Computer Components and their Effects on a Game's Performance

[Spectrum Sam]

Hello,

I am currently taking an I.C.T. course and have been asked to gather information regarding main computer components such as processors, RAM, hard disk drives and clock rate.

So far I have been able to provide a detailed explanation as to how processors, RAM and Clock Rate function(s) and how they affect a game's performance.

I would appreciate any detailed information you can provide regarding the functions of the main components of a computer and how they can change/affect a game's performance.

Links to pages with similar information will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much in advance,

Spectrum Sam

TL;DR - What do the main components of a computer do and how to they change the way a game plays?

Edit: I do apologize if this is off-topic. Suggesting the optimal forum for this topic will be appreciated.

 

[raoul_1101]

Simplified answers:
Your RAM is like short term memory. All of the data the program runs sits in RAM for fast access. The more RAM you have, the more data you can access quickly. This is only to a limited extent, though, because most programs are not 64-bit, but 32-bit. This means you can only address 2^32 locations, or 4GB (Let alone, if a program only needs 2GB, having 8GB won't help you).

Your Processor is the brain of the computer. It does addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc. It actually runs the program. A lot of calculations will be put off to the video card, but what isn't is done in the CPU. For simplicities sake, you can say that the program is 'run' on the processor (for the most part, it is).

The clock rate doesn't make as big a difference as most people make it out to be. You cannot compare clock rates of processors that have completely different architecture. It's almost like comparing apples to oranges. Different processors have very different inner workings. You can, however, compare the clock rate of two processors that have very similar architectures.

I left a lot out, but there is a lot going on in a computer, and that hopefully is sufficient enough information for your purpose.