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I wanted to build a home NAS server (running FreeBSD and ZFS). I used the Intel Pentium Processor G2020T (22 nm, Processor Base Frequency @2.5 GHz) with the hope that it would have at 22nm performance equivalent to its i-Family brothers for non-graphics/gaming applications. The machine also got a respectable motherboard and 8GB DDR3 RAM.

My question is mainly "academic": I would like to know if a powerful graphics card would "take over" all the graphics handling tasks so that the CPU graphics would not matter. In other words can a good Video card compensate for the graphics subsystem that is lacking from the processor?

Many thanks and apologies if any of my questions are incorrect for lack of deeper knowledge in the field.

George
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  • Do you want it to be able to play modern games or just fiddle with some older stuff? You could get a beefy GPU but it wouldn't matter if the games you are playing require more processing power from your CPU. – INV3NT3D Jun 29 '16 at 16:46
  • I am having a hard time understanding your question. You are wondering if you get a CPU with integrated graphics, would that interfere with a dedicated graphics card? Also, What would be a good choice for such a video card? is too broad. Can you list some requirements please. – Cfinley Jun 29 '16 at 18:00
  • You are all right about the broad requirements. Actually it was more of an academic question. I could rephrase it as: would a powerful GPU take over the graphics functions so that the CPU embeded graphics capabilities would not matter? Many thanks anyway! – George Jul 07 '16 at 13:47
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    I understand the question, and perhaps what hasn't been discussed yet is the fact that although the GPU does offload graphics processing stuff from the CPU, the CPU still needs to send/receive commands and data from the GPU. Modern games which higher quality graphics have higher quality graphics because more commands are being sent to the GPU to render a higher quality scenery. Hence one requires a more powerful CPU to drive the GPU. To put specific numbers on these things however would be difficult. – user3728501 Jul 07 '16 at 14:13

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This CPU is going to enable you to play low and midrange games well, including titles like:

  • League of Legends
  • DOTA 2
  • CS:GO
  • Portal 2
  • Borderlands 2
  • Rocket League

But not titles like:

  • Battlefield 4
  • Crysis 3
  • Civilization V (late-game)
  • Assassin's Creed: Black Flag
  • Satellite Reign

Because low and midrange games USUALLY don't require beefy GPUs either, it would be safe to combine this CPU with a GPU like the R7 360, GTX 750 ti, or similar. With these cards installed, the Intel HD graphics chip will be either disabled or used only to support additional monitors (and a precious few GPU-accelerated tasks, where its contribution will be miniscule in comparison to the dGPU's).

I would not try to game on it WHILE it was serving as a FreeNAS sever.

Adam Wykes
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