How do I know if my cpu is bottlenecking?

[ISMMSI]

I've been playing BF4 single player on ultra settings for like half an hour now. My fps is about 50-60 in calm settings and drops to low 30's in the most intense settings. I do get lag spikes from time to time where fps drops to say 15-25 fps. I've been looking at cpu usage all the time and it never really excedeed 85%. Even when suffering from lag spikes i've noticed a 60% cpu usage.

Now am I right to conclude that the cpu isn't causing this problem or am I looking at this in a wrong or too limited way? Is it just the maximum I can expect from this card (gtx 760)?

My cpu is the x4 760k 3.8ghz btw
gpu: gtx 760 2gb
8gb ram
430watt corsair psu

Could anyone help me out with this please?

 

[Traciatim]

Well, first you look at the build... AMD. Yep, it's the cause of slowness...

Seriously though. Get something like fraps that can record your frame times and Min/Max/Average frames. Then record a few rounds playing with AA off (get new numbers each round). Get your min/max/average for each round and then average all the rounds so you have an average of each of the numbers. Then turn up the AA and run through the same number of rounds (generally you want 5 or more) that have a similar number of people and maps as the original set. Average out those min/max/average numbers too.

Now compare the min without AA and to with AA, the same for your max and average. If you notice that your min only drops by a small amount but your max and average drop by a rather large amount then it's most likely your CP causing the slow down. If you notice that the min/max/average numbers all drop by about the same percent the it's probably your GPU causing the issues.

 

[zZXenoZz]

To check if your system is bottlenecking download MSI Afterburner. This will allow you to see if your GPU is being bottlenecked. Go into your game and come prepared with the average frame rate that your GPU is getting on that game. Monitor MSI Afterburner during your game and see if the GPU is being utilized around 95%-100%. If it is something lower than this 80>% then your CPU is giving you the trouble. But, if it is around the 95-100% then it is the graphics card.

Looking at your setup the problem is most likely 99% sure, the CPU. Maybe you could try to OC the CPU a bit, but still I think the only way to get around your problem is to buy a new CPU.