A bottleneck is a term you hear a lot in relation to gaming PCs. However, the term is also relevant to any PC and occurs when a component is not quite up to the task at hand. This generally results in said component running close to or at 100%, which prevents other components from reaching their full potential. The end result is a loss of performance that is avoidable in most cases.
There are several ways to avoid a bottleneck, but first you need to determine the cause of the bottleneck. Most problems are due to hardware limitations, but there may be other reasons why your PC is not performing to its full potential.
7 Viruses and malware
While they aren't usually one of the main problems when it comes to bottlenecks, viruses can certainly play a role. Symptoms depend on the type of virus. Some viruses will hog all the power of your CPU, while others might try to mine cryptocurrency on your GPU without you noticing. The more power a virus hogs from a single component, the more likely you are to notice a bottleneck of some sort. Running a virus scan regularly (or symptomatically) is an important part of keeping your computer running smoothly.
6 Software and updates
Much like viruses, software and updates can also hog your resources and basically create bottlenecks. Often, updates will download and run in the background. This can cause high network usage and in many cases, maximize your storage drive's write performance. Windows Updates and Dropbox are two of the main culprits in this regard, which is why it's always important to make sure your PC is up to date. You should also make sure you don't have any unnecessary software programs running in the background that you're not actively using.
5 monitor
Now the real fun begins. If you're using a standard 1080P monitor with a 60Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time, you may not be able to make the most of the rest of your hardware. While this bottleneck can go essentially unnoticed since you won't feel the performance drop per se, it's one of the easier bottlenecks to combat. If your hardware can play games at 1440P and 240Hz, you'll need a monitor that can handle that as well, otherwise you won't be able to take full advantage of your other components.
4 Graphics card
GPUs can often be part of the cause of a bottleneck in a PC. However, it's also not uncommon for a GPU to run at nearly 100% when the rest of your hardware is capable of it and the game you're playing requires it. The most important thing to consider here is whether your GPU is powerful enough to play games or render video on the monitor you're using. If you're using a 4K monitor, you'll need a pretty powerful GPU to power it, so keep that in mind.
3 CPU
CPUs can be the bane of gamers when they suffer from bottlenecks. Sometimes the CPU just isn't powerful enough for the GPU to do its job. If you're playing a game and notice that the CPU usage is almost 100% but the GPU is only being used at 40-50%, you're experiencing a CPU bottleneck. Some programs will even use your CPU at almost 100% when you're editing or rendering photos and videos, so keep an eye on this to avoid frustration.
2 R.A.M.
In my opinion, this is one of the less annoying causes of bottlenecks. RAM is generally pretty easy to upgrade and is usually cheaper than most other components in your PC, making it a more viable upgrade option. Your RAM speed is important, and if it's lower than it needs to be, it can cause a lot of headaches, especially if you like to multitask. RAM bottlenecks usually occur when running multiple programs at once or when rendering large files and videos.
1 storage
Anyone who has ever used a PC has probably encountered this bottleneck at some point. While some of the best SSDs offer amazing read and write speeds, not everyone has the best hardware. Those still using standard hard disk drives (HDDs) or the slower SATA SSDs will experience this bottleneck more often. This can be caused by downloading or installing programs that max out the storage drive's write speed. When this happens, the PC can become almost unusable until things settle down.
The conclusion
With a little research and time, it is possible to avoid bottlenecks. The great thing about most modern PCs is that they are upgradeable, and it is usually not difficult to do so. So if you do encounter a bottleneck, get to the root of the cause and a simple parts upgrade could be an easy way to fix the problem. Of course, you may not need an upgrade at all and instead solve one of the non-hardware related causes!
Although bottlenecks can be annoying, they are generally nothing to worry about. A drop in performance in one or two components of your PC is not a big deal, it may just cause a little frustration. Try not to worry too much and have a plan of action in place to resolve the problem.