Tips for Improving Gaming Performance on a PC

I've put together all the things you can do to maximize the gaming performance you can get from your computer.

Playing games has become a part of many of us life. However, sometimes even small performance differences can be significant. There are some settings that can positively affect performance for more games and more entertainment on both desktop and laptop computers. What are these, how to adjust them, let's see together.

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Today, computers sold in the market can come with different operating systems. For example, the Dell G3 15 laptop we used while preparing this article comes with Windows 10 operating system. Of course, it is possible to find PC models with Linux or FreeDOS operating systems in the market. However, it can be said that Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system has become the standard platform for PC games like many things. Therefore, our article will be mainly on Windows 10.

• First of all, make sure that you have made the Windows 10 updates completely. Performance improvements and fixes come with each new update. For example, with the upcoming Windows 10 2004 version, some problems in processor and disk usage are expected to be largely overcome.

• Make sure that all components in the system, especially the graphics card, have updated drivers installed. You can check out our AMD and NVIDIA guides for video card drivers. Use up-to-date drivers for all components, especially the graphics card, motherboard chipset, sound, and network drivers.

• Make sure the BIOS is also updated to the latest version. Because important improvements and corrections can be made with BIOS updates.

Unnecessary Applications

• Uninstall unnecessary and unused applications on your computer. Many applications can continue to run in the background even without you knowing about it. For this, you can follow Windows 10 Settings> Applications> Applications and features.

• Besides, you can see open applications with the help of Task Manager. From here, you can close applications that you are not using and that take up space in the background. It is possible to sort the applications that use the hardware most by clicking on tabs such as CPU, Memory and Disk.

Services

Another issue is Windows services and you may not have used some of them at all. We can open this section by typing 'Services' in the Windows Search pane. Here we can see all the services hosted by the operating system, running or not running. When we right click on the service we want and follow the Properties path, we can stop the service we want or set the startup type to Disabled.

The point we need to pay attention to here is to choose the services you will stop well. If you are sure what the service is doing and will not disrupt the system's operation, you can disable it.

Performance Settings

Best Performance

• Click on This PC> Properties. Alternatively, we can go to Control Panel> System.

• Let's enter the Settings under the Performance section from the Advanced system settings> Advanced tab.

• From here, let's check the 'Adjust for best performance' option and click OK. If you do this, you will have to waive some Windows images.

Battery Options

• Let's go to Control Panel> Power Options.

• From here, we can expand the options by saying Hide additional plans.

• Finally, let's choose the 'High Performance' option, which is among the options.

• This process will focus our computer on performance rather than power saving.

  In notebook computers, battery consumption can be significantly affected.

Apart from the settings offered by Windows 10, it is possible to take advantage of some PC manufacturers' own advanced control software. For example, Command Center software on Dell computers provides the ability to adjust fine performance settings such as processor frequency, fan speed, and so on, which we often cannot access directly from Windows 10. With this software, it will be possible to control the game performance in a much wider way.

Temporary Files and History

• The leftover files of the applications we use on the computer accumulate over time. To clear these, let's click on the folder that appears by typing '% temp%' in the Search pane. You can delete all files contained here.

• Additionally, type "recent" in Run and click OK. The last transactions you made will appear here. You can delete all.

Starter Applications

After opening the Task Manager, let's enter the Startup tab. Here are the applications that will start automatically when our computer is booted. If there are unnecessary applications that we do not want to run at startup, you can disable them with the "Disable" option after selecting the application.

Hard Drive Optimization

It is unnecessary to apply the hard disk optimization option for SSD. However, it is a necessary option for classic HDD.

• If you are using a HDD, after logging in to This PC, right click your hard disk and enter Properties.

• From the Tools pane, first check your drive for errors in the Error Checking section.

• If errors are detected in your drive, go to the fix option.

Disc enhancement;

• Likewise, go to This PC> Properties> Tools tab.

• From here apply the 'Optimize' option to your hard drive.

• This option defragments partitions on the HDD and provides faster access to data. This will have a positive effect on performance in some cases.

Use SSD

If your computer does not have an SSD and you can afford it, buy at least 120 GB SSDs. You can run your operating system and the games you play the most from the SSD. Because you will feel the big difference in transition from HDD to SSD. The opening time of the games and the transition in the loading screens will be much faster. Moreover, SSD can also positively affect the performance of the game in some scenarios. We heard from many users that some games became more fluid after the use of SSD.

Xbox DVR

• Windows' Xbox Game Bar feature can negatively affect game performance in some cases. To turn this setting off, go to Windows 10 Settings> Gaming> Xbox Game Bar (Xbox DVR).

• You can turn this setting off from the top option here.

Oyun Modu

Go to the Game Mode option from the Windows 10 Settings> Game> pane and turn this setting on. Thus, when you run a game, Windows 10 will redirect system resources to this job.

Security Software

If you mainly play games, pay attention to the performance factors of the security software you use. Before buying security software, you can do a little research and read reviews about that application.

While you are in the game, the security software can negatively affect the game with its actions in the background. In this case, you can also choose to switch the security software to game mode. Most advanced security software now comes with a Game Mode option inside.

AMD And NVIDIA Panel Settings

Both brands have their own control panel. First of all, to go here, you can right click on the desktop and click on "Radeon Settings" or "NVIDIA Control Panel" according to your video card brand.

Here, on both NVIDIA and AMD sides, there are sections where we can make general settings and settings specific to the game. On NVIDIA side, you can go to this section with Managing 3D Settings option. On the AMD side, you can watch the Game> Games path from the main menu.

It is possible to change many settings from the graphics card software that will affect the performance. However, the settings made here have different effects on each game. For example, while a setting has a positive effect on FPS in a game, it does not have any effect in some games. In addition, while the setting made may negatively affect the graphics quality of the game, this is not noticeable in some games. So these options and sub-settings are the details that should be changed from game to game.

In-Game Settings

The in-game settings, which are similar to the settings in the graphics card software, are one of the most important factors. Increasing the resolution and other settings over the graphics settings of the game generally causes a decrease in FPS. In addition, most of these settings put a load on the graphics card, while some of them can increase the load on the processor. In other words, you can get the best result by changing the settings according to your system components.

V-Sync

You can see the V-Sync (vertical sync) option in both the in-game settings and the GPU software. This option is used to fix the FPS rate in games according to the refresh rate of your screen. Although this setting is not recommended for competitive games, it can save lives in many games.

In other words, if you do not have an eye on high FPS values, you can have a more stable gaming experience by activating V-Sync.

Steam Launch Options

Launch commands specific to each game can be entered in Steam. Some commands contribute positively to game performance. To access this option, right click on the game in the library and follow Properties> Set launch options.

Some commands for example;

• -high: This command starts the game in high priority mode.

• -fullscreen / -full: This option forces the game to run in fullscreen.

• -freq 'value': Sets at which Hertz setting your monitor will work in the game. For example "-freq 144"

• -threads 'value': You can make the game use all cores by entering the number of cores of your processor in the value field here.

Clean Installation

A clean installation can sometimes fix problems radically. During the time we use our computer, we install and uninstall dozens of software and games. Some users can make changes to files and registry entries willingly or unintentionally. Some users, on the other hand, may be left alone with various errors and performance problems that they cannot understand.

I hope this information was useful to you. I am waiting for your likes and comments.