Video card power more important than processor?

Ok, I recently posted a question on this forum asking what was more important to a laptop's gaming performance, RAM or Processor power.

After getting some great advice on this forum, I decided to up my processor, because RAM could easily be bumped up later.

But as I was payed on Thursday, I decided that it was probably just as simple to upgrade my RAM to 2GB as well as the processor. This was a budget stretch but I feel I'll enjoy my choice in the end.

But, after reading some of one user's comments in a different thread, it was mentioned that the 256MB 8600 GT is a huge bottleneck to the 2GHZ T7300 I just spend an extra $150 on. So much so that it was pointless to upgrade from the 1.66 GHZ T5450. That I would get the same performance out of either processor while using the 8600GT GPU.

I find this hard to believe as I know some games are very heavy CPU dependent while others are video card dependent. Hence, my T7300 will be much better for gaming.

Could someone please confirm this so I don't despair that I just dropped a pointless $150? Thanks!

 

I'd have to say it was worth it. The extra cache on the on the T7300 is going to boost performance.

I dont think the 8600gt bottlenecks the performance.

Although I havnt tested it either.

 

The upgrade was definetly worth it, and that is a very good card, it shouldn't bottleneck at all. Depending on what games your playing, I would upgrade to 3 or 4 GB of Ram (or memory) for intense gaming if the computer goes that high. Hope I could help!

 

$150 isn't a bad price for a T5450 --> T7300 upgrade. The T7300 definitely raises your gaming performance a notch; next-generation games like Crysis will definitely make use of the extra CPU power.

 

I am not trying to single you out, but in a few threads i have seen you recommending to upgrade to 3-4 gigs of ram. At this point, there really is not much of a need to do so, 2 gigs is plenty, and in some cases is even overkill.

 

I have 2GB's on XP and seems fine. But remember no one complaines about to much RAM except when Windows 32 does not recognize. there is some opinion that 3GB's helps in Vista prepare for the disagreement to start.

 

The industry just recently switched from using 1GB RAM as the standard to 2GB of RAM. This was due to the release of RAM hungry Vista and the rapid price drops of 2GB (1GB x 2) RAM. For the average user, 2GB (even in Vista) is just fine.

If you are using many virtual machines or playing games like Supreme Commander though, suddenly 2GB is not enough memory. Its true that 32 bit Windows can not utilize more than about 3.2 GB of RAM, though.

The next shift in memory probably wont happen till 64 bit Windows becomes more mainstream. Enthusiasts and people will deep pockets are already seeing a shift in RAM options, of course. You can opt for 4GB of ram on many computer websites these days. At this point though, few enough people get the upgrade that most companies (Dell, Apple, Everyone else) charge insane prices for the upgrade from 2GB to 4GB (You know, like +400 or +600 bucks just for the upgrade). Its still so much more cost effective to just purchase it yourself.

Anyway, on the original topic, the processor upgrade to the T7300 was a great upgrade. It is worth the money because it is a definite increase in performance all around. With that processor, you can make SURE your video card is performing at its max potential and isn't being held back by the processor.

 

It was worth it to have upgraded the CPU.

This is the key thing to remember in laptops usually. If you can't upgrade your video card it's always best to start by picking the most powerful one in the configuration possible.

Most C2Ds are powerful enough even at low clocks(not saying you shouldn't get the fastest you can afford) but you can always upgrade later when you have money while you can't do that with video cards on most laptops.

RAM should be treated the same way.

 

Thanks very much for the responses. Sorry to have sounded panicky but when you're on a budget and you spend an extra $150 on performance that you're never going to see, it gets to be worrying.

Thanks!

 

the only CPU dependent game i can think of is Supremem Commander, pretty much every other game is GPU dependent.

8600M GT will definitely be a bottleneck in games, with a T5250 and 8600GT you'll be gaming at medium settings in Crysis, and a T7100 and 8600GT you'll still be gaming at medium settings in Crysis.
The video card is the weakest link here, you are looking at a card thats significantly downclocked from the mid-range desktop 8600 GT. a low mid-range GPU paired with a high end CPU, you'll still gonna get the equivalent of a low- midrange gaming performance.

If its me, save the $150.
Look at my desktop it has a Pentium D 2.8 and 8600GT, on anandtech reviews of 8600GT they used a X6800 CPU, and surprisingly my Pentium D 2.8 and the X6800 have the exact same performance in games like FEAR, Company of Heroes on high settings.

 

I knew the 8600GT was definitely downclocked but I hoped it wasn't a huge bottleneck.

I also didn't think that GPUs and CPUs were so cut and dry different. I figured an upgrade to either would almost always give you a performance increase unless the 2 components were ridiculously out of sync timewise. (IE upgrading a T5450 to a T7300 when the GPU you have is a Radeon 9700.) I didn't think the current speeds between this GPU and CPU were so out of sync, especially when they're both upgrades that cost the same amount. Btw, I just noticed I never mentioned that the laptop in question is an Inspiron 1520.

I'm sorry to hear that last post as I have placed the order already, but hopefully the T7300 won't disappoint in terms of speed. I'd like to see at least a little advantage over a T5450.

 

The T7300 helps in a lot of different ways, including multi tasking and general windows performance, along with music and video decoding. I personally would get a T7100/T7300, as it would help in other ways from gaming.

Game performance is always determined by a computer's bottleneck. If the CPU is too slow, it will limit your performance. Likewise, if the GPU is too slow, the extra speed on your CPU will do absolutely nothing to help. Notebook GPUs are, simply put, not as good as desktop ones. Outside of the super-heavy desktop replacements of 17" and higher, you can't get a true gaming GPU. The 8600M GT just isn't that fast when compared to desktop GPUs, and that's going to be your bottleneck in pretty much all games.

Despite this, I still say your T7300 was well invested. Changing your CPU voids any warranty you have, and the faster processor does help in a variety of situations.

 

I s'pose you're right. The processor will speed more than a few things up and a little bit of future proofing really can't hurt. Even if the T5450 would have performed as well, I guess I'll get more life out of my laptop with a T7300.

Thanks very much for all the replies!