Question

[PcBeExpensive]

What is bottlenecking? Sorry I'm relatively new to all this stuff.

[g0ated]

3 minutes ago, PcBeExpensive said:

What is bottlenecking? Sorry I'm relatively new to all this stuff.

it is basically a component limiting another components performance potential. its basically saying ur cpu is not fast enough to keeping up with ur gpu like a a dog is running but the owner is too slow to run to the dog it also does not have to be the cpu and gpu only it can be cpu and cooling(thermal throttling meaning that ur cpu reduces its performance to lower its temps etc.) hope this explains everything

[Pickles von Brine]

I wanted to chime in here. When you build a system don't worry about bottlenecks (unless they are an issue like thermal throttling). There are going to be something somewhere that will be a bottleneck. Focus on what you want, what you need to do it and go from there. 

That being said, if you are trying to squeeze blood from a stone and want every last ounce of performance, that is when you try to alleviate bottlenecks to the best your system will allow. 

Then again, bottlenecks come in all kinds of forms as posted by swabro. 

[Middcore]

Bottlenecks are not nearly as big a deal as people make them out to be. Also any "bottleneck calculator" websites are horseshit. 

[IPD]

Used to be a thing, back when system bus speeds could choke your CPU and RAM to a standstill.

[tkitch]

On 9/26/2022 at 12:35 AM, swabro said:

it is basically a component limiting another components performance potential. its basically saying ur cpu is not fast enough to keeping up with ur gpu like a a dog is running but the owner is too slow to run to the dog it also does not have to be the cpu and gpu only it can be cpu and cooling(thermal throttling meaning that ur cpu reduces its performance to lower its temps etc.) hope this explains everything

not entirely correct, and very very confusing.

 

Simply Put:  A bottleneck happens when one part of your PC is *never* powerful enough to keep up with another.

 

Now, the important part there is the "NEVER" bit.  Why?  Because whenever you have a PC, depending on the task, something in the PC will be the limiting factor for that given task.

 

If you keep relatively modern hardware around?  Bottlenecks don't matter.  

 

It really starts to become a thing when looking at mixing components with an 8-10 year age gap.  

[g0ated]

40 minutes ago, tkitch said:

not entirely correct, and very very confusing.

 

Simply Put:  A bottleneck happens when one part of your PC is *never* powerful enough to keep up with another.

 

Now, the important part there is the "NEVER" bit.  Why?  Because whenever you have a PC, depending on the task, something in the PC will be the limiting factor for that given task.

 

If you keep relatively modern hardware around?  Bottlenecks don't matter.  

 

It really starts to become a thing when looking at mixing components with an 8-10 year age gap.  

i thought its like saying combining an i3 12100f and a 3090ti something like that

[IkeaGnome]

1 minute ago, swabro said:

i thought its like saying combining an i3 12100f and a 3090ti something like that

Those probably pair a whole lot better than you would think for 4k gaming. There are worlds where that's not all that bad of a pairing.

[tkitch]

4 minutes ago, swabro said:

i thought its like saying combining an i3 12100f and a 3090ti something like that

Even there, there are situations where the 3090 would be the limiting factor.  (not many, but some.)

[IPD]

2 hours ago, swabro said:

i thought its like saying combining an i3 12100f and a 3090ti something like that

More like pairing a 3090Ti with an i3 2105.