How to Find What Is Bottlenecking Your Gaming PC
Short answer
UpdatedPlay your game with a usage overlay on. If the graphics card sits near 100%, the graphics card is the limit and lower graphics settings will raise the frame rate. If it sits clearly below that while the frame rate is not capped, the processor, memory or something running in the background is the limit, and graphics settings will change little.
Key takeaways
- Every PC has a bottleneck in every game. The useful question is which part it is, because that decides what helps.
- Graphics card near 100% means the graphics card is the limit. Clearly below it, with no frame cap, means it is waiting for something else.
- Total processor usage is misleading. Many games lean on a few threads, so a processor can be the limit while showing 30% overall.
- Memory in a single stick, or running below its rated speed, limits a fast processor more than most people expect.
- Online bottleneck calculators compare two part names. They do not know your game, your resolution or your Windows.
- Graphics card near 100%
- Graphics card is the limit
- Graphics card well below 100%, no cap
- Processor, memory or background load
- Frame rate fine, but uneven
- Background load, memory or storage
- Fastest check
- A usage overlay in the game you actually play
Quick setup
Turn off frame caps
Switch off V-Sync and any frame rate limit in the game and in the driver for the test. A cap makes every part look idle.
Show graphics card usage
Use the overlay of your graphics driver or the Performance tab of Task Manager on a second screen, and play a normal match for a few minutes.
Read the graphics card number
Near 100% most of the time: the graphics card is the limit. Clearly lower: something else is.
Lower the resolution once
If the frame rate barely moves at a much lower resolution, the limit is not the graphics card. That confirms it.
What is a bottleneck, really?
For every frame, the processor works out what happens in the game and tells the graphics card what to draw, and the graphics card draws it. Whichever of the two takes longer sets the frame rate. That part is the bottleneck. It is not a defect: there is always one, and it changes with the game, the resolution and the settings.
It matters because it tells you where effort pays off. Lowering shadows does nothing when the processor is the limit. A faster processor does nothing when the graphics card is.
How do I read the signs?
| Setting | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Graphics card usage near 100% | Graphics card limit | It is working as hard as it can. Lower resolution, lower graphics settings or an upscaler raise the frame rate. |
| Graphics card usage well below 100%, frame rate not capped | Processor limit | The graphics card is waiting for the processor. Typical for competitive shooters at low settings and high frame rates. |
| One or two processor threads at 100%, the rest low | Processor limit | The game's main thread is full. The total can still read 20 to 40%, which is why the total is the wrong number to watch. |
| Memory usage close to what is installed | Memory limit | Windows starts moving data to the drive, which shows as long hitches rather than a low frame rate. |
| Average frame rate fine, regular hitches | Background or storage | Something else takes the processor or the drive for a moment: an updater, an overlay, a browser, a scan. |
What limits a PC besides processor and graphics card?
- Memory layout: one stick instead of two runs in single channel, which costs a fast processor a lot of its frame rate. Two matching sticks in the right slots fix it.
- Memory speed: memory runs at a slow default until its profile (XMP or EXPO) is switched on in the BIOS. Many PCs have never had it switched on.
- The display: a 240 Hz screen left at 60 Hz in Windows shows 60 frames no matter what the PC renders. Check the refresh rate in the display settings.
- Storage: a nearly full system drive or a game on a slow hard disk shows as loading hitches and texture pop-in.
- Heat: a processor or graphics card that gets too hot slows itself down. The frame rate then drops after ten or twenty minutes, not at the start.
- Background load: launchers, overlays, browsers and updaters that keep working while you play.
- Drivers: an old graphics driver, or a missing runtime a game needs.
How does the Diagnosis tab in Frozen Tweaks do this?
The Diagnosis tab reads the same things in one scan and puts them on one page. It only reads: nothing on the PC is changed by the scan.
- A score out of 100 for the processor, the graphics card, memory, storage and the display, and one for the PC as a whole.
- Which of processor, memory and graphics card holds the other two back, shown as a chain, or that they fit together.
- How much is running in the background: processes, services and startup apps.
- Findings in plain words, each with what to do about it: memory in one stick or below its rated speed, a display below its refresh rate, a full drive, an old graphics driver, a missing runtime, an uneven connection, or a Windows setting an anti-cheat needs.
- How much of the catalog is switched on, so you see what is left to do in the app itself.
Frozen Tweaks
Free for Windows 10 and 11
The Diagnosis tab is part of Frozen Tweaks 2.0. The free version has no time limit and needs no payment details.
v2.0.0 · 6.4 MB · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · free account, no payment details
Or type frozentweaks.com on your PC.
Questions
Is a bottleneck bad?
No. One part always sets the pace. It only becomes a problem when the limit is far below what the rest of the PC could do, for example a strong graphics card held back by memory in a single stick.
Are online bottleneck calculators accurate?
Not for a decision. They compare two part names and print a percentage, but the real limit depends on the game, the resolution and the settings. The same PC is limited by the graphics card in one game at 1440p and by the processor in another at low settings.
My graphics card is at 60% in a shooter. Is something broken?
Usually not. Competitive shooters at low settings ask little of the graphics card and a lot of one or two processor threads. Check for a frame rate cap first; if there is none, the processor or memory is the limit.
Can software remove a hardware bottleneck?
No. Software can remove what makes a part slower than it should be: background load, a wrong power plan, memory running below its rated speed, an old driver. It cannot make a part faster than it is.
Written by
Frost LIVEFounder of Frozen Tweaks, based in Hamburg, Germany. Publishes settings guides for competitive games on his YouTube channel, Frost LIVE.
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Frozen Tweaks
Free for Windows 10 and 11
58 tweaks free, each with an undo switch. Never edits game files.
v2.0.0 · 6.4 MB · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · free account, no payment details
Or type frozentweaks.com on your PC.
The free Windows app for competitive games.
58 tweaks free, each with an undo switch. Never edits game files.
v2.0.0 · 6.4 MB · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · free account, no payment details
Frozen Tweaks runs on Windows. Send the link to your PC and download it there.
Or type frozentweaks.com on your PC.