For many PC users, a CPU bottleneck is the scariest thing that can happen to them. The moment they hear this term, their mind conjures up images of crippled performance, lackluster framerates, and their expensive GPU investment going down the drain. While the real effects of a CPU bottleneck might not always be severe, it still pays to spot it early, so you can do something about it. Here are some signs that might point to your CPU bottlenecking your PC.

5 Your PC feels sluggish during multitasking

It's not keeping up anymore

A PC that feels slow might behave that way for a multitude of reasons. Maybe your RAM is insufficient for your changing needs, maybe you've not transitioned to an SSD yet, or maybe it is your CPU that's at fault. If you have 32GB of RAM and an SSD in your system, but are still facing slow speeds when launching programs or switching between multiple open apps, it might be time to upgrade your CPU.

Your CPU plays a big part in juggling resources when you're running multiple programs simultaneously. If your processor is nearing ancient status, it won't be able to handle the demands of modern applications. People with 8-year-old CPUs might be experiencing these issues right now. You might need to consider an upgrade soon if you want to get rid of the sluggish performance plaguing your system.

4 Your GPU usage stays suspiciously low

Something's not right

Another metric that you might not be actively monitoring is the GPU usage during gaming. Let's be real: no one monitors their FPS after a few days of building a new PC. Unless you're overclocking your GPU (or CPU), or constantly fiddling with in-game settings, you're not going to have an on-screen display showing FPS, GPU usage, CPU usage, and other parameters. However, if you've not checked your GPU usage in games in a while, it's recommended to have a look.

Use MSI Afterburner to display your GPU usage while you're running multiple games, preferably titles belonging to different genres. Keep an eye on the GPU usage: if it stays below 80–90% most of the time, you might have a problem. You should ideally have a GPU bottleneck on a gaming PC, so that the game you're playing is GPU-bound, ensuring maximum performance. If your CPU ends up being the limiting factor, you'll see this in the form of low GPU usage. And you can bet that you're losing out on FPS because of your old or budget CPU.

3 Dropping the resolution does nothing for your FPS

It's not the GPU that's the problem

If you're struggling to improve gaming performance even after dialing down in-game settings and the resolution, and blaming your GPU for being too weak, you might be wrong. The GPU isn't always the problem; your system may be CPU-limited. The reason that lower in-game settings aren't improving your FPS might be that the game you're playing is CPU-bound, and your CPU is just too slow to feed data to the GPU. Your graphics card keeps waiting on the CPU, held back from its potential.

You might even see worse performance after reducing the in-game settings, since the bottleneck becomes more severe as the game becomes more CPU-bound. It might feel counterintuitive, but increasing your graphics settings will make your GPU work harder, shifting the load off of the weaker CPU, thereby improving your FPS. You could also try turning off upscaling or increasing your resolution virtually through the Nvidia Control Panel to force the game to become GPU-bound.

2 60 FPS doesn't feel like 60 FPS

Appearances can be deceptive

Talking about monitoring your FPS, if you're seeing the counter display 60+ FPS, but not "feeling" like the game is running smoothly, you might be on to something. The reason you're not experiencing the inherent smoothness associated with 60+ FPS gaming is that average FPS isn't the only factor at play during gaming. You also need low frame time, which you can see on your screen in the form of the low 1% and low 0.1% framerates.

A weaker CPU can be one of the reasons for high frame times. You'll notice this in the form of stuttering, especially in open-world games with multiple NPCs, strategy titles, and multiplayer titles with tons of enemies. These titles are known to be CPU-dependent, and will have the biggest impact if you have a CPU bottlenecking your PC. Even though the average FPS is above 60, the variance is quite high, and the game never feels like it's running at 60+ FPS.

1 Insanely high CPU usage even in GPU-bound titles

A platform upgrade is overdue

CPU usage is yet another metric that can tell you the story of a CPU bottleneck. While your CPU usage doesn't always need to be low, a needlessly high CPU usage combined with low GPU usage is often a sure-shot sign of a CPU bottleneck. In games that are known to be GPU-bound, your GPU is supposed to do most of the heavy lifting, and your CPU should act in a supporting role.

However, if your CPU is too weak compared to your GPU, it'll work double-time and still be unable to keep up with the GPU, resulting in a gross imbalance of resources. In such a situation, the simplest solution is to upgrade to a modern CPU that doesn't hold your GPU or the rest of the system back. Even modern 6-core chips like the Ryzen 5 7600 or Ryzen 5 9600X are enough to support high-end GPUs. And if you're running an 8-to-10-year-old CPU, it's high time for a platform upgrade anyway.

If you have an ancient CPU, keep an eye out for bottlenecks

Users still rocking their trusty Core i7-9700K or Ryzen 5 3600 might not want to upgrade, but these old CPUs can limit modern GPUs. If you're pairing your old CPU with modern hardware, or at least planning to do so, know what you're getting into. If the CPU bottleneck is severe, you might be leaving tons of performance on the table, wasting the money spent on your high-end GPU. Balancing your CPU and GPU is key to minimizing bottlenecks on your system, which isn't a difficult task.