Imagine this. You are looking to buy a brand new desktop computer, since your old one is a bit rusty and is getting slower and slower every day. You spend hours searching for just the right computer for you. You end up picking two in the same price range that you really like. They are almost the same, but one has a faster processor and the other a better graphics card. Which one would you pick and why? What kind of a user are you? I would definitely pick a faster processor, since I don't play a lot of games.
Better graphics card. I am a wannabe gamer at heart. Also, I like viewing web pages as they were intended to be. These two things are difficult to do (or at least not as fun) with a low-functioning graphics card. As for speed, the computers today are plenty fast. People I know who own slow computers are the folks holding onto dinosaurs. They either don't want to pay for a newer one or aren't up to date with technology.
CPU since I don't play games as much as I used to and there aren't many games that I think are worth playing at max quality right now. A good CPU will help with gaming too of course, but also in a lot of other applications where a better graphics card wouldn't matter, like, compiling, extracting, or rendering in 3d modeling programs. I would benefit more from a better CPU.
I would also go for the better processor, since I don't play that much games anymore. It never hurts to have a faster processor than the one that I am using now, although I'm currently content with it's performance.
A better processor is always recommended over a better graphics card. Your computer's going to run more smoothly and last a lot longer with a top-of-the-line processor. A graphics card can always be updated later, anyways. Most computer users don't need a fancy graphics card because they're not working with animations or playing games.
For a desktop I would go with the faster processor only because it would be pretty easy to add a new graphics card later. In fact adding one later might be better for a user like me, I use Adobe software and I could pick out one of the models that works with their software for gpu acceleration.
I would definitely have a faster processor. I am an avid gamer, and even the games I play do not require graphics cards that are beyond the budget of my whole PC. As long as I can browse YouTube and maybe play Civ 5 occasionally, I should be all good.
Unless you need a great GPU because you work with it, it's probably always preferable to have a fast processor. The CPU can be much more of a bottleneck in general computer usage than a graphics card. It really impacts the overall performance of the computer, not as much as the hard disk maybe, but substantially. About gamers, I think only a small percentage of gamers need to spend a lot on a graphics card. Unless you really want to play a newly released AAA title, a decent economic card will suffice for most games. After some years you can change it, when you realize that you're having to lower the settings on every game, or when a game you were looking forward to is unplayable because of the card.
Looks like most of you agree with me. I never thought about buying a better graphics card when you need one, to be honest. This makes so much more sense now. You are stuck with your CPU for as long as you have your computer, but you can swap out the graphics card easily. You could even buy a computer with a faster CPU, try it out and perhaps invest in a new graphics card when you need it, in a month or two.
I would go with the computer with the faster processor. I have a ps3 already and I am a Internet and Windows programmer. The fire processor would allow me to run dream weaver and vb.net faster. I would rather make money with my machine.
I would go with a faster processor on my computer. A good graphics card is only needed much for when playing PC games or working with video or images. For regular speed with any program or in general, a faster processor is by far the better thing to have.
Faster graphic card would be better for me because I like playing games on high and watch my videos on 1080p. I don't find that getting a really fast processor helps with much because there is a point where the faster it is gives little benefits. It really only helps when you run many programs at the same time which I don't often do.
Depends on what I'm doing. But I'd choose the processor since you can't function without it really. I mean a graphics can't do crap if you're CPU is crap. So I'd say I would choose a better processor first since most processors today have their own iGPU's attached so it's pretty much all covered in the graphics department. But of course it's always better to have both.
Depends on your needs really but if you ask me, I'd rather have a good graphics card if I was using a laptop. But when I'm using a PC it's pretty much just a matter of upgrading. But I would definitely choose graphics cards since I'm a gamer and I work on a lot of graphical stuff like video editing, 3D animation and all that cool stuff so I'm pretty much in need of a good graphics processor.
