$\"RTX$ <\/p>\n

Image: Brad Chacos\/IDG<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re building a gaming PC, you want to invest a lot of money into a graphics card, and get at least a mid-range CPU to avoid the dreaded performance bottleneck. That\u2019s the popular wisdom, anyway: It\u2019s what you\u2019ll hear if you ask a PC gaming buddy or an unusually friendly nerd forum. But what happens if you ignore the advice, and pair a brand-new, high-power graphics card with the cheapest desktop processor you can find on the shelf? <\/p>\n

Such is the question posed by YouTube channel . They built a \u201cgaming\u201d desktop with a Pentium Gold G7400 CPU, which is going for just $70 at Best Buy today<\/a>, with a new $600 RTX 4070<\/a> graphics card, more or less just to see what happened when you stick \u2019em together. The results (via ) are surprising, and well worth the seven minutes it takes to get through the video. (By the way, RandomGaminginHD, thanks for making an interesting video that\u2019s actually concise, algorithms be damned.) <\/p>\n

\n<\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In short, at least some modern games are so GPU-dependent and well-optimized that the performance bottleneck isn\u2019t an instant show-stopper, even on a dual-core, ultra-budget CPU.<em> Forza Horizon 5 <\/em>and <em>Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em>, both known for incredible graphics and fairly good stability at 1440p resolution and \u201cUltra\u201d graphics, managed above 60fps average and 1% lows in the 30-40fps range. (To be fair, these games run much faster when paired with more potent CPUs, but these remain very respectable numbers.) <em>Kingdom Come Deliverance<\/em>, often a CPU-heavy game thanks to its many NPCs and subsystems, still managed a passable 45fps average and a 1% low of 10fps. <\/p>\n<p>But what about <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/1662185\/dlss-3-explained-how-nvidias-ai-infused-rtx-tech-turbocharges-pc-gaming.html\" target=\"_blank\">that fancy new DLSS 3 tech<\/a> Nvidia has been pushing so hard? The core idea behind it is that your GPU has built-in systems that can use AI to generate visual frames for smoother performance, as well as some other goodies like upscaling and latency reduction. It\u2019s really meant to make high-end games on high-end hardware run even better\u2026but what can it do for this strange half-budget, half-gamer build? <\/p>\n<p>A lot, as it turns out. With the new path tracing <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/1782490\/cyberpunk-2077-overdrive-mode-benchmarks-nvidia-rtx-path-tracing.html\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cOverdrive Mode\u201d active in <em>Cyberpunk 2077<\/em><\/a><em>,<\/em> plus DLSS and frame generation, RandomGaminginHD\u2019s Franken-box managed an average FPS of 70 with a 1% low of 30 at 1440p resolution. That\u2019s console-quality performance running graphics that aren\u2019t even an option on a PS5 or Xbox Series X. While there were some fairly significant jitters from the low-power CPU, it\u2019s more than playable, which is a shocking result. <\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s not all sunshine and roses. Less GPU-optimized games and console ports didn\u2019t fare so well. <em>The Witcher 3 <\/em>and <em>Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man <\/em>took notable performance dives when CPU-intensive NPCs started populating, even with DLSS and frame generation on. RandomGaminginHD concludes that a new GPU like the 4070, paired with games that support DLSS 3, could make for a great mid-system update for an older CPU, if not necessarily such a pokey one. <\/p>\n<p>So if you want solid PC performance and you can\u2019t afford, say, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/1524570\/amd-ryzen-9-7950x3d-review-v-cache.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">top-of-the-line Ryzen 9 7950X3D<\/a>, take heart: saving a bit of money on a CPU won\u2019t tank your build. At least not nearly as much as it used to. <\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/div>\n<div data-ga=\"article-footer-author\">\n<h3>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/author\/mcrider\" rel=\"author\"><br \/>\n\t\tAuthor: Michael Crider<\/a>, Staff Writer\t\t<\/h3>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/author_photo_Michael-Crider_1635298804-1.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=150&h=150&crop=1\" height=\"125\" width=\"125\">\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Michael is a former graphic designer who’s been building and tweaking desktop computers for longer than he cares to admit. His interests include folk music, football, science fiction, and salsa verde, in no particular order.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@MichaelCrider\" title=\"Twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><svg viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M459.37 151.716c.325 4.548.325 9.097.325 13.645 0 138.72-105.583 298.558-298.558 298.558-59.452 0-114.68-17.219-161.137-47.106 8.447.974 16.568 1.299 25.34 1.299 49.055 0 94.213-16.568 130.274-44.832-46.132-.975-84.792-31.188-98.112-72.772 6.498.974 12.995 1.624 19.818 1.624 9.421 0 18.843-1.3 27.614-3.573-48.081-9.747-84.143-51.98-84.143-102.985v-1.299c13.969 7.797 30.214 12.67 47.431 13.319-28.264-18.843-46.781-51.005-46.781-87.391 0-19.492 5.197-37.36 14.294-52.954 51.655 63.675 129.3 105.258 216.365 109.807-1.624-7.797-2.599-15.918-2.599-24.04 0-57.828 46.782-104.934 104.934-104.934 30.213 0 57.502 12.67 76.67 33.137 23.715-4.548 46.456-13.32 66.599-25.34-7.798 24.366-24.366 44.833-46.132 57.827 21.117-2.273 41.584-8.122 60.426-16.243-14.292 20.791-32.161 39.308-52.628 54.253z\" \/><\/svg><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/1788401\/70-pentium-600-rtx-4070-dlss-saves-this-cursed-combo.html\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Lloyd Ramage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: Brad Chacos\/IDG If you\u2019re building a gaming PC, you want to invest a lot of money into a graphics card, and get at least a mid-range CPU to avoid the dreaded performance bottleneck. That\u2019s the popular wisdom, anyway: It\u2019s what you\u2019ll hear if you ask a PC gaming buddy or an unusually friendly nerd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":630624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113492,24642,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-630623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pentium","8":"category-saves","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}