It’s common knowledge that the CPU and GPU are the most important components in any gaming PC. They bring different value in different scenarios, and knowing which combination is best for your gaming needs can improve performance and save you money.

Generally, the graphics processing unit (GPU) is considered the cornerstone of all gaming PCs. No lie, but not every PC needs a powerful graphics card. Certain video game genres rely more on the central processing unit (CPU) to do the heavy lifting.

To understand how and why this is, we need to dig deeper into what each component does and what role it plays in gaming.

In very basic terms, the GPU is responsible for rendering the visual representation of everything you see on your screen, from still images to simple animations to cinematic cutscenes. Everything else, i.e. the processing of the data that produces those images, animations, and cutscenes, is handled by the CPU.