Why would an I3 bottleneck a 980m mobility GPU?

[molokow]

People have mentioned an I3 would bottleneck it.

I am confused why people are so content about getting I5s and I7s.

Does it have something to do with the cache size in the CPU unit?
Also, can you speed up that cache? Is it done by overclocking the whole CPU unit

Cheers.

 

[boosted1g]

It is a bottleneck because the GPU can support more simultaneous processes then the CPU can.
If I can receive 10x of data but the person handing me the data can only carry 5x of data then I either have to wait for them to make 2 trips or only carry half of the load I can carry, thus a bottleneck.

Cache is physical memory built into the chip, you cant increase something physical with software.

 

[kyllien]

Hopefully this is exactly why game makers should upgrade their games to support DX12. To unlock the extra potential of multiple CPUs that is currently lost in DX11.

 

[molokow]

But hang on, most games only using 2 CPU cores at the most. So in fact wouldn't the GPU be restricted by the games desire to use 2 cores of the CPU?

 

[kyllien]

But hang on, most games only using 2 CPU cores at the most. So in fact wouldn't the GPU be restricted by the games desire to use 2 cores of the CPU?

First, don't assume that games only use 2 cores. Many games would use more if they could get past the bottleneck that exists in DX11.

Second, That is one of the issues that DX12 fixes.

 

[molokow]

Ok, but I would imagine most games that are on, or come out on PC then go to XBOX and PS4 would use 2 cores.

And probably will continue to.

2 cores are more than enough, that is my thoughts.

 

[Archgaull]

Quite a few of the new games won't even start unless you have a quad core. There are some work arounds to get a i3 with hyperthreading to work, but from what I've seen they aren't perfect.