Explain CPU bottlenecking...

[Noirgheos]

Alright so this is the build I'm working with right now:

 

i5 6600K

 

R9 Fury X (Probably replace with Vega when it comes out but who knows?)

 

I know this CPU won't bottleneck for more than a few years to come... but that's not the question, it's just to put everything into perspective.

 

So judging from these, and specifically since he uses a Fury X for every game, it seems that these specific games don't really bottleneck. I know that to bottleneck in games a CPU doesn't have to hit 100%, but if it is a good indicator is that your GPU usage is below 80% or so, and this is obviously with VSYNC off, without an FPS cap and stuff that would limit work.

 

I also know overclocking the CPU would allow the bottlenecked GPU in that theoretical situation to achieve higher usage. Thing is, even with an FPS cap on... Dark Souls III for example, GPU usage rises anyway when overclocked. The game is hard capped at 60FPS, and was achieving 60FPS before the CPU OC no issue at lower usage, why would usage increase for no reason?

 

 

 

[GreezyJeezy]

its just when you have a CPU paired with a faster GPU

 

so if your CPU runs at 100% and your GPU is at like 50% its not good 

[incarnate]

 

 

Overclocking helps to alleviate bottlenecks in games, so does playing at higher resolutions and texture settings. In games, it's the number of frames that bogs the cpu down, not how pretty they are. For the gpu, it's the other way around.

 

The reason cpus bottleneck gpus is because the cpu has to pass the instructions to the gpu. That's it. Every time it finishes rendering a frame, a call is issued, and the cpu needs to process that call by forwarding the instructions to the gpu. Once you hit a certain point the cpu can't keep up and the gpu starts waiting for instructions.