How to measure bottlenecking?

[Rhezuss]

Hello,

I know whats bottleneck means and do and why...but how can you measure or be certain that X component in your PC will cause bottleneck? How can you be absolutely sure that a Athlon II or a C2D can bottleneck, and how much, a 6950 or 570?

Is it out of pure guessing or a precise science?

 

[toyota]

the simplest way to check a particular game is to lower the resolution and if the framerate does not go up then the cpu is the limitation.

 

[Arkadrel]

Bottleneck is differnt for each application.

Some games use ALOT of cpu, some games dont.
Some games you ALOT of ram, some games dont.
Some games use ALOT of Vram, some games dont.
Some games use ALOT of GPU performance, some games dont.

Is it out of pure guessing or a precise science?

Trail and error.. Like Science, you make observations (cause and effect, write down effects, make conclusions)

take a very slow cpu, + fast gpu, play game, how badly does it play? does it play okay? if it plays okay, you dont need much cpu for that game.

repeat and switch (fast cpu, slow gpu).



Usually when people say your CPU bottlenecked with that GPU, its a generalisation.
It doesnt mean your always bottlenecked, it depends on what applications/games ect you run.

 

[toyota]

with a 6950 or gtx570 you will certainly be holding either back with any Core 2 Duo or Athlon 2. by how much will depend on the game, resolution and settings being used.