How to Increase FPS: Boosting Your PC’s Gaming Performance

When gaming on a personal computer, understanding how to increase FPS is often key to a smoother, more enjoyable experience. Low frames per second (FPS) can lead to choppy gameplay, input lag, and a significant reduction in overall immersion. Fortunately, many methods exist to optimize a system and achieve higher frame rates.

This guide from PCProfile outlines 12 practical fixes, ordered by their general impact and ease of implementation. Whether a PC build is new or several years old, applying these strategies can significantly boost FPS and enhance gaming performance. Discover the most effective ways to make games run better on a current setup.

Immediate Performance Gains: Quick and Effective FPS Boosts

Some of the most impactful changes to boost FPS are also the easiest to implement. These adjustments can often deliver significant improvements with minimal effort, making them excellent starting points for any gamer.

1. Update Graphics Drivers

Outdated graphics drivers are a common culprit for poor gaming performance. Graphics card manufacturers like NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel regularly release driver updates that include performance optimizations and bug fixes for new and existing games. Installing the latest drivers ensures the graphics hardware operates at peak efficiency.

Visit the official website of the graphics card manufacturer, download the most recent drivers for the specific model, and follow the installation instructions. This step alone can often provide a noticeable increase in FPS.

2. Adjust In-Game Graphics Settings

This is arguably the most powerful way to increase FPS. Most games offer a wide array of graphics settings, including texture quality, shadow detail, anti-aliasing, and resolution. Lowering some of these settings, especially resolution and shadow quality, can dramatically improve frame rates without necessarily making the game look terrible.

Experiment with different settings. Start by lowering demanding options like shadows, reflections, and anti-aliasing. Reduce the overall resolution if necessary, or consider using a lower render scale if the game supports it. Finding the right balance between visual fidelity and performance is crucial.

3. Close Background Applications

Applications running in the background consume valuable CPU, RAM, and GPU resources that could otherwise be dedicated to gaming. Web browsers with many tabs, streaming services, communication apps, and system utilities can all impact performance. Closing these programs before launching a game frees up system resources.

Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), navigate to the ‘Processes’ tab, and identify any non-essential applications consuming significant resources. End these tasks to allocate more processing power to the game. This simple action can often provide a quick boost to FPS.

4. Adjust Power Plan Settings

Windows offers various power plans that dictate how the system manages energy consumption. The ‘Balanced’ or ‘Power Saver’ plans can sometimes limit CPU and GPU performance to conserve power. Switching to a ‘High Performance’ or ‘Ultimate Performance’ plan ensures the hardware operates at its maximum potential.

Access Power Options through the Control Panel or Windows Settings. Select the ‘High Performance’ plan. Be aware that this setting can increase power consumption and heat generation, especially on laptops. For desktop PCs, this is generally a safe and effective way to ensure components are not throttled.

System Optimization and Maintenance: Sustained Performance

Beyond immediate fixes, regular system optimization and maintenance are vital for consistent high FPS. These steps involve configuring Windows settings and performing routine upkeep to prevent performance degradation over time.

5. Enable Game Mode in Windows

Windows Game Mode is a feature designed to optimize gaming performance by prioritizing game processes and suspending background activities. While its impact can vary, it is a simple setting to enable and worth trying for potential FPS gains.

Go to Windows Settings, then ‘Gaming’, and select ‘Game Mode’. Ensure the toggle is set to ‘On’. This feature aims to minimize interruptions and ensure games receive the maximum available system resources. It is one of several ways Windows helps to boost FPS.

6. Disable Fullscreen Optimization

Fullscreen Optimization is a Windows feature intended to improve compatibility and performance for games running in fullscreen mode. However, for some games, it can inadvertently cause performance issues or input lag. Disabling it can sometimes resolve these problems and lead to higher FPS.

Locate the game’s executable file (usually in the installation directory), right-click it, go to ‘Properties’, then the ‘Compatibility’ tab. Check the box labeled ‘Disable fullscreen optimizations’ and apply the changes. Test the game afterward to see if this tweak improves performance.

7. Defragment Your Hard Drive (HDD only)

For systems using traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), file fragmentation can slow down data access, potentially impacting game loading times and in-game asset streaming. Defragmenting an HDD reorganizes these files, allowing for faster read and write operations.

Important: Do not defragment Solid State Drives (SSDs). SSDs operate differently and defragmentation can reduce their lifespan without offering any performance benefits. If the PC only has an SSD, this step is unnecessary. To defragment an HDD, search for ‘Defragment and Optimize Drives’ in Windows, select the HDD, and click ‘Optimize’.

8. Clean Out Your PC

Dust accumulation inside a PC case can impede airflow, causing components to overheat. When a CPU or GPU gets too hot, it ‘throttles’ its performance to prevent damage, leading to a significant drop in FPS. Regular physical cleaning helps maintain optimal operating temperatures.

Carefully open the PC case and use compressed air to clear dust from fans, heatsinks, and vents. Ensure power is disconnected before performing any internal cleaning. A clean PC runs cooler, which directly translates to more consistent and higher performance. This can indirectly help to boost FPS by preventing thermal throttling.

9. Update Windows

Keeping the Windows operating system up-to-date is crucial for overall system stability and performance. Microsoft regularly releases updates that include performance improvements, security patches, and compatibility enhancements for hardware and software, including games.

Go to Windows Settings, then ‘Update & Security’ (or ‘Windows Update’ in Windows 11), and check for updates. Install any pending updates and restart the PC as prompted. While not always a direct FPS booster, a well-maintained and updated OS provides a stable foundation for gaming performance.

10. Scan for Malware

Malware, viruses, and other unwanted software can run silently in the background, consuming system resources and impacting gaming performance. A thorough scan for malicious software is an essential step in ensuring the PC is performing optimally and helping to increase FPS.

Use a reputable antivirus program to perform a full system scan. Remove any detected threats immediately. Keeping antivirus software up-to-date and performing regular scans helps protect the system and ensures that background processes are not unnecessarily slowing down games. This prevents resource drain that can reduce FPS.

Advanced Tweaks and Hardware Considerations: Significant Investments

For those seeking the ultimate performance or facing persistent FPS issues, more advanced solutions or hardware upgrades may be necessary. These options often require a greater investment of time or money but can yield the most substantial results.

11. Upgrade Hardware

Ultimately, if a PC’s components are simply too old or underpowered for modern games, no amount of software optimization will deliver truly high FPS. Upgrading key components like the graphics card (GPU), processor (CPU), or RAM can provide the most significant performance boost.

Consider what component is bottlenecking the system. For most games, the GPU is the primary factor. Adding more RAM (16GB is a good baseline for modern gaming) or upgrading to a newer CPU can also make a substantial difference. PCProfile offers tools to check game compatibility and identify potential hardware bottlenecks, helping users decide how to increase FPS through upgrades.

12. Reinstall Windows

As a last resort for persistent performance issues, a clean reinstall of Windows can often resolve deep-seated software conflicts, driver issues, and accumulated junk files that impact FPS. This is a drastic step, but it essentially gives the PC a fresh start.

Backup all important data before proceeding with a Windows reinstallation. This process will wipe the primary drive clean. While time-consuming, a fresh operating system with only essential drivers and games installed can often unlock the PC’s full performance potential, making it a powerful way to boost FPS.

Bottom line

Achieving optimal gaming performance means understanding how to increase FPS effectively. From simple driver updates and in-game setting adjustments to more involved hardware upgrades and system maintenance, a range of solutions exists to help gamers enjoy smoother, more responsive gameplay. By systematically applying the fixes outlined in this guide, users can significantly boost FPS and transform their gaming experience.

Remember that even small tweaks can make a difference. For personalized insights into how specific games will run on a system and to identify potential upgrade paths, visit PCProfile. Check game compatibility and estimated FPS tables to make informed decisions about a PC’s gaming future.