How to Tell What Part Of Your Computer is Slowing it Down

What we’re looking for here is called a bottleneck. Most of the time there will be some part of your computer that can’t keep up with the rest and is causing the whole system to slow down. Bottlenecks aren’t always a bad thing though. They’re essentially impossible to avoid, but knowing what part of your computer is the bottleneck is very useful. For example, a very common upgrade we do for customers is changing their hard drive to an SSD (Solid State Disk). Depending on the current hard drive this upgrade can sometimes make a computer feel like new and extend it’s life by a year or more. If your CPU (Central Processing Unit) or your GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is your bottleneck, and your computer is too slow for your day-to-day activities, your best option is probably to buy a new computer. Usually, the CPU and GPU are not upgradeable in business computers, and it’s completely impossible on laptops.

So how do we figure out where our bottleneck is?
The most accessible way to do so is using the Task Manager. You can open the Task Manager by hitting [ctrl + shft + esc] or by hitting [ctrl + alt + delete] and selecting Task Manager from the options.

When you first open task manager it will open in a condensed view. To see more details click the “More details” arrow in the bottom left. (show below)

Now that Task Manager is in the expanded view click on the “Performance” tab that is highlighted in green.

This is the performance tab. I have greyed out the ethernet graph as it’s mostly just confusing and isn’t relevant to find a bottleneck.

You can see the main parts of your computer are listed here. You’ve got your CPU, Memory (RAM), your storage drives, and your GPU. If you have more than one storage drive they will be listed here as shown, but if you only have one listed that’s not a problem! It just means that you only have one storage disk.

In this example, you can see that my memory (RAM) would be my bottleneck. Memory (RAM) is typically something that can be upgraded easily. Unless your computer is already got the max that it can hold.

If your computer is maxing out any of these graphs while you’re not doing anything or running any programs you need to buy a new computer. Usually, you won’t see these graphs getting to 100% unless you’re using your computer fully. If you have a 2nd monitor it’s best to keep the task manager open on your secondary monitor, and when you feel like your computer is slowing down you can see what is happening. As long as it isn’t just one program slowing you down you should see one of these graphs maintaining or spiking to 90%+.

If that is what you find, then you’ve successfully found your system’s bottleneck. Depending on what is causing the bottleneck you will be looking at 1 of 3 options. Upgrade, buy new, or suck it up. If the GPU or CPU are your bottlenecks you likely won’t have the option to upgrade in any meaningful way, so your options are either start looking at buying a new computer or suck it up. We recommend against the sucking it up option if it’s a daily use computer, as it will slow productivity and potentially increase the frequency of problems. However, if your bottleneck is your Memory (RAM) or a Disk you’re in luck. Typically RAM and Storage can be upgraded. So for $100 – $200 of new hardware you could keep your computer from slowing down as much.

Here’s a visual to know whether upgrading might be able to help your computer. If your bottleneck is one of the ones in green you might be able to upgrade. If it’s in red you’re out of luck.