Checking processor and graphics card compatibility

Method 1: hardware support

When selecting a CPU and GPU, The first thing to check is if they are compatible with the hardware, In other words, whether they will work when connected to the same motherboard. The current CPU socket alternatives at the time of writing this post (august of 2021) son:

• Intel – 1050, 1151, 2011, 2066;
• AMD – AM3 +, AM4, FM2 +.

All of them are compatible with the current PCIe graphics card connection standard 3.0, and the most recent, the 2066 and the am4, they are also PCIe compliant 4.0. Both can connect to NVIDIA series GPUs 16 ** Y 30 ** and AMD's counterparts in the form of RX and Vega. Then, if that's what you are using on your computer, no need to worry about compatibility.

Method 2: Comparison of parameters

Regarding compatibility when using these components, view synthetic test results for desired items. Computer enthusiasts use the term “bottleneck” (also called bottleneck): refers to a bottleneck in a construction, when a device that is too weak does not bring out its full potential. This can be identified, first, through benchmarking.

Go to the PassMark VideoBenchmark page
Go to the PassMark CPUBenchmark page

1. Follow the links above and open them in adjacent tabs.
2. Let's start with the processors, in the tab with PassMark CPUBenchmark Look for the search bar, enter your device name and click “Find the CPU”..

   Get a list with the appropriate result marked in yellow.

3. In the same way as in the previous step, find the target video card in the tab PassMark VideoBenchmark.
4. Now, on both tabs, compare the grade figures in the columns “CPU brand” (CPU) Y “Marca PassMark G3D “ (Graphic card). You can write them for convenience. Calculating compatibility using these values ​​is pretty straightforward: ideally, the number of CPU and GPU points should be the same, but this is not the case in most cases, and the hardware that is known to be suitable for each differs in + -10 % about this data.

As we can see, In our example, the graphics adapter outperforms the processor by just over 2 times, In other words, the bottleneck of a future assembly will be the latter. Decidedly, this does not mean that such a combination does not work: everything should work, but the performance of the whole will probably be less than that of the CPU and GPU, that are comparable.

Method 3: performance test

The next method is to independently test the behavior of the package under load, as an example, demanding games. To test devices in this way, proceed as follows:

1. Better to select an open world game to try, since rendering large spaces involves the CPU. In our example we will use The Witcher 3. The first thing we are going to test is the CPU: set the screen resolution to HD (1280 × 720) and lower all settings to minimum except “Number of characters on screen” and “Quality of aid”., putting them in position “Out of limits”..
2. Start a frame rate program: any program will serve our purpose.

   Read more: How to check FPS in games

3. Go to a big place with lots of characters (Novigrad is the best) and check the FPS figures; with a good performance CPU, they should be tall.
4. Now check the performance of your video card: do the opposite of step 2, In other words, set the resolution to FullHD (1920 × 1280) and the appropriate settings for the video card (for NVIDIA GTX1060 and AMD RX570 better “High”.for the newest and most productive you can select “Out of limits”.). Parameters “Number of characters on screen”. and “Quality of aid”.Instead, set it to the minimum and check the frame rate. It will definitely be lower than on a simple CPU, but the drop for supported hardware should not exceed 5-10 FPS.

This option enables you to test the combination of GPU and CPU directly in operation, providing the most accurate results.

Has this post helped you?