CPUs Matter for 4K Gaming, More Than You Might Think!

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Video Index
00:00 - Welcome to Hardware Unboxed
00:44 - Ad Spot
01:29 - CPU Reviews
04:08 - Test System Specs
04:50 - Hogwarts Legacy
11:02 - Starfield
14:55 - Counter-Strike 2
17:28 - Final Thoughts

CPUs Matter for 4K Gaming, More Than You Might Think!

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Outro music by David Vonk/DaJaVo

[fracturedlife]

Usually wallet limited before CPU limited these days!

[Grainer]

Obligatory "where is 5800x3d?" comment

[StefandeJong]

I have an RTX 3090 and like playing simulation games, using my 42" LG C2. Upgrading from the 5600X to the 5700X3D (I reused the 5600X for my HTPC) gave me 60% higher 1% lows and 55% faster simulation speed in Cities:Skylines 2. It was night and day

[gurshair]

"try not to fixate on the cpu used"

As someone with a R5 3600 I will most definitely pay attention

[KillFrenzy]

When a game throws you into a crazy situation, it's usually the CPU that suffers the most. Most benchmarks are not done during the unpredictable chaos that you get into for many games, especially modded games.

[moevor]

Steve: "Try not to focus on the actual CPUs used here"

Me: Yeah, good luck with that Steve!

[andrewcross]

Of course they matter. Not everyone plays AAA titles that are often GPU bound. Plenty of people are out here conquering the Europe in HOI4 and exterminating the Xenos in Stellaris or creating some traffic nightmare in Cities Skylines or trying to build the longest, most efficient production line ever in Satisfactory / Factorio or building a rocket to Mars in Civ 6 or guiding a team to victory in Football Manager and I could go on. CPU performance is the primary driver in these kinds of titles and yet they so rarely get tested which is a real shame.

[nannnanaa]

One thing is that I would rather be limited by GPU than by CPU, when limited by GPU, the frames are lower, but usually more stable than if I was limited by CPU- where stutters and hitches occur more- which I find more annoying. So I usually want my builds balanced towards more CPU power, especially with a high refresh rate monitor and playing more first person games.

[UncannySense]

So basically if I run my game whatever that game might be at 4k and changed quality setting and notice next to no frame rate change or uplift then I need to upgrade CPU....

[KimBoKastekniv]

Of course the 7800x3D is faster than the 3600 even at 4K, it has more cores!
(Steve don't kill me I'm joking)

[lanelesic]

As an owner of the R5 3600 I must say its one of the best cpus I bought. Perfect match for gpus like the RX 6600, 6600xt and the 6650xt.

[mornnb]

4k benchmarks are pretty important for a 4k gamer to be able to tell what value a better CPU will actually provides. Or you can't make an informed purchase that's actually applicable to how you use the product.

[macmuchmore]

I upgraded my Ryzen 5 3600 to 7800x3d, while keeping the same 3070. My FPS almost doubled! Had no idea my cpu was holding back my gpu that much. CPU is DEFINITELY important in a gaming pc.

[ericpisch]

I suspect I might have been one of the people that triggered this video, this video was extremely helpful and very insightful. Thank you very much for it. I'm gonna stop asking him for 4K benchmarking :-)

[MrHamof]

Cryengine games increase the LODs when you're at a higher resolution, under the theory that at higher resolutions it's easier to spot lower LOD models. This is why in some circumstances increasing the resolution can reduce your framerate in those games even if the GPU still isn't at 100%.

[nipa]

It's so sad to see how many in the comments didn't watch or didn't understand the video.

[GewelReal]

I can see that Broadwell-based LGA 2011-3 CPU on the thumbnail 👀

[konvictz]

So guys refuse to include 4k (and 1440p) benchmarks in cpu reviews, but you make this very informative video which shows how useful this data is.

[tommihommi]

even with a RX480, going from a 3600 to a 5800X3D is a crazy difference in real world in game experience.

The main difference is that you get rid of those spikes where the CPU can't keep up and the game noticeably chugs, even if they don't show up in the 1% lows at all

[MichaelChan]

Glad I upgraded my 3600X to 5800X3D to pair with 4090 for 4K gaming.