PCPartGuide

How to use this bottleneck calculator?

Pick your processor and graphics card. The lists cover every mainstream desktop CPU and GPU from the GTX 10 series and Ryzen 1000 to the current generation. Laptop parts are not modelled yet.Set your RAM and resolution. RAM capacity, single versus dual channel and speed all move the CPU ceiling.

What is a PC bottleneck?

A bottleneck is the part of your PC that finishes its share of each frame last. The processor decides what happens in the game world and prepares draw calls; the graphics card turns those into pixels; the monitor shows them at its refresh rate.

Does RAM bottleneck a PC?

Yes, in three ways, and all three are modelled here. Too little capacity for the game forces it to page textures and assets through your SSD, which is where hitching comes from; 16 GB is the floor for current titles and 32 GB is comfortable. A single stick halves memory bandwidth and costs a modern processor a noticeable share of its gaming performance.

Bottleneck detector, checker or calculator: is there a difference?

No. A bottleneck detector, a bottleneck checker, a bottleneck test and a bottleneck calculator all describe the same thing: a tool that estimates which of your parts limits your frame rate from published performance data. None of them measures your PC. The only way to measure a bottleneck is to run a game with an overlay and watch usage and frame times yourself, which takes about five minutes.

How accurate is this bottleneck calculator?

Every part in the database carries a performance index derived from published benchmark aggregates: a 1080p gaming index for processors and a per-resolution index for graphics cards. Frame-rate estimates for each game come from how CPU-heavy or GPU-heavy that game is, scaled by those indices.