AMD and Intel CPU entries
PC Hardware Balance Report 2026
A transparent snapshot of the hardware catalog behind CalcBottleneck. This report describes what is actually in the dataset, how its coverage is distributed, and why resolution and evidence quality are modeled explicitly instead of reducing every PC to one universal percentage.
AMD, NVIDIA and Intel GPU entries
Possible catalog combinations before resolution, workload and FPS context
1080p, 1440p and 4K reference fields per GPU
What this report is—and what it is not
This is a dataset audit, not a claim that CalcBottleneck physically benchmarked every possible build. The calculator combines benchmark-informed reference fields, calibrated pairing indexes, workload context and confidence signals. This page summarizes the composition of that model so readers can inspect its scope before trusting an estimate.
For the calculation rules, evidence hierarchy and limitations, read the full methodology and source policy.
CPU brand coverage
Intel10254.8%
AMD8445.2%
CPU entries span model years 2011–2026. This is catalog coverage, not market share.
GPU brand coverage
AMD8149.1%
NVIDIA7847.3%
Intel63.6%
GPU entries span model years 2008–2026. This is catalog coverage, not market share.
VRAM is becoming more important in the newer part of the catalog
Of the 58 GPUs in the current catalog released from 2020 onward, 36 (62.1%) carry at least 12 GB of graphics memory. Among the 20 entries released from 2024 onward, 15 (75%) have at least 12 GB.
That does not mean every workload needs 12 GB or more. It does mean a CPU/GPU balance tool should avoid treating VRAM pressure as if it were automatically a CPU bottleneck. The RTX 5060 Ti guide, for example, separates the 8 GB and 16 GB memory variants for this reason.
These percentages describe the GPUs currently represented in CalcBottleneck's catalog. They are not sales, installed-base or market-share statistics.
Resolution changes the graphics workload materially
MEDIAN 1440P REFERENCE67.9%
of the same GPU's 1080p raster reference
MEDIAN 4K REFERENCE30%
of the same GPU's 1080p raster reference
All 165 GPU entries currently carry 1080p, 1440p and 4K raster-reference fields. Across those entries, the median 1440p reference is 67.9% of the 1080p value and the median 4K reference is 30%.
These ratios are not universal FPS multipliers. Games, presets, ray tracing, upscaling and CPU limits can behave very differently. Their purpose here is to demonstrate why CalcBottleneck does not assume a GPU has the same effective load at every resolution. Read the resolution guide for the practical interpretation.
CPU evidence status
provisional-calibrated13874.2%
validated4122%
derived73.8%
GPU evidence status
validated8752.7%
provisional6539.4%
legacy-bridged137.9%
Why CalcBottleneck exposes confidence instead of hiding uncertainty
Hardware generations are not measured with one perfectly uniform benchmark suite. Newer products may have direct current reference data while older parts may require family calibration or legacy bridging. The current catalog records those states rather than pretending every input has identical evidence quality.
That is why the calculator reports an estimate confidence separately from the estimated mismatch. A close-looking percentage with limited evidence should not be interpreted with the same certainty as a well-supported modern pairing.
Reproduce the headline numbers
The headline pairing count is deliberately simple: 186 CPUs × 165 GPUs = 30,690 base pairings. Resolution, workload, RAM and target-FPS selections then add context to a chosen pairing; they are not counted as separate hardware combinations here.
Brand counts, release-year ranges, VRAM counts, resolution-reference ratios and evidence-status totals on this page are calculated directly from the same JSON catalogs used by the live calculator at build time.