I feel like I should be getting more out of my system

[myfishcantswim]

My current rig is a:

Intel Core i5 4690k @ 3.50GHz
ASUS Z97-A ATX DDR3 2600 LGA 1150
PNY NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
8.00 GB Ram
Windows 10 Home (64-bit)

I feel like for how good my system is I cannot run games as well as I want to. I watch videos of people with similar rigs playing games while recording at max settings easily.

So I have a few questions hoping you guys could help me out.
Is there anything I should upgrade? I'm not trying anything too intensive i'm simply trying to run games better. Would an overclock be good? I'm currently at a base clock for both my GPU and CPU.

Is there any way to check if all my parts are functioning properly and at 100%? I have a strange paranoia when it comes to computers I just want to make sure my whole system is running th best it can.

Sorry for poor formatting and open ended question. Any info you guys could give would be tremendously helpful! Thanks!

 

[GRafkiD]

To make sure that your CPU and GPU are running properly i would recommend benchmarking them both. 3D Mark can benchmark them both and you can compare the scores with other people on the fly. Also install MSI Afterburner so that u can monitor the usage and temps. If you were to upgrade anything it would be the graphics card to a GTX 1070 as that will max out any game in 1080p.

 

[DSzymborski]

Honestly, the first problem is it's hard for us to evaluate a situation based on your subjective feelings on your PC relative to some Youtube videos that you saw - it's not exactly data that we can use.

What games are we talking about and what framerate? What settings? What resolution? What's the usage of the GPU/CPU? Temperatures? Have you run any benchmarks?

I would not expect an i5 combined with the weaker version of the 1060 to be able to play AAA games at max settings *and* record comfortably. Nor should you use Youtube videos as a serious guide for evaluating your PC's performance.