Comment On the contrary... (Score 1) 251
It may surprise a lot of people that CPU speed is still a huge determining factor for 3D gaming performance.
Some people might look at a game like World of Warcraft and jump to the conclusion that since it doesn't appear to have all the latest 3D eye candy, it must not be CPU-bound. But the reality is that the WoW client is heavily CPU-bound, like most of the 3D MMOG clients out there. When you have to manage several dozens of players on-screen, plus the hundreds of static meshes that comprise the scene, it's extremely difficult to keep even a mid-range GPU well-fed with data. You can also take a look at Doom 3 or FarCry for good examples where even a top-end CPU simply cannot keep up.
Game performance isn't a black-and-white deal where it's either the CPU or the GPU that's the bottleneck. It's almost always a combination of both at various stages of rendering. I do this stuff for a living, and I'll take anything extra CPU performance I can get. Faster CPUs mean I can get more characters on the screen, more complex scenes, better NPC behavior, etc.
Some people might look at a game like World of Warcraft and jump to the conclusion that since it doesn't appear to have all the latest 3D eye candy, it must not be CPU-bound. But the reality is that the WoW client is heavily CPU-bound, like most of the 3D MMOG clients out there. When you have to manage several dozens of players on-screen, plus the hundreds of static meshes that comprise the scene, it's extremely difficult to keep even a mid-range GPU well-fed with data. You can also take a look at Doom 3 or FarCry for good examples where even a top-end CPU simply cannot keep up.
Game performance isn't a black-and-white deal where it's either the CPU or the GPU that's the bottleneck. It's almost always a combination of both at various stages of rendering. I do this stuff for a living, and I'll take anything extra CPU performance I can get. Faster CPUs mean I can get more characters on the screen, more complex scenes, better NPC behavior, etc.
