Is gaming more CPU or GPU heavy?
Is gaming more CPU or GPU heavy? Let's find out
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The CPU and GPU are the two most important microprocessors in a system. Gaming performance greatly depends on both, but in some cases, on one more than the other. In this article, we’re finding out – Is gaming more CPU or GPU heavy?
Now Read: CPU-intensive games
CPU vs. GPU: What matters more for gaming?
While both the CPU and GPU are microprocessors, they are quite different in their hardware and architecture. CPUs tend to have fewer cores, but they are incredibly versatile and have the ability to deal with all kinds of workloads. They can be considered a jack of all trades, master of none.
GPUs have a lot more cores, which allows them a much better capacity for parallel processing – something that’s especially useful when generating graphics. But because of this setup, GPUs can only effectively be used in a handful of applications other than gaming.
To generate the frames you see on your screen, your CPU provides your GPU with fundamental information about the image that is to be generated and instructions on how to go about generating it. The GPU then builds upon this bare-bones framework to generate a complete image that can be displayed as a frame.
It’s generally considered that GPU performance matters more for gaming since the GPU does the heavy lifting in generating the image you see on your screen. This isn’t always the case, though. A considerable amount of games rely more heavily on the CPU to drive performance.
CPU vs. GPU-heavy games
A game that takes up a lot of CPU utilization while placing minimal workload on the GPU can be considered to be CPU heavy, and vice versa. As I mentioned earlier, most games are GPU-heavy, but exceptions exist.
CPU heavy games
CPU-heavy games usually have elements such as lots of physical objects, numerous mechanics, complex calculations, intelligent AI and NPC behavior, and such. As you would expect, these games usually don’t have the best graphics.
Many games in the RTS (real-time strategy) and simulation genre make great examples of CPU-heavy games.
A title that’s especially CPU-heavy is BeamNG.drive. This vehicle simulator utilizes soft-body physics and attempts to simulate realistic damage upon collisions, which is incredibly taxing on a processor.
Check out our list of the most CPU-intensive games in 2024 for more.
GPU heavy games
The most GPU-heavy games are triple-A open word titles with beautiful maps and extravagant graphics. Elden Ring, God of War (not truly open-world but with many of the same elements), and Cyberpunk 2077 are some popular examples of GPU-intensive games.
It’s worth noting that GPU-intensive titles often end up being quite hard on the CPU as well. Games similar to the ones I just mentioned require you to have not only a top-of-the-line graphics card but a decent processor as well.
Should I upgrade my CPU or my GPU for hard to run games?
It depends on what your existing setup is, what titles you intend to play, and how much of a bottleneck you’re comfortable with.
If you have a 6-core, 12-thread processor like the Ryzen 5 5600 or better, you likely won’t see much of a performance increase by upgrading your CPU – so upgrading your GPU would be the better choice.
If you have an entry-level quad-core CPU with a GPU that’s too powerful for it, you should definitely upgrade your CPU first.
You can learn more about bottlenecks and how they work in our CPU and GPU bottlenecks guide.
