Is my CPU or GPU the bottleneck?

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BobMcSmith

BobMcSmith

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Feb 28, 2017
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I have an i5 750 and a GTX 950, and I ran some benchmarks in a couple different games, and in some games, my CPU load was 50ish percent, and my GPU was 30ish percent. In the other games my CPU load was 70ish percent and my GPU was 80-100ish percent. Since they both in one game or another were taking more of a load, I'm confused as to which component is my bottleneck. Please help!
 
Solution
geofelt
Many games are primarily single threaded.

Be careful how you interpret task manager cpu utilizations.
Windows will spread the activity of a single thread over all available threads.
So, if you had a game that was single threaded and cpu bound, it would show up on a quad core processor as 25%
utilization across all 4 threads.
leading you to think your bottleneck was elsewhere.
It turns our that few games can usefully use more than 2-3 threads.
How can you tell how well threaded your games or apps are?
One way is to disable one thread and see how you do.

You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This...
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Zerk2012

Zerk2012

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Neither and both.
It will always change as to the game engine of the game your playing some are more CPU dependent some are more GPU.
Their never been a PC made without a bottleneck and never will be and the slowest part can change depending on the task at hand.
I love people that talk about bottlenecks because their stressing over nothing.
You have a old processor and a entry level gaming card it's not like you have a old i3 and a gtx 1080ti.
 
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BobMcSmith

BobMcSmith

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Feb 28, 2017
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Thank you! So I know you just said how bottleneck will always be there, but which upgrade will impact my performance more. A new CPU or a new GPU?
 
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BobMcSmith

BobMcSmith

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Ok, so last question then, what CPU under $100 can I upgrade to?
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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Many games are primarily single threaded.

Be careful how you interpret task manager cpu utilizations.
Windows will spread the activity of a single thread over all available threads.
So, if you had a game that was single threaded and cpu bound, it would show up on a quad core processor as 25%
utilization across all 4 threads.
leading you to think your bottleneck was elsewhere.
It turns our that few games can usefully use more than 2-3 threads.
How can you tell how well threaded your games or apps are?
One way is to disable one thread and see how you do.

You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many threads.
If you see little difference, it tells you that you will not benefit from more cores.
Likely, a better clock rate will be more important.

To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run this test:

Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.
 
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