How to Boost FPS on Any PC -- Complete Windows Optimization Guide 2026

Introduction -- Why Software Kills Your FPS

Most players chasing higher frame rates immediately think about hardware: a new GPU, more RAM, a faster CPU. Those upgrades genuinely help, but they are the expensive path. What most guides skip is that Windows, as shipped, actively works against gaming performance in several measurable ways. It throttles CPU clocks to save power. It runs background capture processes that continuously write to disk. It polls for controller input every frame even when no controller is connected. It lets real-time antivirus scanning intercept game asset loads at the worst possible moments. It applies aggressive power management to the GPU scheduling pipeline. None of these issues require a hardware upgrade to fix.

This guide covers twelve areas where Windows configuration directly affects your frame rate. Each section includes the exact steps to make the change, the reasoning behind why it helps, and any caveats about when to skip it. These tweaks apply to any gaming PC regardless of GPU brand, generation, or budget. A GTX 1060 with a properly configured Windows installation will consistently outperform the same GPU running default Windows settings -- often by 10 to 20 percent more FPS and significantly smoother frametimes.

Work through the sections in order. Some changes require a restart. By the time you reach the in-game settings section at the end, you will have addressed every common software bottleneck that prevents Windows from delivering the FPS your hardware is actually capable of.

1. Windows Power Plan -- Switch to High Performance

Windows ships with a power plan called Balanced as the default. Balanced mode is designed to lower CPU clock speeds aggressively during light workloads and raise them only when sustained load is detected. This approach works well for office tasks and extends laptop battery life. For gaming, it is a problem.

Modern games generate CPU load in very short, intense bursts -- calculating physics, running AI, preparing draw calls. These bursts happen in microseconds. Balanced mode's frequency scaling algorithm has a reaction delay: it takes a measurable amount of time to detect that more CPU performance is needed and ramp up the clock speed. By the time the clock ramps up, the burst may already be over. This mismatch between game workload patterns and Windows frequency scaling creates micro-stalls that appear as frametime spikes even when your average FPS looks fine.

High Performance mode keeps the CPU at or near maximum frequency continuously, eliminating the ramp-up delay entirely. The cost is higher idle power draw and more heat from the CPU -- acceptable tradeoffs when you are actively gaming. The gain is particularly noticeable on AMD Ryzen systems, older Intel chips, and any system where the CPU is close to the gaming performance threshold.

How to change the power plan

1. Press Win + R, type powercfg.cpl, press Enter.
2. In the Power Options window, select High Performance. If it is not visible, click Show additional plans.
3. Close the window. No restart required.

On a laptop, only switch to High Performance when plugged into mains power. Running it on battery will drain the pack noticeably faster and can cause thermal throttling on thin chassis designs. On a desktop, keep it on High Performance whenever gaming and switch back to Balanced when doing extended productivity work if you are concerned about power consumption.

2. Update GPU Drivers -- Nvidia Game Ready vs AMD Adrenalin

GPU driver updates are not cosmetic. Major driver releases routinely include game-specific optimizations that improve performance in recently released titles by 5 to 15 percent. Running year-old drivers on current games leaves measurable FPS on the table.

Nvidia: Download drivers from the Nvidia website directly. Choose Game Ready Driver releases for gaming -- these are tested extensively against popular titles. Studio Drivers are optimized for creative applications and sometimes lag behind in game optimizations. Install with the Custom Install option and check Clean Install to remove leftover shader caches and configuration from the previous driver.

AMD: Download AMD Adrenalin from AMD's website. Adrenalin Software includes the driver plus AMD's Radeon overlay. Use Full Install for a clean slate. If you want only the driver without AMD's software overlay, download the Minimal Install variant -- it installs the same core driver with a smaller footprint, which can slightly reduce background CPU usage.

DDU clean install -- when you need it

If you are switching from Nvidia to AMD (or vice versa), or if a driver update has caused instability, a clean install using Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) is the correct approach. DDU removes all driver files, registry entries, and shader caches left behind by normal uninstall processes -- residual files that can cause conflicts and stuttering.

1. Download DDU from Wagnardsoft's official site. Download the new driver package but do not install it yet.
2. Boot into Safe Mode (hold Shift while clicking Restart, then Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Startup Settings → Restart → press 4).
3. Run DDU. Select your GPU brand in the dropdown. Click Clean and restart.
4. After the restart (now in normal mode), install the new driver. Do not connect to the internet until the driver is installed to prevent Windows Update from pushing a different driver version.

3. Disable Xbox Game Bar and Game DVR

Xbox Game Bar is Microsoft's built-in overlay for screenshots, clips, and performance monitoring. Game DVR is the background recording component that continuously buffers recent gameplay so you can retroactively save clips. Both of these features run in the background while you game, and Game DVR in particular creates consistent CPU and disk I/O overhead that causes frametime spikes.

Game DVR works by maintaining a rolling buffer of encoded game video in memory and periodically flushing it to disk. Every time a flush happens -- and they happen frequently on active gameplay -- the encoder process competes for CPU time with your game, and the disk write competes with any asset streaming your game is doing. On systems with a slow HDD instead of an SSD, these disk write spikes are severe enough to create noticeable stutter even when average FPS appears stable in a framerate counter.

Disable Xbox Game Bar

1. Open Settings → Gaming → Xbox Game Bar.
2. Toggle Enable Xbox Game Bar for things like recording game clips, screenshots, and broadcasting to Off.

Disable Game DVR background recording

1. Open Settings → Gaming → Captures.
2. Set Record in the background while I'm playing a game to Off.
3. Set Record audio when I record a game to Off.

4. Enable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS)

Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling, abbreviated as HAGS, changes how the CPU and GPU communicate frame scheduling work. In the traditional Windows GPU scheduling model, the CPU's GPU scheduler manages the queue of rendering work and decides when to submit each batch of commands to the GPU. This puts scheduling overhead on the CPU and introduces latency in the render pipeline.

HAGS moves the GPU scheduling responsibility to dedicated firmware on the GPU itself. The GPU manages its own work queue, reducing the round-trips between CPU and GPU scheduler and lowering the latency between a frame being prepared and being rendered. In CPU-bound gaming scenarios -- where the CPU is the limiting factor rather than the GPU -- HAGS can meaningfully reduce frametimes and input lag.

How to enable HAGS

1. Open Settings → System → Display → Graphics (Windows 11) or Settings → Display → Graphics Settings (Windows 10).
2. Click Change default graphics settings.
3. Toggle Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling to On.
4. Restart your PC.

When to avoid HAGS

HAGS requires a GPU from the 2019 generation or newer: Nvidia RTX 20-series and newer, or AMD RX 5000-series (Navi) and newer. On older GPUs like the GTX 10-series (1060, 1070, 1080) or AMD RX 400/500-series (RX 480, RX 580), HAGS may be available in the settings but tends to increase frame time variance rather than reduce it -- the older GPU firmware was not designed for this scheduling path. If you are on an older GPU, leave HAGS disabled. If you are on a supported newer GPU, enable it, play for a session, and compare smoothness. The gains are most noticeable in games that are CPU-limited and in fast-paced titles where low input latency matters.

5. Clean Up Background Apps and Startup Items

Every process running in the background during a game competes for CPU time, memory bandwidth, and disk I/O. Most Windows systems accumulate background software over time -- chat clients, cloud sync services, browser extensions loading update checkers, RGB lighting software, OEM update utilities -- all of which quietly consume resources that your game could be using.

Kill background processes before gaming

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
2. Click the CPU column header to sort by CPU usage. Look for anything using more than 1–2% that you do not need open.
3. Click the Memory column header. Look for processes consuming large amounts of RAM that are not the game.
4. Right-click any non-essential process and select End Task. Be conservative -- do not kill system processes, only identifiable applications like browsers, Discord, Spotify, or update services.

Disable unnecessary startup items

1. In Task Manager, click the Startup apps tab (Windows 11) or Startup tab (Windows 10).
2. Review every enabled item. Disable anything that is not essential: browser auto-launchers, OEM software, cloud backup agents, gaming platform overlay helpers that you do not actively use.
3. Right-click each item and select Disable. This does not uninstall the software -- it just prevents it from launching at boot, which keeps RAM usage lower before you even open a game.

After trimming startup items, restart your PC and check Task Manager again before gaming to confirm the cleanup stuck. Pay particular attention to RGB software like iCUE, Armoury Crate, or NZXT CAM -- these applications are notorious for high background CPU and RAM usage and can usually be set to minimise to tray or not start with Windows without affecting lighting functionality.

6. Exclude Game Folders from Windows Defender Scanning

Windows Defender's real-time protection scans files as they are accessed. In a game that streams assets from disk -- textures, audio, level geometry -- every file read can be intercepted by Defender for inspection before the game receives it. In open-world titles that continuously load assets while you move through the world, this creates a measurable load-time and stutter overhead.

The fix is not to disable Defender entirely -- that would leave your system unprotected. The correct approach is to add your game installation folders as exclusions, so Defender skips scanning files in those directories. Game files are read-only during play and were scanned when first downloaded, so real-time scanning during gameplay provides no meaningful security benefit while actively degrading performance.

Add exclusions in Windows Defender

1. Open Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Manage settings.
2. Scroll to Exclusions and click Add or remove exclusions.
3. Click Add an exclusion → Folder.
4. Add your Steam library folder (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common), your Epic Games library folder, and any other game installation directories.
5. Also add the game's save data folder if it is in a separate location, and any mod folder directories for modded titles.

7. Enable Windows Game Mode

Windows Game Mode, introduced in Windows 10 Creators Update and improved significantly in Windows 11, does two things when active. It prioritizes the game process for CPU scheduler time, reducing the chance that background processes will interrupt game frames. It also suppresses Windows Update from performing disk-intensive update operations and driver installs while a game is running in the foreground.

The combination of these behaviors makes gaming sessions more consistent, particularly on lower-end hardware where there is less CPU headroom to absorb background interruptions. Game Mode does not add FPS in isolation -- it primarily reduces the floor, meaning it prevents the worst-case frame drops rather than increasing the best-case ceiling.

Enable Game Mode

1. Open Settings → Gaming → Game Mode.
2. Toggle Game Mode to On.

Game Mode activates automatically when Windows detects a full-screen game is running. You do not need to manually activate it per game. On Windows 11, Game Mode also integrates with the Auto HDR and Variable Refresh Rate features, so keeping it enabled ensures those features engage correctly if your display and GPU support them.

8. Set Virtual Memory and Page File Correctly

Virtual memory (the page file) is disk space Windows uses as overflow when physical RAM fills up. With System managed size -- the default -- Windows calculates the page file size dynamically. On systems with limited RAM, this dynamic sizing can result in page file expansions mid-game, which creates a visible stall as Windows writes to disk to create more virtual memory headspace. Setting a fixed, pre-allocated page file eliminates this mid-session expansion entirely.

How to configure the page file

1. Press Win + R, type sysdm.cpl, press Enter.
2. Go to the Advanced tab → Performance → Settings.
3. Go to the Advanced tab → Virtual memory → Change.
4. Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
5. Select your drive, choose Custom size, and enter the values from the table below.
6. Click Set, then OK, and restart your PC.

RAM	Initial Size	Maximum Size	Drive
8 GB RAM	8192 MB	16384 MB	SSD preferred
16 GB RAM	4096 MB	8192 MB	Any drive
32 GB RAM	2048 MB	4096 MB	Any drive

On an 8 GB system, setting a generous page file is critical. Many modern titles -- open-world games like Cyberpunk 2077, GTA VI, and even some multiplayer titles -- regularly push memory usage past 8 GB when background processes are included. Without a pre-allocated page file, Windows will stall to expand it. With the values above, the page file is pre-committed at startup and never needs to grow mid-session. Place it on your SSD if possible -- SSD page file access is fast enough to be minimally disruptive, whereas HDD page file usage causes severe stutter.

On a 16 GB system, the risk of mid-game expansion is lower, but a custom fixed-size page file still prevents Windows from wasting time on dynamic resizing decisions. The smaller values above are sufficient and avoid wasting too much SSD space.

9. Check for Thermal Throttling

Thermal throttling is the single most commonly overlooked cause of FPS drops in gaming PCs. Every modern CPU and GPU has a maximum operating temperature threshold -- typically 95°C for CPUs and 83-90°C for GPUs. When that threshold is reached, the hardware automatically reduces its clock speeds to bring temperatures down. This thermal reduction looks identical to an FPS drop from a performance bottleneck, but the cause and the fix are entirely different.

A system that is thermally throttling will show stable average FPS during low-intensity scenes, then drop sharply during demanding sequences -- exactly when you need the most performance. The drops are inconsistent and often surprise players who assume their hardware is more capable than it appears.

Diagnose with HWiNFO64

HWiNFO64 is a free monitoring tool that logs every hardware sensor in your system. Download it from HWiNFO's official website. Run it in Sensors-only mode during a gaming session:

1. Open HWiNFO64 → Sensors.
2. Find your CPU package temperature and watch it during gameplay. If it reaches 90°C or higher on a desktop CPU (85°C for most Intel chips), you are likely throttling.
3. Find your GPU temperature. If it reaches 85°C or higher under sustained load, the GPU is approaching its throttle point.
4. Also check the CPU Power and CPU Core Clocks rows. If clock speeds drop significantly below their rated boost frequency during load, throttling is confirmed.

Fixing thermal throttling

The most effective fixes, in order of impact:

• Clean dust from the cooler. Dust acts as thermal insulation on heatsink fins. Even a moderate dust buildup can raise CPU temperatures by 10-20°C. Remove the side panel, use compressed air to blow out the heatsink fins, case fans, and GPU cooler. Do this with the PC powered off and unplugged.
• Repaste the CPU. Thermal paste between the CPU die and heatsink base dries out over time, typically after 3-5 years. Dried paste creates air gaps that dramatically reduce thermal transfer. Replacing it with quality paste (Noctua NT-H1, Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, or similar) routinely drops CPU temperatures by 10-15°C on older systems.
• Improve airflow. Check that your case fans are pulling air in from the front and bottom (intake) and exhausting from the rear and top (exhaust). Reversed fan orientations create pressure imbalances that trap hot air. Ensure cables are routed away from fan paths.
• Upgrade the CPU cooler. If your CPU is running a stock Intel cooler (the thin aluminum boxed cooler), replacing it with a budget tower cooler like a DeepCool AK400 or Cooler Master Hyper 212 is one of the most cost-effective hardware upgrades available, often halving CPU temperatures under load.

10. Storage -- Why SSD vs HDD Still Matters for Gaming

For most games, the GPU is doing the heavy lifting during active gameplay and storage speed appears irrelevant -- frames are rendered from data already in RAM and VRAM, not from disk. The place where storage becomes critical is streaming: open-world games that continuously load new terrain, textures, and audio as you move through the world. On a hard disk drive (HDD), this streaming creates noticeable hiccups and pop-in because HDDs cannot seek and read data fast enough to keep pace with traversal speed.

A typical 7200 RPM HDD delivers sequential read speeds of 100-180 MB/s with seek times of 8-12ms. An entry-level SATA SSD delivers 500-550 MB/s sequential reads with seek times under 0.1ms. An NVMe SSD delivers 3,500-7,400 MB/s depending on the generation. The gap between HDD and even a basic SATA SSD is so large that open-world titles like GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Cyberpunk 2077 show visibly smoother traversal and dramatically faster load times when moved from HDD to SSD.

If your game is installed on an HDD and you have an SSD available -- even a small 120 GB or 250 GB one -- move your most-played games to the SSD first. You do not need to reinstall Windows. In Steam, right-click a game → Properties → Local Files → Move install folder and point it to your SSD location. The difference in open-world games is immediately obvious and requires no other change to the system.

11. In-Game Settings That Universally Boost FPS

Beyond OS tweaks, several in-game settings categories have disproportionately large performance impacts across virtually all modern game engines. Adjusting these before fine-tuning other options delivers the best FPS per visual quality tradeoff available.

Shadows -- the biggest single impact

Shadow rendering is consistently the most GPU-intensive setting in modern game engines. Shadows require the GPU to render the scene multiple times per frame -- once from each light source's perspective to build shadow maps, then again from the camera to composite them. High or Ultra shadow quality settings use large shadow map resolutions (4096×4096 or higher) and cascaded shadow maps that cover large areas at full resolution. Dropping from Ultra to Medium shadows typically saves 10-20% GPU time without a dramatic visible difference at normal playing distances. Drop to Low if you need more performance -- shadow map resolution decreases but directional shadows remain visible and readable.

Ambient Occlusion (AO) -- turn it off first

Ambient Occlusion adds contact shadows in the corners and creases of geometry -- the subtle darkening where two surfaces meet. It significantly improves perceived depth and realism. It also runs as a full-screen post-process pass every frame, consuming GPU time proportional to your screen resolution. Turning AO off is a clean win for performance: the visual change in motion is subtle (AO is most visible in screenshots and static scenes), and the GPU time recovered is consistent across all scenes. Turn off SSAO, HBAO, or any named AO setting as a first cut when a game is struggling to hit your target framerate.

Motion blur -- off, always

Motion blur applies a directional blur filter based on camera and object velocity. In theory it makes movement look smoother at lower frame rates. In practice it reduces visual clarity during the moments of highest action, makes targeting harder, and consumes GPU post-processing time every frame. No competitive or performance-focused player uses motion blur. Turn it off in every game. The only context where motion blur has any value is in slow-paced cinematic experiences where you are watching rather than reacting.

Other settings worth reducing

• Anti-aliasing: MSAA 4x or 8x is extremely expensive. Switch to TAA or FXAA as a cheaper alternative, or disable anti-aliasing entirely if you are not tearing at full resolution. DLSS, FSR, and XeSS upscaling built into modern games include anti-aliasing as part of their upscaling pass -- enabling upscaling and disabling separate AA options is usually the best performance per quality tradeoff available.
• Draw distance / Level of Detail: Lowering LOD distances reduces the polygon count of distant objects. The visual change is minimal at normal gameplay ranges, but the GPU and CPU savings from not rendering distant high-detail geometry are meaningful, particularly in open-world games with large view distances.
• Screen Space Reflections (SSR): Real-time screen-space reflections are a significant GPU cost. Dropping from High to Low, or disabling SSR entirely, saves notable GPU time. The visual tradeoff is less accurate reflections on water, glass, and wet surfaces.
• Volumetric lighting / Fog: Volumetric light shafts and fog volumes use ray-marching calculations that are expensive at high quality settings. Low or Off on volumetric settings rarely changes gameplay readability and consistently saves GPU cycles.

Conclusion -- Software First, Hardware Later

Working through the twelve steps in this guide systematically addresses every common software-side cause of low FPS and poor frametimes on Windows. The correct order is: fix the power plan and background processes first (immediate impact), clean up drivers and OS settings next, address thermal throttling if monitoring shows it is happening, then adjust in-game settings as a final layer of optimization.

Most players who complete this process see 10 to 25 percent more average FPS and substantially smoother frametimes -- not because their hardware changed, but because Windows was previously working against the hardware it was running on. The RTX 4060 or RX 7600 that was struggling at 90 FPS was always capable of 110 FPS; Windows defaults were simply preventing it from getting there.

Hardware upgrades still matter when you have genuinely hit the ceiling of what your GPU can render at a given resolution and quality level. But before spending money on new parts, the steps here cost nothing and consistently deliver real, measurable improvements. Run HWiNFO64, confirm you are not thermally throttling, verify your driver is current, switch the power plan to High Performance, and kill Game DVR. Those five changes alone will make most gaming PCs noticeably faster in under ten minutes.