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Bottleneck Calculator

Find out whether your processor or your graphics card limits your frame rate. Pick your CPU and GPU to see which part sets the pace at 1080p, 1440p and 4K, the frame rate to expect in demanding games, and which upgrade would actually help.

  • 153 processors
  • 121 graphics cards
  • Built on review benchmarks
  • No signup

Your build

Resolution
Monitor refresh rate
CPU bottleneck 14%, slight gap

Your processor holds the card back at 1080p

Your RTX 5070 could draw about 142 frames a second here, but your Ryzen 5 5600 can only prepare about 122. Roughly 14% of the card's speed goes unused at 1080p.

Processor 122 frames a second, graphics card 142, together about 104 at 1080p.

Same pair at each resolution

What would help

  • A faster processor would free the card at 1080p. The Ryzen 5 7500F or Core i5-12600K would keep up with it. Check your motherboard socket first, because a newer processor family often needs a new board.
  • Your Ryzen 5 5600 tops out near 122 fps in these games, so averaging 144 fps at Ultra needs a faster processor before a faster card.
  • Lowering graphics settings mostly lifts the graphics card number. The processor number barely moves.

Averages for 11 demanding games at Ultra settings, without ray tracing or upscaling. Processor figure: scaled from the Ryzen 5 5600X by boost clock. Graphics card figure: review benchmark. How this works

Check this PC against a specific game

What is a CPU bottleneck?

A CPU bottleneck happens when your processor cannot prepare frames as fast as your graphics card can draw them, so the card sits waiting and you get fewer frames than it could deliver. A GPU bottleneck is the opposite: the card is the slower part, which is normal and usually what you want.

Every frame needs both parts. The processor runs the game logic, physics and draw calls, and the graphics card turns that into pixels. Whichever part takes longer sets your frame rate. For example, a Ryzen 5 5600 can prepare about 122 frames a second in demanding games, while an RTX 5070 can draw about 142 at 1080p. At 1080p the processor is the limit. At 1440p the card can only draw about 99, so the card becomes the limit and the processor has room to spare.

Bottleneck Results for Popular CPU and GPU Pairs

Expected average frame rate in demanding games at Ultra settings. Select a pair to open it in the calculator.

Processor and graphics card1080p1440p4K
Ryzen 5 5600 with RTX 406068 fpsGPU bound47 fpsGPU bound17 fpsGPU bound
Ryzen 5 5600 with RTX 5070104 fpsCPU 14%86 fpsGPU bound53 fpsGPU bound
Ryzen 5 3600 with RTX 4070 Super91 fpsCPU 24%77 fpsbalanced47 fpsGPU bound
Core i5-12400F with RTX 306060 fpsGPU bound41 fpsGPU bound22 fpsGPU bound
Core i5-13400F with Radeon RX 7800 XT102 fpsbalanced80 fpsGPU bound44 fpsGPU bound
Ryzen 5 7600 with RTX 5060 Ti98 fpsGPU bound71 fpsGPU bound40 fpsGPU bound
Core i5-14600K with RTX 5070 Ti139 fpsbalanced112 fpsGPU bound68 fpsGPU bound
Ryzen 7 7800X3D with Radeon RX 9070 XT147 fpsGPU bound112 fpsGPU bound65 fpsGPU bound
Ryzen 7 9800X3D with RTX 5090201 fpsCPU 20%169 fpsGPU bound111 fpsGPU bound
Core i7-8700K with RTX 407086 fpsCPU 12%70 fpsGPU bound40 fpsGPU bound

"CPU 14%" means the processor leaves about 14% of the card's speed unused at that resolution. Figures updated November 6, 2026.

How This Bottleneck Calculator Works

Most bottleneck calculators give one percentage and never say where it comes from. This one is built from published benchmark averages, and every result tells you whether its figures were measured or estimated.

  1. 1

    Graphics card speed from review benchmarks

    Frame rates for 44 graphics cards come from Tom's Hardware's GPU benchmarks hierarchy: the average of 11 demanding games at Ultra settings, tested at 1080p, 1440p and 4K. The fastest cards are partly held back by the test processor at 1080p, so that effect is taken out to get each card's own speed.

  2. 2

    Processor speed from the same kind of data

    Processor results come from Tom's Hardware's CPU benchmarks hierarchy, tested at 1080p with an RTX 5090 so the card rarely holds them back. Older chips come from earlier tables in the same hierarchy, linked through the chips the tables share. They are turned into frames a second on the same scale as the cards, with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D preparing about 231 frames a second.

  3. 3

    Close variants and missing parts

    24 processors with no review figure of their own, such as the Ryzen 5 5600, use their closest measured sibling scaled by boost clock. Parts with neither are estimated from our own hardware scale and marked as estimates in the list and in the result.

  4. 4

    Putting the two together

    Your frame rate is close to the slower of the two numbers. Because the figures average many games, and some games lean on the processor while others lean on the card, the slower part does not cut in like a wall. The calculator blends the two the way the review results do, which is why the expected frame rate sits a little under the lower number.

  5. 5

    The bottleneck percentage

    The percentage is how much of the faster part goes unused: 1 minus the slower number divided by the faster one. A processor that prepares 100 frames for a card that could draw 125 leaves 20% of the card's speed unused.

How to Fix a CPU Bottleneck

Raise the resolution or settings

Higher resolution and heavier graphics settings move work onto the card. If the processor is the limit, you can often turn quality up for free.

Switch on your memory profile

Enable XMP (Intel) or EXPO (AMD) in the BIOS. Without it, memory runs at a slow default speed, and processor bound games lose frames.

Close background apps

Browsers, launchers and recording software all take processor time. Closing them helps most on processors with four or six cores.

Upgrade on the same socket

Many boards take a faster chip from the same family. On AM4, a Ryzen 7 5700X3D is a common drop in upgrade for older Ryzen systems. Check your board's support list first.

What the Numbers Do Not Tell You

  • They are averages for demanding games. Esports games such as Counter-Strike 2 or Valorant run at far higher frame rates and lean much harder on the processor.
  • Ray tracing and upscaling are not included. Ray tracing lowers the card number a lot. DLSS, FSR and XeSS raise it, which can turn a GPU bound pair into a CPU limited one.
  • Video memory is only partly covered. Cards with 8 GB fall behind at 4K in the review data, and that shows up here, but individual games vary.
  • They describe averages, not smoothness. Stutter and frame time spikes are not measured.

To check one game rather than an average, use the Can You Run It checker, which compares your PC with the specs a publisher released for that game.

Frequently Asked Questions About Bottlenecks

What is a good bottleneck percentage?
Under 10% means the processor and graphics card are well matched. A processor bottleneck of 10% to 20% is mild and most people never notice it. Above 20% the processor is leaving real performance on the table at that resolution. A graphics card bottleneck of any size is normal: it means the card is working at full speed, which is what you want in a gaming PC.
Is it bad if my GPU is the bottleneck?
No. In most games one part always limits the frame rate, and it should be the graphics card, because it is the part you can scale with settings and resolution. Being GPU bound only matters if the frame rate is lower than you want, and then the fix is lower settings or a faster card.
Does resolution change the bottleneck?
Yes, a lot. The processor prepares roughly the same number of frames at any resolution, while the graphics card draws fewer frames as the resolution rises. That is why a pair can be CPU limited at 1080p and GPU bound at 1440p. The Ryzen 5 5600 with an RTX 5070 is a good example: about a 14% processor bottleneck at 1080p, and GPU bound at 1440p.
How accurate is this bottleneck calculator?
It is built on published review averages, not on guesses, and every result shows where its figures come from. 44 of the 121 graphics cards and 96 of the 153 processors use review data directly or through a close sibling chip. The results are averages for demanding games at Ultra settings, so a single game can differ, especially esports games, which lean much harder on the processor.
How do I check for a bottleneck in a game?
Turn on a performance overlay, such as the one in the NVIDIA or AMD driver app, and watch graphics card usage while you play. If usage stays near 95% to 100%, the card is the limit. If it sits well below that while the frame rate is lower than you want, the processor is holding it back.
Does RAM cause a bottleneck?
It can, but less often than people think. 16 GB is enough for most games today and 32 GB gives headroom for newer ones. Speed matters more than many expect: make sure the memory profile (XMP on Intel, EXPO on AMD) is switched on in the BIOS, because without it memory runs at a slow default speed and processor bound games lose frames.
Does this work for laptops?
Not well. Laptop chips share names with desktop parts but run at lower power, so they are slower. The figures here are for desktop processors and graphics cards.
Is the bottleneck calculator free?
Yes. It is free with no signup and no limits, and it runs in your browser.

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About the data

Card figures
Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy
Card data date
June 24, 2026
Processor figures
Tom's Hardware CPU hierarchy
Processor data date
October 5, 2026
Games averaged
11, Ultra settings
Processors
153 (96 from reviews)
Graphics cards
121 (44 from reviews)
Last updated
November 6, 2026
GPU benchmarks hierarchyCPU benchmarks hierarchy