CPU vs GPU Bottlenecks
Find out which part of your PC is doing the heavy lifting—and which one may be holding back your frame rate.
GPU bottleneck
A GPU bottleneck happens when the graphics processor is the main limit on frame production. Higher resolution, ray tracing and demanding visual effects generally increase GPU workload.
CPU bottleneck
A CPU bottleneck occurs when the processor cannot prepare game work quickly enough for the GPU. Large worlds, simulation, AI and high frame-rate targets can make CPU performance important.
A simple test
If lowering resolution or GPU-heavy settings produces little FPS improvement, the CPU or another system limit may be involved. If FPS rises substantially, the GPU was likely doing more of the limiting.
It can change by game
The same PC can be GPU-limited in one game and CPU-limited in another. Resolution, graphics settings, game engine and target frame rate all matter.
Why RigMetric considers both
RigMetric uses both GPU and CPU information because a performance estimate based on only one component can be misleading.