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How to give your PC the best chance of avoiding a bottleneck
When it comes to building a PC, there are a lot of things to keep in mind. You need to make sure you have all the parts you'll need and make sure that they are all compatible with each other. Even when they are compatible, you still need to make sure they will play nicely together and not cause any issues. This is where the term "bottleneck" comes into things. While you may primarily hear this term when talking about building a gaming PC, it is not gaming-specific and could happen on any PC if you are not careful.
What is a bottleneck?
Understand the issue so you can overcome it
In its simplest form, a bottleneck is when one component in your PC is affecting your PC's overall performance. As the old saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The same applies to the performance of PC components. Your PC is essentially only as fast as the slowest component will allow it to be.
For instance, if you are gaming or rendering a video and your RAM usage is at 100%, it will cause a bottleneck. Using 100% of your RAM means that it is maxed out, and when this happens, other components will essentially be waiting around for instructions, even if only for a split second. However, if this continues to happen multiple times over a longer period, you will likely start to notice the degradation of performance, which can be frustrating.
The same also goes for your CPU, GPU, and even storage devices. If any of them are running at 100% capacity, there is likely a bottleneck somewhere, and you will want to find it. If a component is running at 90-95%, while it will be close to causing a bottleneck, it's not quite there yet and should be fine. Of course, using components at such high levels could affect their overall longevity and really isn't recommended.
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Want to make sure nothing is eating up CPU power while you game? Here's how to get to the bottom of it.
How to tell if your PC has a bottleneck
You'll likely know, but just in case you don't
One of the easiest ways to determine if your PC has a bottleneck is to try and complete a demanding task. This can be something like rendering a video in 4K or launching a game that is known to be rather demanding. Once you've done this, you will also need to monitor your system's performance. While there are a few ways to do this, I recommend downloading a program like MSI Afterburner to help monitor your system performance. You can use MSI Afterburner to keep an eye on your hardware statistics such as the GPU and CPU temperature, in-game FPS, and RAM usage.
Now comes the fun part. I like to load a game when testing for bottlenecks. Make sure you have MSI Afterburner or your preferred monitoring software open, and launch a demanding title. While playing the game, you will mainly want to monitor the performance of the CPU and GPU, but make sure to check the RAM as well if possible.
What you are looking for is to see if any of your components are running at 100%. You may want to run games at 4K and even try multiple games when doing this just to be sure of the results, as some games are more GPU-dependent and some rely more on the CPU. If your CPU, RAM or storage are running at 100%, they are likely to cause a bottleneck. If this is the case, then you may notice your GPU is only running at 40-50% or even lower in some cases, meaning it is being slowed down and not fully utilized due to other components hindering it.
If your GPU is the only component running at 100% though, this is what you want to detect while rendering or gaming. This means your GPU is using its full potential to perform the task at hand. While this sounds similar to a bottleneck, it is a bit different as your GPU isn't limiting any other component's performance and is just maxing itself out. This can be a bit confusing, I know, and that is why I recommend using multiple games to test for bottlenecks just to be sure.
How to maximize your PC performance without a hardware upgrade
Try these suggestions out before spending money on new PC parts
Using a Bottleneck calculator
Not my preferred way to check for bottlenecks, but it can be useful
Yes, there are calculators out there that can help let you know if you may experience a bottleneck. The problem with these is they don't test your actual PC, they just give you results based on the performance of the components you have selected. This means they may not be 100% accurate, but in all fairness, they can give you a good idea and help you with your due diligence.
CPU Agent has a simple FPS and Bottleneck calculator you can use. Simply select your components from the list, choose your resolution and quality settings, and then hit the calculate FPS and bottleneck button to get your results.
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Your outdated graphics card may not be able to render games at 4K60FPS, but these tweaks can help it chug along for another GPU generation or two
How to fix a bottleneck
Make sure you are getting the best performance from your PC
One of the easiest ways to deal with the situation is to simply upgrade the component causing the issue. Unfortunately, this isn't always an option, and sometimes you may have to try and figure something else out. If you feel your CPU is the bottleneck, you could always try to overclock it, or even close some processes in the task manager to free up resources. You may also want to monitor your CPU temperature. If it's getting too hot, it could be thermal throttling your PC, and would need better cooling.
If you notice the GPU is the bottleneck, you can turn down some of the in-game settings to help. Lowering your display resolution and texture quality is a surefire way to reduce GPU load and improve its overall performance. When it comes to a storage bottleneck, you can try to delete some files if the drive is nearly full (at least 10% should be available at all times). If this doesn't work, you will likely have to purchase a larger and/or faster drive.
When RAM is causing the issue, you can try to overclock it or even tighten the timings. This may help a bit, but likely won't completely relieve the bottlenecking issue. If all else fails, you can try to add another compatible stick or two of RAM to your system if you have available DIMM slots. If not, you may need to upgrade and buy new RAM with faster speeds and a higher capacity.
Unless you have the money to just replace the problem components, there is no definitive way to fix bottlenecks. While there are a few things you can try as mentioned above, what works on one PC may not work on another, so you may have to play around with a few different things to see what resolves your issue. With this in mind, it is always best to try and make sure your components will work together, and that one doesn't outperform the other.
