How to Optimize Your Computer for Gaming

Regardless of whether your gaming PC is new or old, How to Optimize Your Computer for Gaming you need to make a few little adjustments to Windows to improve game performance. Although Windows isn’t designed with gamers in mind, you can make sure that nothing will stand in the way of you and your games by making a few tweaks to its settings. To set the stage for everything else, you should know that poor hardware is the main source of performance issues. Your frames per second may decrease far more with an outdated graphics card than with a straightforward Windows change. In many recent games, a gaming PC with four to eight gigabytes of RAM will not be able to match your frame rate. Estimate how much Windows settings will affect your gaming experience before making any changes, and think about upgrading first. Although it’s not much, it may build up.

How to turn off the game mode on Windows

Many people dislike Windows Game Mode since it severely hinders your gaming performance for an extended period. When you play in game mode, all of your system’s CPU power is directed to your game. These days, it’s basically like turning on your PC’s Do Not Disturb option with the vague hope that it may enhance the performance of select games.

How to disable the Game Bar on Xbox

Xbox Game Bar doesn’t truly slow you down, like Windows Game Mode does, or at least not any more than other overlays like Nvidia’s Shadowplay. However, if you want it off, “Record what happened” will alter your games far more than Game Bar. By right-clicking the Start button icon and choosing Settings, you may access your settings. Click Gaming and choose Xbox Game Bar. Turn the overlay off to remove it from your games, and depending on the title, you may see a little FPS boost.

How to activate Windows’ high-performance mode

If you’re using a gaming laptop, you can get even more gaming performance by switching to Windows’ high-performance power plan. The real effect differs greatly across games. For the majority of applications, the balanced mode that comes with your PC is perfect, but if you want to check if it will maintain your CPU at a high clock speed, make this easy tweak. Select Settings by right-clicking on the Windows Start button. At the bottom of the page, choose Additional power options after selecting Power & Sleep. Choose “High performance” in that window. Your computer’s speed and performance greatly influence a seamless and effective gaming experience. You may optimize your System and enhance your gaming experience by adjusting some deeply concealed settings and tools. These are the settings that every PC gamer needs to adjust right now. You’ve recently purchased a brand-new PC or constructed one on your own, and you’re eager to begin playing games. It’s not enough to install a brand-new copy of Windows and download your PC games; there are a few more things you need to do to set up your computer to run the optimal way. Sometimes, a few simple changes to Windows may have a huge impact.

How to optimize Windows services for more efficiency

You may be experiencing performance issues with your gaming PC from having too many background apps open. Many of them likely launch on autopilot once you turn on your computer. To minimize RAM and CPU use, you may always reduce that list to the necessities It’s simple to carry out. Use the Windows key to enter “run,” or choose Run by right-clicking Windows. Enter msconfig in the new text box. Navigate to the Services tab, choose Hide all Microsoft services, and then examine the available services to determine what’s happening. After selecting the services you do not wish to execute, click Apply. But use caution. Investigate services before disabling them; certain apps on your PC require them in order to operate. By going to Task Manager, you can also stop these services from ever running in the first place. Click Task Manager with a right-click on the Windows start button. Then, choose Startup, and as you move down the list, uncheck the items that will have the biggest effects. Although we’ve previously talked about increasing the frame rate your graphics card can provide, in this article, we’ll focus on further optimizing your gaming PC to get even greater performance. Game Mode is only one of several features designed with gaming in mind that Windows 11 offers. By turning off pointless background processes while you’re playing, framerates may be increased. Additionally, it stops Windows Update from prompting you to restart your computer or upgrade drivers automatically.

Use these procedures to make sure that game mode is enabled:
Click the Gaming tab in the sidebar of the Settings app after opening it.
Select “Game Mode” by clicking.
If the Game Mode toggle isn’t already engaged, flip it.

Turn off Windows alerts.

In relation to background processes, Windows allows you to turn off alerts when particular activities happen, such as game sessions. This is how to disable in-game notifications automatically:

Select System from the sidebar after launching the Settings app.
Select Notifications.
Toggle the “Do Not Disturb” feature on.
Check the box next to When playing a game in the drop-down menu.

Other do-not-disturb settings can be active at the same time. In reality, we would, at the very least, verify if an app is in full-screen mode, as it is possible that some games may not be correctly identified. Nobody wants alerts to interfere with other applications that are in full-screen mode.

Turn on hardware-enhanced GPU scheduling

A detailed explanation of hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling is difficult to provide. In summary, if you have a dedicated video card, this will allow the card to plan and render frames rather than requiring your CPU to do so. Some games may run better with this option enabled, but be careful—it might not have much of an impact on other games, and in rare instances, it can even cause lag. Regardless, we advise turning it on. Here’s how to toggle it

Type “graphics settings” into the Windows 11 search box after selecting it. To view the top result, press Enter.
Select Modify the default graphical settings.
Turn on or off the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling toggle. For this modification to take effect, you will need to reboot.

Optimize Windows UI for optimal performance

Although this is optional, you may make Windows prioritize speed by turning off extraneous animations and other visual effects if you want to get the most out of its performance. Remember that full-screen games won’t be affected by this.

Type appearance and performance into the Windows 11 search box after selecting it. To view the top result, press Enter.
For optimal performance, select Adjust under the Visual Effects tab.
Navigate to the Advanced tab and confirm that Programs is set to optimal performance.

Adjust the refresh rate of your display

It’s only sometimes that Windows will use the highest refresh rate possible on the linked monitor. Otherwise, the output may be a paltry 60Hz. It’s worth checking the settings in both Windows and the onboard menus on your display. Within Windows

On your desktop, use the right-click menu to select Display Settings.
After swiping down, select Advanced Display.
Select a refresh rate by clicking. Select the highest refresh rate for your display from the drop-down option.

You can be using the incorrect port or cable if you are still waiting to see the rate you were anticipating. Only DisplayPort or HDMI 2.1—most likely the former—allow some screens to reach their maximum refresh rates.

Modify the Windows startup configuration

A lot of the programs you install could load by default when your computer boots up. This can be useful, but only if you really need them; otherwise, they’re merely background programs that eat up CPU and memory on your computer.

Removing programs from the Windows start-up list without removing them is rather simple

In the Windows 11 search bar, choose Task Manager and type it. To open it, press Enter.
Locate and choose the Startup tab from the sidebar.
Look through the list of applications that show up and see which ones you recognize but use only sometimes.
Tap the troublesome applications with a right-click, then select Disable
Use caution since some of these programs may be essential to the operation of your computer. For example, turning off mouse software may restrict the use of your mouse’s buttons.

Switch to Ethernet from Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is always becoming more dependable and quicker; if you can afford it, we’ve already reached Wi-Fi 7. However, there are still benefits to connecting your gaming PC straight from your router to a high-quality Ethernet connection. Nothing is quicker, and there is almost little possibility of signal interference. Although a Cat-6 cable, which has a maximum speed of 1Gbps, is what we advise utilizing, you may future-proof your network by investing in a 40Gbps Cat-8 connection if you have extra money.

Final Words

To guarantee you obtain the greatest performance possible, various procedures are involved in optimizing your computer for gaming. How to Optimize Your Computer for Gaming To enhance your gaming experience, start by upgrading the drivers for your hardware, particularly the graphics card. Keeping your drivers up to date is essential since manufacturers often issue upgrades that enhance performance and address problems. Next, change the power settings on your computer so that performance is given priority. You may accomplish this on Windows by selecting the High-Performance plan from the Power Options menu in the Control Panel. When you play games, this option makes sure your computer runs as efficiently as possible. Keeping your starting programs under control is another crucial stage. When your computer boots up, a lot of apps launch automatically and use up system resources. By opening the Task Manager, selecting the Startup tab, and removing applications that you don’t need to execute at startup, you can eliminate needless startup programs. Making sure your disk space is clean is also crucial. Your computer’s speed may be hampered over time by the accumulation of temporary files, cache, and other superfluous data. To delete these files, use third-party apps or Windows’ built-in utilities like Disk Cleanup. If you’re using an HDD, you should also think about defragmenting your hard drive because it can speed up read and write operations. Performance gains can be achieved by optimizing ingame settings. A more fluid gaming experience may be attained by lowering the resolution and modifying visual settings like texture quality, shadows, and anti-aliasing. Presets like Low, Medium, High, and Ultra are available in many games and can serve as a useful place to start when making modifications. Try adjusting these parameters to see what strikes the ideal ratio between performance and visual quality.

Optimizing your PC for Gaming may also be achieved by turning on Windows’ Game Mode. Game Mode reduces background processes and boosts performance by giving your game priority over other system resources. Go to Settings, choose Gaming, and then turn Game Mode on or off.
Turning off pointless background activities and services is another helpful hint. The performance of games might be impacted by background apps using CPU and memory resources. To find and end pointless processes, use the Task Manager. In addition, if you don’t use Windows services like Cortana and OneDrive much, you might choose to disable them.

FAQ

Q: Can I play games on my computer?

2D games are easily played on any modern Windows PC, but 3D games are a different story. It’s just not possible to run contemporary 3D games with high quality or framerates on AMD and Intel CPUs due to their lackluster integrated graphics. A PC with a dedicated GPU from AMD or Nvidia is what you’ll need. Look up the requirements for a game you wish to play on its website or store page. To start the game, you must achieve the basic criteria, but if you want to have fun, you should really aim to reach or surpass the suggested requirements.