Is Your CPU or GPU Bottlenecking Your PC?
The CPU handles the core computing processes, whereas the GPU handles all the graphics-related tasks.
you should probably determine which hardware component is bottlenecking your PC.
Miker Rivero/Midjourney/MakeUseOf
The hardware that’s holding your PC back is what you should always upgrade first.
But how do you find if it’s your CPU or GPU bottlenecking your PC?
You’ll need a third-party app like MSI Afterburner to closely monitor your PC’s performance.
We’ll cover that below.
Look for the GPU stat and find the value with the percentage.
This value indicates your GPU usage.
Your CPU is bottlenecking your PC if the usage is less than 85 percent.
In the screenshot above, I’m getting a GPU usage of 35 percent while playing Valorant.
For reference, I own an RTX 4090 with an AMD Ryzen 5900X.
Although I’m getting close to 500FPS, the frame rate occasionally dips to 200-300FPS.
This isn’t ideal for me because I play on a360Hz monitor.
So, I should upgrade my CPU first to aRyzen 7800X3Dor7950X3Dto get a higher and more consistent frame rate.
However, it’s worth testing your GPU usage across multiple games to confirm the bottleneck.
People play these games at 1080p and 1440p resolutions and typically expect at least 120FPS to stay competitive.
At higher resolutions, games put more stress on the graphics card to push more frames.
Now, you know exactly what component to upgrade in your PC first.
