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How to figure out what component may be bottlenecking your PC - Micro Center
<main> <article class="userContent"> <p>A system will always have a bottleneck somewhere. In a sufficiently powerful system, you may never notice. If you do encounter a bottleneck, it's probably one of 3 things: Your CPU (Processor), GPU (graphics card), or your RAM. Other components, like your hard drive can also become bottlenecks for large file transfers or when launching games.</p><p>The easiest way to tell what component is bottlenecking your system is to check for disproportionately high utilization using <strong>Windows Performance Monitor</strong>. Bear in mind that the component bottlenecking your system while using one application, may not be the same bottleneck as encountered by another application.</p><p><br></p><p>1. Open <strong>Task Manager </strong>by<strong> </strong>right clicking on task bar at the bottom of your screen.</p><div class="embedExternal embedImage display-large float-none"> <div class="embedExternal-content"> <a class="embedImage-link" href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6031942/uploads/G4FISLD6ZRLV/image1.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener ugc" target="_blank"> <img class="embedImage-img" src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6031942/uploads/G4FISLD6ZRLV/image1.jpg" alt="Image1.jpg"></img></a> </div> </div> <p><br></p><p>2. If your Task Manager opened in simplified view, click <strong>More Details</strong> in the bottom left corner.</p><div class="embedExternal embedImage display-medium float-none"> <div class="embedExternal-content"> <a class="embedImage-link" href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6031942/uploads/LBHO0WH10LMN/image2.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener ugc" target="_blank"> <img class="embedImage-img" src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6031942/uploads/LBHO0WH10LMN/image2.jpg" alt="Image2.jpg"></img></a> </div> </div> <p></p><p><br></p><p>3. Click the <strong>Performance</strong> tab at the top.</p><div class="embedExternal embedImage display-large float-none"> <div class="embedExternal-content"> <a class="embedImage-link" href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6031942/uploads/LONTY6WFRVQ8/image3.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener ugc" target="_blank"> <img class="embedImage-img" src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6031942/uploads/LONTY6WFRVQ8/image3.jpg" alt="Image3.jpg"></img></a> </div> </div> <p><br></p><p>4. Once on the <strong>Performance</strong> tab, watch the CPU and GPU utilization.</p><div class="embedExternal embedImage display-large float-none"> <div class="embedExternal-content"> <a class="embedImage-link" href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6031942/uploads/Q706A7CGLPYN/image4.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener ugc" target="_blank"> <img class="embedImage-img" src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6031942/uploads/Q706A7CGLPYN/image4.jpg" alt="Image4.jpg"></img></a> </div> </div> <p></p><p><br></p><p>5. Look for a component running at or near 100% while other components show significantly lower utilization. </p><ol><li><strong>For example</strong>: In the image below, while transferring a large file, disk utilization reached 100% and prevented the transfer from accelerating, while other component utilization was around or below 50%. In this case, upgrading to an SSD would have removed the bottleneck.</li></ol><div class="embedExternal embedImage display-medium float-none"> <div class="embedExternal-content"> <a class="embedImage-link" href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6031942/uploads/75FXTDBYKYJV/image5.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener ugc" target="_blank"> <img class="embedImage-img" src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6031942/uploads/75FXTDBYKYJV/image5.jpg" alt="Image5.jpg"></img></a> </div> </div> <p><br></p><p> </p> </article> </main>
