{"id":21302,"date":"2026-05-13T11:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/?p=21302"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:15:13","slug":"how-to-identify-and-test-for-a-gpu-or-cpu-bottleneck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/how-to-identify-and-test-for-a-gpu-or-cpu-bottleneck\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Identify and Test for a GPU or CPU Bottleneck"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Frame rates chugging in your favorite game? A bottleneck may be to blame. Let’s learn how to diagnose whether your CPU or GPU is the culprit and steps you can take to mitigate a bottleneck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Table of Contents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  1. What Is a Bottleneck?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Signs of a GPU Bottleneck<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Signs of a CPU Bottleneck<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. How to Test for a Bottleneck<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Real-World Gaming Examples<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. When to Upgrade One Component vs. the Whole System<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. FAQs<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    What Is a Bottleneck?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Before learning about diagnosing and fixing a bottleneck, it’s important to understand what it actually is. A bottleneck is what happens when one component in your system can’t keep up with the rest. This forces everything else in your system to wait on it. The name is actually self explanatory. Try pouring out a bottle, no matter how much liquid is in it, only so much can flow through the bottle opening at once. That’s a bottleneck. In a gaming PC, the two most common culprits are your CPU and your GPU, and how issues present themselves indicate where your bottleneck lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Each frame rendered involves the teamwork between your CPU and GPU. Generally, your CPU handles things involving a game’s logic, like physics, NPC behavior, and world simulation – that sort of stuff. Your GPU then takes those instructions and renders those into what you see on screen. If your CPU can’t generate instructions fast enough, your GPU sits waiting for those instructions. On the flipside, if your GPU can’t process frames fast enough, your CPU is the one left waiting. Either way, this a bottleneck and you’re are not getting the most out of what your hardware could deliver if there was no significant bottleneck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Some degree a bottleneck will technically <\/em>always present, this is completely normal and unavoidable. Chances are you aren’t noticing an impact unless you really look closely at some hardware monitoring data. Your goal is to make sure neither component is being so severely underutilized that it’s having a noticeable<\/em> performance impact. A well balanced gaming PC is one where both components are being utilized as much as they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    GPU Bottleneck – Signs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    A GPU bottleneck means your graphics card is the limiting factor \u2014 it’s working at or near 100% capacity while your CPU has headroom to spare. This is actually the more desirable situation in gaming, because it means your CPU is keeping up and your GPU is being fully utilized. That said, a severe GPU bottleneck still costs you performance, and it’s a sign your graphics card may be due for an upgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Your GPU usage is consistently sitting at 95\u2013100% in the performance monitor while gaming, and your CPU usage is significantly lower \u2014 say, 40\u201360%. Your frame rate is lower than you’d expect given your hardware. Turning down graphics settings (resolution, shadow quality, texture detail) noticeably improves your frame rate. Turning up graphics settings makes performance worse. The game looks and runs the same whether you change CPU-related settings like simulation quality or draw distance \u2014 only GPU-load settings move the needle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A GPU bottleneck is most likely to appear in graphically demanding AAA games such as Crimson Desert, Cyberpunk 2077, or Alan Wake 2 at high resolutions and settings. It also tends to surface more when gaming at 1440p or 4K, since higher resolutions push far more pixels to your GPU with every frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    CPU Bottleneck – Signs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    A CPU bottleneck means your processor can’t feed your GPU fast enough. This leaves your GPU waiting, but it has nothing to render. This is a common bottleneck, and one you really don’t want. You paid for all that graphics card, you are going to want to use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Take a look at your CPU usage with your monitoring software of choice. Let’s say you see your CPU usage at or near 100% while your GPU usage sits noticeably lower, say 70% or less during gameplay. You notice your frame rate is inconsistent, no matter what you do with the graphics settings. Even turning down heavy hitters like texture quality seem to have no effect on your frame rate. But then you notice reducing simulation-heavy settings like draw distance, NPC density, physics complexity, suddenly makes things better. Sometimes you might notice frame pacing issues (microstutters) even when your average frame rate technically looks acceptable,. This is because the CPU is struggling to deliver frames consistently, rather than just quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    CPU bottlenecks tend to emerge in games that demand a fast CPU. The usual culprits are large open worlds full of NPCs with simulated routines or interactivity. Some examples would be games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 or Baldur’s Gate 3, especially in large intense battles. Strategy games or MMORPGs use the CPU to manage large amount of players you see on screen or simulate complex actions. CPU bottlenecks tend to occur more commonly at lower resolutions . At 1080p, the GPU has less work to do per frame because the number of pixels it needs to render is lower, so the CPU’s speed quickly becomes a limiting factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    How to Test For A Bottleneck<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The quickest way to diagnose a bottleneck is by monitoring your CPU and GPU usage while gaming, using a tool to see the usage in real-time. Here is some software you can use to do that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    MSI Afterburner or RivaTuner Statistics Server<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    MSI Afterburner and RivaTuner Statistics Server are commonly used tools, that are available for free. MSI Afterburner monitors GPU usage, GPU temperature, VRAM usage, frame rate, and much more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In RivaTuner Statistics Server (which comes with Afterburner), you get an on-screen overlay that displays all of this information as an overlay while you’re in-game. Set up your overlay to show CPU usage, GPU usage, frame rate, and frame time. Play your game for a bit, ideally in a demanding area or scene, then take a gander at the numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here’s what you are going to want to look for. If GPU usage is consistently near 100% and CPU usage is 60% or below: GPU bottleneck. If CPU usage is near 100% and GPU usage is 60\u201370% or lower, CPU bottleneck. If both are running high, your system is not experiencing any major bottlenecks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Windows Task Manager<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Good ol’ Windows Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc or ctrl + alt + del) now shows GPU usage, located in the performance tab. It’s not as detailed as Afterburner but it’s instant and requires no installation. Good for a quick sanity check \u2014 alt-tab out mid-game and glance at the numbers. The limitation is you lose visibility into the game while checking, and it doesn’t show frame time data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    HWiNFO64 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    HWiNFO64 is perhaps the most comprehensive, free monitoring tool. It surfaces granular per-core CPU load data, which is particularly useful for identifying single-core CPU bottlenecks \u2014 a situation where one or two CPU cores are maxed out while others are idle, causing stuttering even though your overall CPU percentage looks fine. Run it alongside RivaTuner to add its sensors to your in-game overlay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Resolution Test<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Here’s a software free way of testing for a bottleneck. Play your game at your usual settings, then try changing just the resolution. If you play at 4K, drop to 1440p. 1440p drop to 1080p. 1080p drop to 720p. You will likely see significantly better frame rates, your GPU was the bottleneck (lower resolution = less GPU work). If your frame rate barely changes, your CPU was the bottleneck, meaning the GPU was already underutilized, so giving it less to do (lower resolution = less pixels) didn’t move the needle performance wise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Real-World Gaming Examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Competitive Games (Valorant, CS2, Apex Legends)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    These games are almost always CPU-bound at high frame rates. They’re not graphically intensive, but they’re computationally intense \u2014 lots of player state, network updates, physics, and game logic processed every frame. Players chasing 240fps+ on a modern GPU will frequently find their CPU is the bottleneck, especially on older chips. If you’re running a Ryzen 5 3600 or an older Intel Core i5 and your frame rate plateaus below what your GPU should be capable of, this is likely why. Upgrading to a high-clock, high-IPC processor makes a significant difference here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Open World Games (Crimson Desert, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Open world games usually utilize a lot of CPU power in addition to their graphics. At 1080p with high settings, you’ll often find a CPU bottleneck is present. Simulating all the moving pieces of an open world can push CPUs hard, and your GPU probably isn’t being maxed out if it is a modern mid range card. At 1440p \/ 4K with maxed-out settings, the GPU becomes the bottleneck as it’s pushed to render a huge number of pixels with every frame. Remember a bottleneck doesn’t mean anything wrong is with your PC, it is a descriptive term for what is happening inside of it. So sometimes simply bumping resolution is enough to shift the balance and get more out of your existing GPU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Turn-Based and Strategy Games (Baldur’s Gate 3, Total War, Civilization)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    These games are usually CPU limited, especially in the late game when the simulation is tracking a bunch of individual units, decisions the AI is making, and a bunch of world events. Your GPU utilization may look surprisingly low during a massive Total War battle or a crowded BG3 encounter, that’s the CPU struggling to keep up with all the simulation elements, your GPU isn’t breaking too much of a sweat. No amount of GPU power addresses this, in this case you would want a better CPU for better performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    When to Upgrade One Component vs. the Whole System<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    You’ve identified a bottleneck, should you drop money on the weak link? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Upgrade That Component When:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The rest of your system is up to par.<\/strong> If you’re rocking say a Ryzen 7 5800X3D with an RTX 3060, upgrading the GPU upgrade to the latest gen RTX 5070 makes sense. Your CPU is strong enough, a Ryzen 7 5800X3D is still a great CPU for gaming, but to support that capable CPU you want a better GPU. Similarly, if you have an RTX 4080 or 5080 paired with an older Core i5 or Ryzen 5, then a CPU upgrade is going to be the smart move to unlock that GPU performance you already paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Your platform still has upgrade headroom.<\/strong> If you’re on AM4 socket and running an older Ryzen 5, there’s a clear upgrade path to a Ryzen 7 5800X3D or 5700X3D without touching the rest of your system. Same logic applies to Intel LGA1700 boards. Check the CPUs your motherboard supports before you go out and splash cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Consider upgrading the whole system when:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Your CPU is old and stinky.<\/strong> Pairing an RTX 5070 with a 9th-gen Intel Core i7 or a Ryzen 2000-series chip is throwing money away. The old CPU is an immediate bottleneck and you won’t see the performance you paid for with your shiny new GPU. When a component upgrade requires skipping two or more generations to be meaningful, a platform refresh makes way more sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    DOWNLOAD MORE RAM.<\/strong> A system running a single stick of 8GB of RAM in single-channel mode is out of date. Sure looking for a bottleneck with the methods we listed above might point at your CPU, but your lack of memory is still hamstringing the rest of the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    YOUR PC is UNC and maybe even chopped.<\/strong> Older platforms are going to be riddled with bottlenecks: slower memory speeds when compared to modern DDR5, PCIe 3.0 features compared to PCIe 4.0, the list goes on,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The bread needed for an upgrade is almost the same as getting a new build.<\/strong> If your CPU is bottlenecking a good GPU, and fixing it means a new CPU plus a new motherboard, you are basically half way to a new build already. Price it out. Maybe it’s worth it to wait and save for a completely new PC or a total overhaul of what you got.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Frame rates chugging in your favorite game? A bottleneck may be to blame. Let’s learn how to diagnose whether your CPU or GPU is the culprit and steps you can take to mitigate a bottleneck. Table of Contents What Is a Bottleneck? Before learning about diagnosing and fixing a bottleneck, it’s important to understand what… Read More »How to Identify and Test for a GPU or CPU Bottleneck<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":21362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2720],"tags":[8872,8873],"class_list":["post-21302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-tos","tag-bottleneck","tag-how-to-identify-bottleneck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21302"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21364,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302\/revisions\/21364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}