Determining whether Cities: Skylines is CPU or GPU intensive depends on your system configuration and usage patterns.
Determining whether Cities: Skylines is CPU or GPU intensive depends on your system configuration and usage patterns.
I create a new city in Cities: Skylines and launch Task Manager. Most users claim the game is very CPU-heavy, but checking Task Manager reveals 56% CPU usage and 99% GPU usage. My system runs an AMD Athlon X4 845 with an Asus GT 730 GPU.
Usually Skylines handles any CPU well, but with your older system it can't make much use of the GPU because it struggles to keep up.
I play a lot of Cities Skylines, and have a lot of mods installed... and yes it does hit your CPU hard... at 1440p max settings, AA on and a 100k population city. I'm getting 25fps on a 5700XT and a 2600X with 32GB 3200mhz ram
It's still very playable though, because you don't need high FPS, and that frame rate changes depending on what you are looking at.
It's a great game, endless hours of fun... check out 'Biffa Plays Indie Games' on youtube, he's got so many great videos and tips on how to build properly and which mods to install.
Here's a shot across NomNom Bay in my current city.