Here we see a somewhat typical response. Quake 3 Arena scales well, and responds well to both increases in Front Side Bus and memory speeds. While the difference in this case isn't mind-blowing, it's clear that Quake 3 scales better with higher speed DDR memory than with SDRAM. It's almost preferable, in some cases, to opt for a lower speed processor in favor of faster memory.



We included this graphic to reinforce an important point: just as the processor or memory subsystem can bottleneck overall performance, so can just about any other component. In this case, our video card simply can't keep up with the CPU or memory, so no matter how much more CPU power we had available, we just won't get it any faster.

This is a particularly important point for gamers. Modern games rely very heavily on the video card, so make sure to pair an appropriately powerful video card with high speed platforms. Otherwise, it's no better than putting a Ferrari on a set of thirty-dollar tires.