What part is bottlenecking?

[shorty563]

I have

asus 550 ti oc 

quad core q8300 2.5ghz

4gb ram

Whenever I play games turning down the graphics settings can make the performance worse and turning down the resolution KILLS fps and brings it down to 15 when not at my native resolution of 1280x1024

[Askew]

CPU

 

Turning down settings/res decreases GPU load and increases CPU load.

[TheEpicCanadian]

CPU is probably the culprit 

[lx_srs]

I have

asus 550 ti oc 

quad core q8300 2.5ghz

4gb ram

Whenever I play games turning down the graphics settings can make the performance worse and turning down the resolution KILLS fps and brings it down to 15 when not at my native resolution of 1280x1024

CPU and possibly RAM.  DDR2 won't cut it for modern games.  You should also turn down graphics settings to fix your lag.

[WyvernAbstracts]

bottlenecking in the pcmasterrace community basically means when another part is letting down the performance of another part, and therefore the only thing that bottlenecks is a cpu and sometimes ram. So i'd say scrap the cpu get one of those new pentiums or a a cheap fx or even i3-i5 

[shorty563]

Ty guys I'm just making sure because this rig is just something to have before getting my new pc.