how much a person has to spend (in addition to the favorite games). Most don't have an unlimited budget. So, a "balanced" system is needed.

Intel i5-2500K is a great CPU at a reasonable price. Nonetheless, the AMD Phenom II CPUs also work well with the above flight simulations and one can save $$$ to put towards a better graphics card.

We seem to be a few weeks away from the new AMD Bulldozer CPUs and the new AMD HD78xx graphics cards. Those will probably be game changing in the "bang per buck" arena. But we won't know until October (??). So, waiting a month could pay off. At least, the new AMD stuff will drop the prices of the current AMD, Intel, and Nvidia stuff (if money is an object).

My advice would be on the short term, Intel� Core� i5-2500K, 8 gig memory (like: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9 kit, cost about �45!), SAPPHIRE HD6950 DIRT3 Edition 2 gig and a for example a ASRock Z68 Extreme4.

There are cheaper option always but if you want the best out of performance/price look at something like this.

Spend the biggest chunk of money on a good GPU. I doubt a Sandy Bridge CPU running at 5Ghz makes a lot of difference in games since it's so fast, it's moot. But a really good GPU in a 4Ghz box will probably kick the crap out of the Sandy Bridge rig if the Sandy Bridge has a lesser GPU. FSX is a weird beast that like fast CPUs though.