Intel Q9450 vs Phenom 9850 - ATI HD3870 X2

[gosh]

however, every one of those tests are high-res multithreaded games (1900x1200, full AA)....

High res is the video card that needs to handle, you know that what I first thought that games did take advantage of the resolution was not right. Processor is working the same independently of the resolution.

it isn't that it is weak on the software, it's that the 4870 X2 is such a powerful card, at high resolutions and full AA the bottlenecks stay on the CPU... in fact, there is evidence that even the highest end Intel CPU at 3.0 GHz still bottlnecks this card, meaning there is even more performance being held back.

You could do the exact same test with a slower video card just decreasing the resolution.

Here is a very simple explanation showing how it works (single threaded game)
+ = processor is working
- = video card is working

Fast processor - low res
++--++--++--++--++--++--
Slow processor - low res
++++--++++--++++--++++--++++--++++--

Fast processor - high res
++---------++---------++---------++---------++---------++---------
Slow processor - high res
++++---------++++---------++++---------++++---------++++---------++++---------

More threads and these could do work while some thread is waiting for the videocard to paint the picture.
But the processor and the video card isn't working independently. They need to wait for each other. Some sort of synchronization is needed in a multithreaded environment also.


When you say the processor bottlenecks the video card. Can you explain what you mean.