How to check if your PC’s processor is reaching its full potential (and vice versa)

People who have built computers on their own know that all components must be balanced, especially the processor and video card. With an old and weak processor, a cool modern video card will not be able to work at maximum performance, just as an old video card may be too weak for a new top-end processor, and the system will be asking for an upgrade.

If you have old hardware, buying a new graphics card may not be worth the wait. There is such a thing as a bottleneck (“bottleneck” or “bottle neck”), just an old processor can be such a bottleneck. For example, GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards run about 30-50% slower with older generation processors than with modern chips, and you won’t improve their performance until you do an almost complete computer upgrade.

The PC Builds website has bottle neck calculator, with which you can find out if your computer has a weak link, and whether it is a processor or a video card. First you need to select the processor, then the video card, specify the resolution of the monitor and note for what purpose the computer is usually used (general tasks, heavy load on the processor, or heavy load on the video card). The site will analyze your setup and show how much the potentials of the processor and video card are used.

For example, in the case of an Intel Core i7-12700KF, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and a Quad HD monitor, the processor is used in games at 95.5% of its capabilities, and the graphics card at 100%, that is, this is an almost perfect combination. If you have the same graphics card, but an old Intel Core i7-4970, the processor will be able to squeeze the most resources out of itself, and the graphics card will only work at 62.5% of practically possible performance. This means that graphics will be rendered 37.5% slower than if your computer had a faster processor.