Performance bottlenecks

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Quick Questions

Shade in the A or B circle for each question.

1. A computer has a very fast CPU but an old, slow hard drive. What is the bottleneck?

A The fast CPU

B The slow hard drive

2. Which statement best describes a bottleneck?

A The slowest component limits the whole system's performance

B The fastest component decides how fast the whole system runs

3. A laptop has only 2 GB of RAM and keeps slowing down when you open lots of tabs. What is the likely bottleneck?

A Too little RAM

B Too much storage space

4. You buy a faster CPU for a computer that is slowed down by a slow hard drive. What will probably happen?

A Little improvement, because the drive is still the bottleneck

B A big improvement, because the CPU is the most important part

5. Which computer is a balanced system?

A A top-end CPU with 4 GB of RAM and a slow hard drive

B A mid-range CPU, 16 GB of RAM and an SSD that all work well together

Match the Pairs

Draw a line connecting each item on the left to its match on the right.

Left column		Right column
1Fast CPU + old HDD		AA faster CPU will not help because the slow HDD is still the bottleneck. Upgrading the storage to an SSD is the better fix.
24 GB RAM + many open apps		Bbottleneck
3A bottleneck is the slowest part, which limits the performance of the whole system		CA system is limited by its slowest part, not its fastest part. The slowest component is the bottleneck.
4A balanced system has parts that work at similar levels, so no single part holds the others back		DThe slow storage is the bottleneck because the CPU keeps waiting for data to load
5Upgrade the CPU to fix a slow HDD bottleneck		EToo little RAM is the bottleneck, so the computer slows down even if the CPU is fast
6A system is only as fast as its fastest part		FCPU + RAM + SSD = balanced

Definitions

bottleneck

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each line of code by filling in the missing parts.

The slowest part is the __________.

CPU: fast, RAM: 16 GB, storage: slow HDD bottleneck = _______

CPU: fast, RAM: 2 GB, storage: SSD bottleneck = ___

CPU: medium, RAM: medium, storage: medium bottleneck = none, system is ________

Upgrade the _______ part to go faster

Spot the Error

Shade in the letter of the line that contains an error.

Question 1

A cpu_speed <- 4.5

B ram_gb <- 16

C storage <- 'HDD'

D bottleneck <- cpu_speed

Question 2

A ram_gb <- 2

B IF ram_gb < 4 THEN

C bottleneck <- 'CPU'

D ENDIF

Question 3

A cpu <- 'fast'

B storage <- 'fast SSD'

C PRINT 'Slowest part: storage'

Question 4

A slowest <- MAX(hdd, cpu, ram)

B bottleneck <- slowest

C PRINT bottleneck

Question 5

A IF one part is far slower THEN

B PRINT 'Balanced system'

C ELSE

D PRINT 'Bottleneck found'

Answer Key

Performance bottlenecks

Section A: Quick Questions

B — The slow hard drive

A — The slowest component limits the whole system's performance

A — Too little RAM

A — Little improvement, because the drive is still the bottleneck

B — A mid-range CPU, 16 GB of RAM and an SSD that all work well together

Section B: Match the Pairs

Fast CPU + old HDD → The slow storage is the bottleneck because the CPU keeps waiting for data to load

4 GB RAM + many open apps → Too little RAM is the bottleneck, so the computer slows down even if the CPU is fast

A bottleneck is the slowest part, which limits the performance of the whole system → bottleneck

A balanced system has parts that work at similar levels, so no single part holds the others back → CPU + RAM + SSD = balanced

Upgrade the CPU to fix a slow HDD bottleneck → A faster CPU will not help because the slow HDD is still the bottleneck. Upgrading the storage to an SSD is the better fix.

A system is only as fast as its fastest part → A system is limited by its slowest part, not its fastest part. The slowest component is the bottleneck.

Section C: Definitions

bottleneck — The slowest part of a computer system, which limits how fast the whole system can work, like a slow hard drive or too little RAM holding back a fast CPU.

Section D: Fill in the Blanks

The slowest part is the bottleneck.

CPU: fast, RAM: 16 GB, storage: slow HDD
bottleneck = storage

CPU: fast, RAM: 2 GB, storage: SSD
bottleneck = RAM

CPU: medium, RAM: medium, storage: medium
bottleneck = none, system is balanced

Upgrade the slowest part to go faster

Section E: Spot the Error

D — The CPU is fast and the HDD is the slowest part, so the HDD (storage) is the bottleneck. The line should be bottleneck <- storage.

C — The IF checks for too little RAM, so the bottleneck inside it should be 'RAM', not 'CPU'.

B — The program says storage is the slowest part. That only makes sense if storage is a slow HDD, not a fast SSD.

A — The bottleneck is the slowest part, so the program needs MIN (the lowest speed). MAX would find the fastest part.

A — A balanced system has parts of similar speed. If one part is far slower, that part is a bottleneck, so the first line should check that all parts are similar.