There is no question that if you want the best visual gaming experience from your high end video card you need the fastest CPU you can get your hands on to experience the high level of gameplay these video cards are capable of producing. While it has become evident over the past couple of years that video chipset technology is extremely important in producing a great gaming environment, we can't forget about the CPUs at the heart of our machines. Quite simply put, upgrading to some of today's CPU technology can directly benefit your gaming experience.

Which platform pushes these video cards to their most satisfying levels of Image Quality within our limited gaming suite? Clearly that would be the socket 939 or socket 754 Athlon64 CPUs when pushed into the 2.2GHz territory. Overclock these beasts and their gaming performance cannot be matched. At this point, you might want to go back and read our OCing the Athlon64 3000+ and see a little more about our $350 gaming system that was used in these tests.