How to Boost FPS and Optimize Your Windows 10 /11 PC for Gaming
This article will show you how to optimize your PC for gaming, increase FPS, and improve your GPU’s performance.
Last updated
This article will show you how to optimize your PC for gaming, increase FPS, and improve your GPU’s performance.
Last updated
PC gaming isn't as simple as console gaming. Instead of plug and play, it's more plug and pray that your games run smoothly.
Low FPS, or frames per second, is when your game slows down because your computer doesn’t have enough power or memory to run it properly. Common causes of low FPS are a weak graphics card, old graphics drivers, an outdated CPU, or insufficient RAM. The number of frames shown on your monitor each second is known as your frame rate and is measured in FPS — frames per second. If your computer isn’t powerful enough to keep generating all these frames, the frame rate will fall. This results in the game looking and feeling as though it were running in slow motion.
But our eyes can only perceive the visual clues in the environment around us at a certain rate due to how quickly they move. With most people being able to detect changes in smoothness in a screen around 90 frames per second maximum. Although experts find it difficult to agree on a precise number, the general consensus is that the human eye FPS for most individuals is between 30 and 120 frames per second.
Enable Game Mode in Windows 10
Lower your resolution
Remove unused programs and bloatware
Enable Game Mode in Windows 10
Game Mode is a built-in tool designed to optimize Windows 10 for gaming — whether you’re gaming on a prehistoric museum antique or a custom-built, bleeding-edge powerhouse. Game Mode deactivates background activities like Windows updates and app notifications to help your computer boost FPS in your games.
Open your Settings by clicking the cog icon in the Start menu.
1. Open your Settings by clicking the cog icon in the Start menu. 2. Select the Gaming category. 3. Select Game Mode from the menu on the left and confirm that the Game Mode switch is toggled On
Now the gaming mode will help boost FPS and improve performance any time you play a game in Windows 10.
Lower your resolution
Unless you have a super-high-end gaming PC, you may need to make some sacrifices in the graphics department for higher FPS. An average computer simply can’t run modern games at ultra-high resolutions while also putting out a constant 60 FPS. As resolution increases, the number of pixels on your screen goes up — and so does the strain on your GPU.
Lowering your game’s resolution can improve FPS by making your GPU’s job easier.
Find the resolution settings within your game’s options menu. Experiment to see what your machine can handle and find the optimal balance of clear graphics and better FPS for your Windows 10 gaming.
Does Windows get increasingly slower with each program you install on your PC or laptop — directly impacting all your games? This is because a lot of programs run background activities even when they’re not being used, which waste your computer’s valuable memory.
The best thing to do is uninstall these apps. In the search box, start typing "add" and the add or remove programs option will come up. Click it. Scroll on down to the offending app, click it, and then click Uninstall. Do this for each bloatware application.
If you don't see the app listed under settings...
Sometimes, you won't find the app listed in the settings apps & features panel. In those cases, you might be able to right-click on the menu item and select Uninstall.
Uncheck 'Enhance pointer precision'
Enable 'Game Mode'
Disable 'Record what happened'
Disable unnecessary apps in Startup
Check GPU priorities on games
Check 'Power Plan'
Whether or not you have acceleration disabled in the bundled software of your chosen gaming mouse, it's possible that Windows is still adding a little into the mix. The 'Enhance pointer precision' feature is handy to have enabled on a laptop, keeping your trackpad usable, but on a desktop gaming setup it's worth turning off to make sure there is no acceleration in any of your games. Hit the Win key on your keyboard, type Mouse, and it will bring up the relevant screen from Settings. From here click on Additional mouse settings and it will open up one of those ancient Windows dialogue boxes that haven't been redesigned since forever. Click on the Pointer Options tab and uncheck the Enable pointer precision box at the top.
Yes, you read that right. You should enable Game Mode. Microsoft has worked hard on the feature over the last six months or so to ensure any of the previous stuttering or input lag that has plagued it in the past is a fading memory. Now you can enable it without impacting performance, and avoid Windows trying to pop up with notifications, or driver updates, or deciding to restart on a whim. Hit the Win key, type Game Mode, and then make sure the feature is enabled. It likely will be on by default, but I do know some people will disable it almost because of muscle memory at this point.
A feature that Windows 11 now surfaces is the ability to assign GPU priorities on a per-application basis. On a desktop rig, with a single graphics card that's maybe not such a big deal, as the High performance and Power saving modes only have one GPU option anyway. But, for a gaming laptop, which will have both, ensuring you're definitely using the right graphics silicon for the job is useful. Hit the Win key and type Graphics. Then you can either go through the list of apps on the screen, or browse your PC to add a particular app on your system. Then click the app you want to prioritise in the list, hit Options, and then check whichever GPU option you would like that app to use and click Save.
If you're into your game capture shenanigans then chances are that you've already got a favorite app for that. Whether you're a die-hard OBS fan, or happy to go with AMD or Nvidia's driver-based capture settings, you can probably ignore the one baked into Windows. Hit the Win key, type Capture and that will take you to the Gaming > Captures dialogue in settings. The main thing to do is make sure Record what happened is disabled as that will ensure Windows isn't recording things in the background along with Nvidia or AMD.
A classic part of getting Windows running nicely, whether you're talking about gaming or just general system performance, is ensuring the bloatware is managed. On a fresh install you probably won't have a huge number of apps running on startup, but a few months down the line, after different drivers and peripheral apps are added to your system, it starts to fill up. Right-click the Windows 'start' button and hit Task Manager. Then click the Startup tab and disable any software that you don't want to launch when you login to Windows. To do that you simply have to highlight the relevant app (or irrelevant app, maybe) and click the big Disable button.
Finally, altering your Power Plan settings might help. Though, honestly, I'm not convinced on a desktop gaming PC that it's that useful a setting to toy with. It's another one of those old menus, but if you hit the Win key, type Power plan, and click Choose a power plan, it'll allow you to pick which plan you want. It can unleash a little extra power from your system, but in these days of dynamic, thermal-based component performance, there's a chance that letting a specific chip draw as much power as it wants could mean it hits a thermal limit quicker and throttles performance sooner.
While you’re fiddling with your game’s resolution, tweak the other video settings as well for an additional FPS boost. Some games will have simple settings that you can adjust by level: ultra, high, medium, low, and so on. Other games will have sliders, numerical settings, or more nuanced controls.
We’ll walk you through every option as many of them can impact FPS or boost/lower overall game performance: Please note that these options will not be the most optimal setup for all computers, but about 80% of them will see a huge increase in FPS from changing these settings. (NOTE Not all games have the same options, but use all of the below that you can find.) Explore some of the following settings to try and get more FPS from your game.
Graphical details: Reduce the quality of things like shadows, lighting, textures, and reflections. Your game will look a bit less lifelike, but it should run more smoothly in return.
Anti-aliasing: Anti-aliasing smooths out the edges of the various objects in your game. Turn it off, then slowly increase it to the point where it’s making a difference in your graphics but not negatively impacting FPS. If the game offers different types of anti-aliasing, try each one and see what happens.
Draw distance: If you can, reduce draw distance to prevent the game from rendering far-off objects. With fewer things to render at once, your GPU can focus its available resources on your immediate environment.
Graphical effects: Tone down or get rid of motion blur, lens flares, and other types of graphical flare. It’s one less thing for your GPU to worry about.
VSync: Designed to prevent screen tearing — when your monitor shows portions of multiple frames at the same time — VSync synchronizes the game’s frame rate with the refresh rate of your monitor. It sounds helpful, and often is, but it can sometimes bring down FPS. Turn it off and see what happens. If you notice screen tearing, turn it back on.
Resolution – change this depending on your device and CPU/GPU, desktop computers should not have any problems running 1920×1080 but on a Laptop it’s recommended to use the 1280×768 resolution.
Window Mode– ALWAYS have this in full screen, Windowed or WindowedFullscreen will decrease your FPS and cause lag and/or frame tearing. Note full window is NOT compatible with alt tabbing.
Sky Quality, Ground Clutter Density, Ground Clutter Distance and Mesh Level of Detail – set these between lowest-middle, these will most certainly lower your overall FPS if you have them on max.
High-Quality Anisotropic Filtering – ON This feature creates smoother looking objects from various points of view.
Distance Field Ambient Occlusion – OFF Triggers soft shadows for distant objects.
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) – OFF Triggers soft shadows for nearby objects.
Sub Surface Scattering – ON It affects light behavior and makes foliage more realistic.
High-Quality Materials – OFF This option improves textures of in-game materials.
High-Quality VFX – OFF It affects all in-game water effects.
Simple Distance Character Movement – ON It relieves CPU from animations of distant characters.
High-Quality LODs – ON Improves the level of detail.
Extra Level Streaming Distance – OFF This will make map loading faster while moving fast.
Color Grading – ON Slightly improves colors. It won’t affect FPS.
Mesh Level of Detail (LOD) – Again. you can choose to disable/enable it by your own preferences. It affects GPU VRAM marginally.
Please see our Game pages following this guides page, on a per platform basis. These will guide you in setting up the best settings per game.
Your graphics card is the centerpiece of your gaming experience, but you can’t unleash its true performance without the right graphics driver. Updating your graphics card driver can be a huge FPS booster.
Nvidia GeForce: Go to the GeForce driver website, select your graphics card and Windows version from the list, and hit the Start Search button. Drivers marked as beta aren’t quite finished, but they should all run as smoothly as the final release — and they’ll likely increase FPS even more. If you have the GeForce Experience tool installed, you’ll get an automatic notification whenever Nvidia releases a new driver.
ATI Radeon: Go to the AMD software downloads website and select the appropriate device. This will give you access to the latest official driver that you can download and install. You can also install the beta driver to get more performance improvements or features.
Intel HD Graphics: Mostly found on ultra-books or tablets, the Intel graphics chipsets are the weakest of the bunch. We don’t recommend doing any sort of gaming on the HD 3000 or earlier, but Intel’s latest graphics chipsets can handle current games — though not at the highest possible resolution or with all the bells and whistles turned on. To get updated drivers, go to the Intel Download Center’s graphics page.
Graphics cards are unique in how you set them up for the most optimal use for games. The following two sections are for NVIDIA, and AMD graphic settings. These are the most popular two graphic options. Though others can be looked up on the internet. These settings are optimal for mid-grade pcs and will help in most cases to increase the Latency (FPS)
Whether you own the latest Nvidia flagship RTX card or have an older GTX one, you’ll still need to optimize control panel settings. Using the best Nvidia Control Panel settings is guaranteed to boost general PC and gaming performance.
Key Highlights
Make sure to update your Nvidia GPU drivers for the latest performance improvements and new settings in the Nvidia Control Panel.
Access the Nvidia Control Panel by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting the Nvidia Control Panel option.
The most important settings to configure are in the 3D settings section.
In the 3D settings, select the “Use the Advanced 3D image settings” option and apply changes.
In the detailed 3D settings, turn off Image Sharpening, Anisotropic Filtering, FXAA, and Gamma Correction-Anti Aliasing for best performance.
To properly utilize the horsepower of your GPU, the Nvidia Control Panel offers several features that you can play around with. Each feature in the Nvidia Control Panel has its own use and figuring out the right combination is a bit tiresome.
Lucky for you, we did a bit of research of our own and a heck of a lot of testing to bring you the best Nvidia Control Panel settings there are. So whichever Nvidia card you might be rocking, this guide is sure to unlock your GPU’s hidden potential and allow it to perform noticeably better in games.
Table of Contents
Install The Latest Nvidia Drivers
Best Nvidia Control Panel Settings
Summary
Before we start tinkering with the Nvidia Control Panel settings, we need to make sure that your GPU drivers are up-to-date. New updates from Nvidia pack a host of fixes and performance improvements while also adding a new setting or two in the Nvidia Control Panel sometimes.
To check for updates, you’ll need to open up the Nvidia GeForce Experience Application on your PC. Here’s how you can do that.
Click on the taskbar and expand it by clicking on the “^” icon.
Right, Click on the Nvidia Logo and select “Nvidia GeForce Experience” from the context menu.
Once you open Nvidia Geforce Experience, open the “Driver” tab. This will take you to the driver updating section of the GeForce Experience.
Here, click on the “Check for Updates” option to see if you have any new updates for your Nvidia GPU. If you have updates, a button will prompt you to download it and later “Express Install” it. If it doesn’t show any new updates after the scan, it means you’ve already got the latest drivers.
After you’re done updating your Nvidia GPU drivers, let’s now start applying the other Control Panel settings.
Now that we’ve updated the GPU driver to the latest version, it’s time to go through each setting in Nvidia Control Panel and select the best ones. To access the Nvidia Control Panel, simply follow the steps below.
To access the Nvidia Control Panel, all you have to do is “Right-Click” anywhere on the desktop.
After the context menu has opened, select the Nvidia Control Panel option.
Doing so will open the Nvidia Control Panel. As you can see, there are several settings we need to cover. I’ll go through each and help you configure the Nvidia Control Panel settings for all sections.
NOTE: Depending on if you’re on a laptop or desktop, some settings might be available to you while some won’t. So don’t worry if you can’t find a specific setting in your Nvidia Control Panel.
When you’ll open the Nvidia Control Panel, 3D settings are the first row of settings that you’ll need to configure. This is the most important section that will help you achieve optimal graphical performance in games.
Here, click on the first tab, and on the right, you’ll see Nvidia Icon spinning.
Select the second option that says, “Use the Advanced 3D image settings.”
After selecting the second option, apply the changes.
Once you're done, click on the “Take Me There” option right next to the second option to open detailed 3D settings.
Here’s where things start to get serious. There are a lot of settings that can be confusing and overwhelming. However, I’ll walk you through each setting one at a time and show you how to configure them for optimum performance. So let’s get started.
Since we’re setting up a global setting, we don’t need to apply image sharpening across the board. If you want, you can individually apply sharpening to the games you want through program settings.
Anisotropic Filtering is an option that’s configured in the in-game settings. So there’s no point turning it on in the global settings.
Fast approximate anti-aliasing or FXAA is a great mode of anti-aliasing that helps you improve textures in-game at a lower cost. However, we don’t need to turn it on across the board. So, best to keep it off.
Turn Gamma Corrections off. It helps you improve image quality, specifically in OpenGL programs which is why turning it on globally is a waste.
Similar to FXAA, set Antialiasing Mode to off as well as these settings are best configured within the in-game settings.
If you Alt+Tab out of your games more often and want to save up some GPU power, then turn Background Max Frames to 20. This helps you limit the resource dedicated to your game when you minimize it, giving breathing room to the other tasks you’re doing.
You should select all CUDA GPUs here.
Low Latency Mode is one of the most amazing features Nvidia provides to its GPU owners. It helps reduce latency in competitive games significantly without affecting FPS negatively. However, not every game requires this feature so it’s best not to enable it globally.
If you want to cap your framerate in every application, then use the Max Frame Rate feature. It’s a good alternative to V-Sync and simply caps your frame to your desired value which reduces tearing. It also helps you avoid pushing your GPU more than needed. You could disable it if you don’t want to cap your FPS in games.
Select your GPU here if you’d ever want to run any OpenGL games. This way, all OpenGL games will run through your GPU for the best performance.
If you own a laptop then leave this option as it is to avoid maxing out your GPU at all times. Instead, set power management to max only for individual games. However, if you want the best performance and all other concerns are secondary, then set Power Management Mode to Prefer Maximum Performance. It’ll ramp up your GPU and give you a noticeable boost in FPS. This will also solve any FPS drops that you’re experiencing.
Leave this selection as it is. Compiling and storing the game’s shader data on your PC requires Shader Cache.
If you have a monitor with variable refresh rate technology, select G-sync here. If you don’t see this option and you’re on a laptop, chances are Intel Optimus is blocking this option and there’s nothing much you can do to use G Sync. Unless your laptop has a MUX switch or Advanced Optimus that will let you activate G-sync.
MFAA is Nvidia’s proprietary anti-aliasing technology that’s not very useful in most games. Turning it globally might negatively affect your PC’s performance so best keep it off.
Anisotropic Sample Optimization drastically improves the visual quality in games with no major performance impact. Turn it on for the best visual clarity and optimized game performance.
Set Negative LOD Bias – Texture Filtering to Allow for texture sharpening in games.
Set the Texture Filtering – Quality option to high performance. As you could already tell, this will result in better performance in exchange for minor visual clarity. If you have a high-end PC, you can set this to Quality.
Turn on Texture Filtering – Trilinear Optimization to make textures sharper. This won’t only make textures better but also positively affect your gaming performance.
The setting for Threaded Optimization is Auto. Maintain it that way to utilize multiple CPU cores. This guarantees reliable performance in video games.
Since we’re not using V-Sync, we don’t need to activate Triple Buffering. So simply turn it off.
Here, disable V-Sync because it limits the in-game frame rate to the refresh rate of your monitor. Turn on V-Sync in the game’s settings rather than the Nvidia Control Panel if you are experiencing screen tearing.
In the end, make sure to click on the “Apply” button to save all the settings.
Now that wraps up the best Nvidia Control Panel Settings for managing the 3D settings section. These settings will give you improved performance on your PC. Other than these, there aren’t any more settings in the Control Panel you can tweak to increase performance.
If you’re on a desktop or using a laptop with a mux switch, then you’ll have access to the following settings. Even though these settings don’t essentially give you better FPS in games, they’re essential to optimize nonetheless.
These settings can give you the best performance, but there might be game errors that you might need to tackle.
Here, you have the option to set your resolution and other display settings. The settings you need to configure are:
Change the resolution to your monitor’s native resolution e.g. 1920×1080, 2560×1440, etc.
In the refresh rate section, choose the highest value available.
The “Customize” button will allow you to create custom resolutions. Leave this option for now unless you specifically need it.
In the color settings, select “Use Nvidia Color Settings.”
Select the “Highest (32-bit)” option in the Desktop Color Depth option.
Set Output Color Depth to 10bpc.
Click Apply to save changes.
These settings will mainly improve your display’s visual quality and improve color depth.
If you have a variable refresh rate monitor or laptop display that’s compatible with G-Sync, here’s how you can set up G-Sync in the Nvidia Control Panel.
Go to the Set-Up G-Sync tab on the Nvidia Control Panel sidebar.
Select the “Enable G-Sync, G-Sync Compatible” option.
If you mostly play your games in exclusive Fullscreen mode, select the “Enable for Full-Screen Mode” option. If you’re also playing games in windowed or borderless windowed modes, select “Enable for windowed or full-screen mode.” This second option will enable G-Sync for all applications.
Click Apply to save changes.
Nvidia Control Panel is an amazing place where you can freely tweak several settings according to your preferences. The settings conveyed in this guide were thoroughly tested and results showed visible FPS improvement in games. However, your mileage may vary.
We hope that our best Nvidia Control Panel settings guide was able to help you gain better performance in games.
How to get an Nvidia Control Panel?
You don’t have to download the Nvidia Control Panel separately as it comes packaged with your Nvidia GPU driver package. After you install drivers, simply restart your PC and right-click on the desktop to see the Nvidia Control Panel option.
I only see manage 3D settings in the Nvidia Control Panel. Where are the others? And what’s this Mux switch?
The reason you see limited Nvidia Control Panel settings is that you’re on a laptop whose display is connected to an integrated GPU (i.e. Intel UHD 6xx etc.) You’ll have access to other settings only if either you’re on a PC or your laptop has a mux switch. A Multiplexer (MUX) switch disables Optimus and connects your laptop’s display directly to Nvidia GPU. This not only gives you a 15-20% boost in performance but also gives you complete control of Nvidia Control Panel settings
Is the Nvidia Control Panel and GeForce Experience the same thing?
Not at all. Nvidia Control Panel and GeForce Experience are two separate software that comes with your GPU drivers.
There are two of the biggest PC GPU manufacturers to date, well, that is until Intel's GPUs are any good. One’s the green tank Nvidia and the other’s the red beast AMD. We’ve already done a detailed best Nvidia settings guide before. Now it’s time to cover the best AMD settings you can tweak in the Radeon Control Panel to get your performance numbers pumping.
Key Takeaways
The first thing you should do is update the device drivers of your AMD GPU using the AMD Adrenaline Radeon Software.
To optimize AMD global settings, enable Radeon Anti-Lag, disable AMD Radeon Chill along with Radeon Boost, and turn on Radeon Enhanced Sync.
Put Wait for Vertical Refresh to always off, disable Frame Rate Target Control, use application settings for Antialiasing, and multisampling for Antialiasing Method.
Disable both Morphological Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering, use performance for Texture Filtering Quality, and enable Surface Format Optimization.
Additionally, Tessellation Mode should override application settings, Maximum Tessellation Level should be off, and OpenGL Triple Buffering should be disabled.
Ultimately, you should clean Shader Cache by performing a full reset.
Updating AMD Drivers
Now before we go diving into the Radeon Software and start tweaking some settings, let’s make sure your GPU drivers are up to date.
AMD releases crucial GPU updates almost every month. These updated packages contain crucial fixes and performance improvements for the latest games. Sometimes AMD adds a feature or two geared towards improving gaming and productivity. So, let’s start this AMD settings guide by updating your GPU drivers first.
Update your AMD GPU Drivers
Open AMD Adrenaline Radeon Software from the desktop or Windows Search.
Once opening it, check out the “Drivers & Software's” section on the top right. Click on the “Check for Updates” button under it.
If you’ll have updated, it’ll inform you. Then, you can proceed to download the required updates.
Once the drivers finish downloading, click on the install button and an AMD utility will take you through the installation process.
After you’re done, simply reboot your PC.
Now you’re all locked and loaded to tweak their settings and get the most out of your AMD GPU. Let’s start optimizing the best AMD settings for the Radeon Control Panel.
Best AMD Radeon Settings
Now that we’re rocking the latest AMD drivers, it’s time to start tweaking the best AMD settings in the Radeon Control Panel. We’ll be tweaking the global settings so these take effect across every game you play. However, you can also apply the same settings in any particular game you like instead of enforcing them across the board in global settings.
Alright, let’s get to it then!
Optimizing AMD Radeon Global Settings
Radeon Anti-Lag is an AMD feature that works similarly to Nvidia’s Reflex or Low-Latency Mode. You should keep Anti-Lag enabled to reduce input lag and have better latency in games. This feature works best in competitive FPS shooters like CSGO, DOTA, or Valorant.
AMD Radeon Chill isn’t a “Chill” setting to turn on at all. It drastically reduces your GPU output to favor cooler temperatures. Less GPU output means worse gaming performance. If you’re struggling with high temperatures, I suggest checking for alternate solutions before resorting to this setting.
As good as Radeon Boost sounds, it isn’t something you want to turn on. How Radeon Boost “Boosts” your FPS is dynamically lowering your resolution to favor higher FPS. It’s definitely not worth it as graphics become a mess and you can barely make out characters in-game. That said, this setting does work great in very few titles so keep an eye out.
Image Sharpening is a nifty little tool by AMD that lets you sharpen the textures of in-game scenes. It’s particularly great if you’re using TAA antialiasing as it helps restore the crispness to textures. However, in some games, this can make things look worse. So check first before committing to applying sharpness to your games.
You can keep Radeon Enhanced Sync enabled if you don’t want to use V-sync. Vsync introduces input lag to your game and makes it choppy in many cases. However, using Enhanced sync will reduce screen tearing in games without really increasing input lag like traditional V-sync.
Wait for Vertical Refresh is basically turning on V-sync across all your games. It caps your FPS to your monitor’s refresh rate and introduces input lag and latency issues in games. I don’t recommend turning it on.
Apply the following in the advanced settings section:
Frame Rate Target Control caps your in-game FPS to a particular value you set here. Unless you need to cap FPS for a particular game, keep it disabled to avoid reducing your game’s performance unnecessarily.
Driver-Level antialiasing isn’t really worth it. The in-game options work great so no need for any other AA from Radeon Settings. Use Application Settings is the best option to select here.
Even though we won’t be using any driver-level antialiasing, here you can set the Antialiasing Method to Multisampling. Multisampling improves graphics quality significantly while keeping the performance impact to a minimum.
Morphological Antialiasing: Disabled
Morphological Antialiasing causes stuttering and FPS drops in games. Not many people are a fan of this setting and for good reason. Steer clear of it and keep it disabled.
Almost every DX11 onwards game takes care of Anisotropic Filtering natively so there’s no need to enable it in Radeon Settings.
Texture Filtering Quality is the best set to Performance mode. This is a good mix between visuals and performance and makes the best use of your AMD GPU powers.
Surface Format Optimization you can enable to smoothen in-game textures. However, it can break some games’ textures and make them muddily. Instead of keeping it enabled globally, I recommend enabling it for particular games in the Radeon Panel.
We’ll need to override Tessellation Mode from the Radeon settings to unlock Tessellation Level settings.
Disabling driver-level Tessellation will have a major impact on the performance of games. It’ll disable any sort of driver-level tessellation from making performance noticeably better in games.
OpenGL Triple Buffering should be disabled to avoid any issues with performance. Since it’s also a part of V-Sync, there’s no use enabling it here.
Reset Shader Cache is a great utility available inside the Radeon Settings. It helps clear out shader cache that builds up over time and helps improve performance in games. However, sometimes older shader cache can get corrupted causing problems. So it’s great to reset it every now and then to ensure games run buttery smooth.
And there you have it, folks. This was our dedicated and definitive guide to using the best AMD settings in the Radeon control panel. Every tweak made above is focused on getting you the best performance possible without compromising visuals. So, I hope it helps you squeeze that extra bit of performance out of your AMD GPU.
How to download AMD Radeon Software?
Go here. Select your GPU from the drop-down list and download the GPU driver the website recommends.
I messed up while tweaking AMD settings, how do I revert?
In AMD Software, go to settings and select System from the sub-menu. Here you’ll find Factory Reset and then click on Perform Reset. A warning message will appear, click Proceed to begin the reset or Cancel to back out. This will reset any settings that might be problematic so you can start fresh.
How much performance boost will I get by following the above guide?
The best AMD settings above aren’t just effective in terms of mere FPS count. They’ll ensure your games run smoothly without any stutter or crashes. However, you may observe a 10-15% performance boost depending on your GPU.
Upgrading to an SSD (solid state drive) won’t boost your game’s frame rate, but it will speed up your computer and reduce loading times while you play.
SSDs are much faster than mechanical hard disks, making them a great way to optimize your Windows 10 computer for gaming. Upgrading to an SSD (solid state drive) won’t boost your game’s frame rate, but it will speed up your computer and reduce loading times while you play. Choose an SSD with at least 800 GB of storage, though this is more like an absolute minimum than an effective starting point.
Upgrading your PC’s RAM will not only optimize your computer for gaming, but make it more powerful in general.
RAM (random access memory) is your computer’s resource pool for all current tasks. The more RAM you have, the more your computer can do at once. Upgrading your PC’s RAM will not only optimize your computer for gaming, but make it more powerful in general. Adding RAM can give you a significant FPS boost, though not as much as upgrading your GPU or CPU. Still, if you can afford the new RAM, it won’t hurt. If you’re adding RAM, make sure your new RAM modules match whatever you currently have. You don’t want to mix and match RAM types, confirm which types of RAM your motherboard can support. Then, buy one or more of the same RAM module.
As data is written to or deleted from your HDD hard disk, files become fragmented and will physically spread out all over the disk. Disk fragmentation will lead to a significant performance hit — especially with games — as the hard disk will need to collect all of the fragmented portions before it can process the entire file.
Whether you’re using a HDD or an SSD, clean up your drive now to boost your computer and optimize Windows 10 for gaming.
Open the Start menu and begin typing the word defragment. Choose Defragment and Optimize Drives from the search results. Select your Windows disk and hit Optimize. This will either defragment your HDD, or optimize your SSD via TRIM.
SSDs also benefit from regular cleanup with the TRIM function which tells your SSD to erase any data blocks that aren’t being used, which speeds up read and write speeds with more efficient data management. TRIM should be enabled by default for your SSD. But it can accidentally get switched off, which means your SSD won’t benefit from regular optimization.
Here’s how to enable SSD TRIM on your computer if necessary: Open Command Prompt: click the Start menu and type cmd into the search bar. Choose Run as administrator from the Command Prompt options and click Yes when prompted. Type in the command Fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify, and hit Enter. If this returns the result = 0, you’re good to go! Otherwise, TRIM isn’t supported and needs to be enabled. Try entering the command fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0. If that doesn’t help, you might need to upgrade your firmware to enable TRIM.
Increasing your virtual memory if you are running a machine with 4 or 8 gigabytes of ram will help with Downloading and installing mods, as well as the game will run the mods at a higher speed.
Go to the Start Menu and click on Settings.
Type performance.
Choose Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows.
In the new window, go to the Advanced tab and under the Virtual memory section, click on Change.
At the bottom of the new window, check what the Recommended value is and how it compares to Currently allocated.
If the current setting is significantly less than the recommended, uncheck the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives box at the top of the same windows and then click on Custom size.
Enter the Recommended value in the Initial Size box, and a larger figure in the Maximum size box.
Click OK to save the new settings. I usually set mine to 3 times the recommended. Usually somewhere around 3 gigs of extra virtural ram. But I use the the memory from one of my slaved storage discs. NOT my SSD.
When a Linux system is initially set up, a swap partition is created on the hard drive that will be used as virtual memory in Linux, along with other partitions used for data. Unfortunately, partitions on the hard drive cannot be re-sized without the loss of data. However, not all is lost if more swap is needed. If there is remaining space on a file system that can be used as swap, a swap file can be created that is used exclusively as additional virtual memory in Linux.
Step #1
Determine the amount of free space available with the "df" command. Decide upon the size of the swap file based upon the amount of free space.
Step #2
Create a swap file of the size decided upon earlier with the command "sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/swapfile bs=1M count=1024" where 1024 is the size of the swap file in megabytes and the full name of the swapfile is /mnt/swapfile.
A slow internet connection can cause extra lag in games. So though it won’t increase your FPS, boosting your Wi-Fi signal can help to reduce lag and increase gaming performance.
One of the best ways to boost your Wi-Fi signal at home is to reposition your router to a more central location. This helps your router provide Wi-Fi coverage to as much of your home as possible, while avoiding Wi-Fi blockers like thick walls, doors, and electrical interference from household appliances. The best place for your router will generally be in the center of your home, possibly in a corridor, and away from any thick walls or doors.
Update your router firmware
Your router’s firmware can quickly become outdated if you aren’t updating it regularly. In addition to helping boost your Wi-Fi signal, updating your router’s firmware can also prevent router hacks — many types of router malware are built to exploit vulnerabilities in older firmware. To update your router’s firmware, visit your router manufacturer’s website and download and install the most current software.
Switch your router to 5 GHz
Your router’s settings should allow you to choose between 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or both. A 5 GHz network is faster than a 2.4 GHz network, but 2.4 GHz is better at penetrating through obstacles. Enable both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz so that you’ll get optimum coverage no matter where in your home you are. You need to log into your router’s admin menu to enable 5 GHz. To do that, you need your router’s IP address. Your router’s IP address may be written somewhere on your router.
If not, you can find your router’s IP address in your Windows settings.
Click the Settings cog in the Start menu to open your settings.
Click Network & Internet.
In the Status menu, click View hardware and connection properties.
The Default gateway entry is your router’s IP address.
Copy your router’s IP address — you’ll need it to log into your router’s menu.
Here’s how to enable 5 GHz on your router to boost your Wi-Fi signal:
Log into your router menu.
Enter your router’s IP address into your browser, press Enter, and type in your username and password to log in.
Find your wireless settings options.
Change your settings to 5 GHz, or enable both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz (recommended).
Some routers allow you to create separate 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz networks. By doing so, you'll ensure that your 5 GHz–capable devices are all using the faster network.
By now, you’ve spent a lot of time on all these performance tweaks to optimize your computer for gaming. It’s time to check how much you’ve actually achieved. To Find your current FPS Some games have a built-in FPS counter. If you use Steam, press Alt + Tab to enable it using the overlay. I use this tool for finding current FPS: MSI Afterburner
Between 30 and 120 frames per second.
