Ethan Cole

Ethan Cole is the Editor and Calculator Project Lead behind BottleneckLab, an independent CPU and GPU balance calculator and PC hardware education project.

The work includes maintaining the calculator experience, reviewing hardware specifications and published external evidence, developing CPU and GPU pairing guidance, improving bottleneck troubleshooting resources, and managing corrections submitted by readers.

BottleneckLab separates four different evidence layers: manufacturer specifications, externally published performance evidence, calculator model estimates, and repeatable verification performed on the actual computer. Calculator percentages are treated as directional planning estimates, not as measured FPS loss or guaranteed upgrade gains.

The editorial goal is to help readers decide whether to keep their current hardware, try a free configuration fix, verify a suspected CPU-side or GPU-side limit, or research an upgrade only when a confirmed problem blocks a real performance target.

Ethan Cole does not claim that BottleneckLab remotely scans visitor hardware or personally benchmarks every CPU and GPU combination. Real-system monitoring, official compatibility information, and clearly disclosed test conditions take priority when they conflict with a general estimate.