GPU or CPU?

[Reiko]

Does Celestia rely on the power of you graphics card more than your CPU?

[selden]

They're about equal, but it also depends on the Addon. Models (meshes) are drawn by the GPU. The more complex they are, the more work the GPU has to do. When there are more objects in the field of view, though, the CPU has to do more work to find out which are hidden by others.

There are utilities available which can show how busy the GPU is. The one I use is GPU_Caps_Viewer, which is available at http://www.ozone3d.net/gpu_caps_viewer/
CPU-Z gives a detailed view of the CPUs, including the current clock speed of variable-speed CPUs. It's available at http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

[Reiko]

Oh thank you. I asked because I have a new graphics card but didnt really notice much of a difference in performance.