ExtremeTech Upgrade Guide: CPUs
By Shawn on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 9:43 AM PST In Computer, Hardware
It’s fall once again and the PC industry is gearing up to put out new products. With the latest PC games coming out with ever higher minimum system requirments, many gamers are looking to upgrade their systems. ExtremeTech is publishing a series of upgrade guides to help computer owners decide what upgrades, and new products are appropriate for their needs.
Traditionally PC games are the most demanding of many computer applications. PC gaming demands a balance of CPU power with sophisticated graphics. An entry level CPU coupled with an advanced graphics card just won’t cut it.
It wasn’t that long ago that you might build a system with a beefy CPU, but midrange graphics if your game genre of choice was either flight sims or real-time strategy. However, both genres have adopted more sophisticated graphics, including support for DirectX 10. While you can certainly have a good experience without using a high-end GPU, your game will look prettier with better graphics.
The guide will explain how to properly balance your system for use as a gaming system, home graphics workstation, home server and light duty system or a basic light duty system. It covers processors, price ranges and overclocking.
Read the full article on ExtremeTech.
The simple rule of thumb at the moment is if you are spending less than $150 you get more bang for your buck from AMD but if you are spending more Intel are the mutts nuts and will probably be be for the next few years.