why so many scared of bottleneck?

[dfsgsfa]

how come this (not a ) issue become that frequently asked?

litterally its hardly bottlemecking with extreame time frame (pairing gpu with 8yr old cpu etc ) or highest pairing with lowest stuff

 

who populated this term?

[Skipple]

By definition: something will always be a bottleneck. It's just a matter of what piece and how much it chokes the other hardware from reaching their full potential.

 

Typically, you want to avoid a hard bottleneck from the CPU when gaming. You never want our CPU maxed at 99% before your GPU is. People try and avoid that. 

 

This isn't exclusively a computer or technology term. In manufacturing it can be used to say "the slowest piece in the chain". 

[vanished]

I think it's only natural to want to get the most out of your system and be sure you're not wasting its potential, so the obsession probably comes from that combined with a lack of understanding.  To the uninitiated, I can imagine bottlenecks are viewed as very exact things that can be measured down to the single percent and components must be chosen precisely to maintain this balance.  In reality of course, it's far more flexible than this, due (among other reasons) to the fact every game has different demands, and even one game can vary in its requirements from frame to frame, so getting things only very roughly in the right class as each other is all that's necessary.

[Fasauceome]

"bottleneck" is an easy word to use, and a common boogeyman, because it is so simple. People think any bottleneck is terrible, and they also think they can always get rid of a bottleneck. See also: popularity of the "bottleneck calculator" websites.

 

Any PC will have a weak point, something that holds the rest of the system back. BUT, that weak point is always something different, depending on what you are doing with your PC, what games you are playing, etc. Most new users don't understand, and can't even tell the difference between a bottleneck and performance scaling. It's the same group of people that are concerned with how "future proof" their system is, it's just a buzzword that people latch onto.

[dfsgsfa]

bottleneck wasnt even to be bother by most in past times, 5 yrs ago?

like pairing intel g4560 to 980ti or 2 core i3 with gtx770 era

 

[Fasauceome]

5 minutes ago, dfsgsfa said:

bottleneck wasnt even to be bother by most in past times, 5 yrs ago?

like pairing intel g4560 to 980ti or 2 core i3 with gtx770 era

 

In the past, it was still important to spend your money wisely. It was certainly possible to overspend on the CPU or GPU, but in the old days, a 2 core CPU could do a lot more, so it wasn't a big deal. The word bottleneck has probably become more popular because of how much more demanding modern games are on the CPU.

[vanished]

3 hours ago, dfsgsfa said:

bottleneck wasnt even to be bother by most in past times, 5 yrs ago?

like pairing intel g4560 to 980ti or 2 core i3 with gtx770 era

 

This could be a completely inaccurate impression, but I feel like the PC gaming enthusiast community has grown dramatically over the years, and to people who are more focused on just the gaming and not so much the hardware/software other general tech knowledge, and with that would come increased awareness and in turn, concern, through the mechanism I proposed earlier.  That's just my guess though

[Heliian]

It's inefficient to be bottlenecked.  I've found though that the online checkers help in finding what to spend on upgrades and what you could benefit from.  This is important if you're trying to extend the lifecycle of your machine.

 

I like the word, it always reminds me of a nice cold beer. 

[Moonzy]

2 minutes ago, Heliian said:

I like the word, it always reminds me of a nice cold beer. 

 

it reminds me of this picture that everyone uses to explain what bottleneck is

 

Spoiler

and i'm scared of traffic jams -PTSD flashbacks-

[Blueaid]

Because people want value out of the products they are buying. So they get concerned that they possibly won't be getting it.

[Blue4130]

To me, it seems more people on this forum are worried about it than some other forums I read. For example, hardOCP forum, almost nobody posts about bottlenecks. That forum does tend to skew more towards older users and people with a higher level of tech knowledge so I can't say if this fear is from age or lack of understanding. 

[dfsgsfa]

11 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

me, it seems more people on this forum are worried about it than some other forums I read. For example, hardOCP forum, almost nobody posts about bottlenecks

so its LIE NUS fault spreading the bottlenecking virus

[Skipple]

1 hour ago, dfsgsfa said:

so its LIE NUS fault spreading the bottlenecking virus

I don't think it's irrational. I think, possibly, the term may be used incorrectly or overly used among those who don't know what they are talking about.

 

But for an inexperienced builder attempting to put together a gaming rig without knowledge... it's a very real situation. 

 

Look, we have a lot of noobies here. That's awesome. But, they often make poor choices in terms of hardware pairings. That may be why you see the term thrown around more frequently here than elsewhere on the internet. "No..... Don't pair that 2007 Intel Core 2 Duo with a 2070 Super..." is something that's said quite often on these forums. Shit, I think I said it 2-3 times within the last week.

 

I venture to guess the members of hardforum.com have much better understanding of proper computer components and don't need to be told that.... vs those who pop in here looking for advise to upgrade their parent's old Dell Inspiron.

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, dfsgsfa said:

so its LIE NUS fault spreading the bottlenecking virus

No, he doesn't spread it. He just created the platform. 

 

Honestly though, this forum is obsessed with bottlenecks and powersupply tiers. I get that having a shitty power supply is not the best idea, but many on this forum are a little hysterical about it. They do go through testing and certification (no, not 80+ I mean actual real certification like ce and others) before getting the green light to be sold in various markets. Your power supply is not going to start your house on fire. I am positive your cousins friends uncles house fire was not caused by his no name psu. 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, dfsgsfa said:

how come this (not a ) issue become that frequently asked?

litterally its hardly bottlemecking with extreame time frame (pairing gpu with 8yr old cpu etc ) or highest pairing with lowest stuff

 

who populated this term?

Because the guy with a 1650 is trying to compare and reach frame rates that aren't realistic in the first place.

 

People gaming on top cards at 1080P and worried about fps while the card is better suited for high res gaming.

 

The understanding of bottle neck should only be taken into account for severe cases. Like a 980X and RTX 2080ti. 

 

Most modern hardware from 3 years and up AMD and a little further back for Intel, most "bottle neck" is minimal. 

 

15 years ago, overclocking helped greatly eliminate bottlenecks while then the transistor count and frequency was low. Both on cpu and gpu.

 

Now these days, people should just have less concern if they actually did some research and place expectations in order. 

 

 

[straight_stewie]

5 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Now these days, people should just have less concern if they actually did some research and place expectations in order. 

I think that can be very hard for some people. As tech enthusiasts, we kind of take for granted the knowledge that we have. For example, I find it incredibly basic to understand the basic functions of the various components in a computer. As @Ryan_Vickers mentioned above:

5 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

the PC gaming enthusiast community has grown dramatically over the years, and to people who are more focused on just the gaming and not so much the hardware/software other general tech knowledge

It takes years and years of fairly concerted effort to build up the kind of knowledge that many on this forum have. Many of these newcomers may not even know the fundamental things required to begin to have conversations about optimizing the component specification of a new computer. Many may not even know that they need to know these things, or where to begin looking for them.

[mr moose]

9 hours ago, dfsgsfa said:

 

who populated this term?

I don't know where it started but I know for a fact people were using it in the 80's.  It is a very good way to describe a simple issue with a single component in a specific system of components. 

 

I think the bigger issue is not that the term is wrong or inappropriate, but that you have a problem with the term occasionally being misused or over used (by your reasoning).

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, straight_stewie said:

It takes years and years of fairly concerted effort to build up the kind of knowledge that many on this forum have. Many of these newcomers may not even know the fundamental things required to begin to have conversations about optimizing the component specification of a new computer. Many may not even know that they need to know these things, or where to begin looking for them.

And that is unfortunate as today's computers are WAY easier to build and set up that years past. The basic knowledge needed now is much less than say 1995. Compatibility today is light years ahead of where it was then.

[straight_stewie]

4 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

Compatibility today is light years ahead of where it was then.

But that has nothing to do with optimizing a spec sheet (what I take the phrase "eliminating bottlenecks" to mean).

You still need to know, all kinds of things really, in order to do a good job of it.