No matter what your PC components are, there are ways to squeeze out some extra frames-per-second. If you have the latest game and it’s still unplayable even after all the tricks outlined in this article, you’re probably due for an upgrade.
1. Reduce your resolution
The resolution that you play at has the biggest effect on gaming performance. If you are not getting an adequate frame rate at 2560×1440, then drop to 1920×1080. The number of pixels is reduced by about 44%, but the performance will improve by about 40%. Going from 1920×1080 to 1600×900 is a 30% drop in pixel count, but will give you about a 20% boost in frame rate. Lowering the resolution will make your game look more pixelated, but that might be a necessary sacrifice in order to run the game at an acceptable frame rate.
Lowering the resolution should give you more frames per second, but don't adjust the resolution here. Instead, load your chosen game and look for the graphics settings. Here you can change the resolution and many other settings.
2. Update your graphics card drivers
This is a pretty simple one, and most people will already have this base covered. Running old drivers — the software your video card uses — can be a very large detriment to your FPS, though many people fail to update their drivers to the latest versions.
To update your drivers, you must first figure out which video card you have. Once you know your GPU, download the latest drivers from the company’s website, whether it is Intel, NVIDIA, or AMD. Don’t use the card manufacturers site, such as ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, or Sapphire. Simply find the driver you need, select the appropriate operating system, download the driver and follow the instructions given. Thankfully, most modern graphics cards will automatically prompt you to update your drivers if you have automatic updates turned on.
3. Change the game’s video settings
Just about everything in the game settings, such as shadow quality and draw distance, can affect your FPS. If you’re not getting the performance you’d like, try lower some of the video settings.
Also, NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience and AMD’s Gaming Evolved clients will automatically optimize your game’s video settings based on your hardware.
Adjusting anti-aliasing can be particularly helpful for improving sub-par performance. Anti-aliasing smooths out lines around borders of objects to make them less pixelated, which can take a lot of hardware power. In your games settings, first try disabling anti-aliasing altogether and then slowly turning it up to the point that it works while still leaving you satisfied with your FPS.
The same sentiment goes for most other graphics settings, including draw distance and shadows. Lighting effects, including shadows, tend to be real performance drains, so if you can live with basic effects, you can make the difference between a game being unplayable and playable.
4. Overclock your hardware
This isn't something we recommend for everyone, but if you know what you're doing and understand that there's a risk of breaking your graphics card, CPU, and RAM, you can run them faster. This should give you a few extra fps.
Your first port of call should be the graphics card, since this has the most direct impact on fps. You may find an option to overclock the GPU in the driver itself (launch the interface from the relevant icon in the Windows Notification area). Alternatively, you might need to track down third-party software.
Overclocking the CPU and RAM is easier, as you should find the settings in your PC's BIOS. Simply reboot, press Delete (or whichever key takes you to the BIOS) and look for the performance settings.
5. Install Windows 10 Creators Update
If you have Windows 10, you should make sure to install the Creators Update, released in April 2017. This includes a Game Mode feature, which prioritises your computer's resources on whatever game you're playing, delegating background tasks to specific CPU cores for an overall performance boost.
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