Assessing Computing Efficiency: Are You Bottlenecked by CPU?

Quick Links

Monitor Your GPU Usage Using MSI Afterburner
Why Low GPU Usage Indicates a CPU Bottleneck

Key Takeaways

Your CPU is bottlenecking your PC if the GPU usage while playing games is lower than 90 percent.
You can use PC monitoring tools like MSI Afterburner to check your GPU usage.
Play games at higher resolutions and max out the graphics settings to reduce CPU bottlenecks.

Finding the bottleneck in your PC can often be time-consuming, but if you know what parameters to look for, you can determine the culprit within minutes. Below, we’ll teach you the easiest way to check if your CPU is bottlenecking your PC.

Monitor Your GPU Usage Using MSI Afterburner

MSI Afterburner is one of the best GPU overclocking software out there, but why did I suggest using it to monitor your GPU usage, you ask?

Well, MSI Afterburner comes with RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), which makes it easy to monitor hardware statistics, like your CPU usage, GPU usage, power draw, clock speeds, memory frequency, temperature, and more.

If you’re wondering why we’re monitoring the GPU usage to determine a CPU bottleneck, it’s pretty simple. If your CPU is bottlenecking your PC, it will hold back your graphics card from performing at its full potential.

So, take some time to set up MSI Afterburner to display stats on your Windows PC first. Then, load up a game that you usually play and monitor the GPU usage while actively playing it for a few minutes. Since I play Valorant almost daily, I’ve used that as an example here.

If you notice that your GPU usage is less than 90 percent, it means that your CPU is holding your graphics card back from performing at its maximum potential. However, in some cases, it could also be due to the fact that the game is poorly optimized. Therefore, it’s worth checking the GPU usage across three or four games to see if your results are fairly consistent.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the GPU usage on my RTX 4090 is just 35% despite pushing nearly 500FPS at 1440p resolution. This clearly indicates that my CPU, the Ryzen 5900X, is bottlenecking my PC, and I would get higher and more consistent frame rates by upgrading to a newer Ryzen 7800X3D or Ryzen 7950X3D chip .

Additionally, take huge drops in frame rate as a vital sign that your CPU is bottlenecking your PC. For example, when a game runs at 150FPS but drops to 60 or 70FPS every few minutes.

Another easy way to determine a CPU bottleneck is by using online PC bottleneck calculators . You just need to enter your PC specs and select the resolution you play games at to know whether your CPU is holding your PC back.

Why Low GPU Usage Indicates a CPU Bottleneck

You experience low GPU usage when your CPU struggles to keep up with the graphics card to render more frames. This means the graphics card in your PC is more powerful than what your CPU can handle. And that’s when the term “overkill” comes in.

For instance, a top-of-the-line graphics card like the RTX 4090 is overkill for a PC powered by a Ryzen 5900X. As a result, you won’t be able to get the most out of your powerful GPU unless you upgrade to a newer flagship processor like the Ryzen 7950X3D or the Intel Core i9 14900KS .

Additionally, today’s high-end graphics cards target 1440p and 4K gaming. So, if you play games at a lower resolution, like 1080p, you will experience low GPU usage even if you have the fastest CPU on the market.

To reduce a CPU bottleneck, you can play games at higher resolutions, like 1440p or 4K, and crank up the graphics settings, which puts more stress on the GPU than the CPU. Otherwise, your only option is to upgrade to a faster CPU and get more usage out of your graphics card.

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Assessing Computing Efficiency: Are You Bottlenecked by CPU?