How to raise FPS in any PC game: the changes that matter most

Most FPS advice online is a long list of tweaks with no order. In practice a few changes give almost all of the gain, and many popular tips do nothing. This checklist is ordered by impact, so you can stop as soon as the game runs the way you want.

1. Find out what is limiting you

Before you change anything, check whether your graphics card or your processor is the limit. Lower the resolution for a minute. If the frame rate jumps, the graphics card was the limit and the settings below will help. If it barely moves, the processor is the limit, and you need a different approach. Our guide on how to tell if your CPU or graphics card is the bottleneck explains how.

2. Lower the resolution or use an upscaler

Resolution is the biggest lever. Going from 4K to 1440p, or from 1440p to 1080p, removes a large share of the pixels the graphics card has to draw. Instead of dropping the screen resolution, try the game's upscaling option such as DLSS, FSR or XeSS. They render at a lower internal resolution and rebuild a sharp image, so you keep most of the quality. Read how upscaling works before choosing a mode.

3. Turn down the expensive settings first

Not every setting costs the same. Shadows, ray tracing, volumetric effects such as fog and clouds, and ambient occlusion are usually the heaviest. Textures cost memory more than speed, so keep them high if you have enough video memory. See the full ranking in which graphics settings cost the most.

4. Cap the frame rate and use the right sync

An uncapped game that runs at wildly changing frame rates feels worse than a lower, steady one. Set a cap a few frames under your monitor's refresh rate. If your screen supports variable refresh rate (G-Sync or FreeSync), enable it, because it removes tearing without the delay that classic V-Sync adds.

5. Close what you do not need

Browsers with many tabs, launchers, overlays and video capture software use memory and processor time. Close them before you play. Check the Task Manager for programs that use a lot of processor or disk in the background, especially during updates.

6. Update the graphics driver

New drivers often bring game-specific optimizations. Update when a game you play gets a mention in the release notes, and follow our steps for updating drivers safely.

7. Check power and cooling

A laptop on battery power or a power-saving plan can lose a lot of speed. Plug in and select a high performance plan. If your computer is hot, it will slow down on purpose, which shows up as stutter after a few minutes. Clean the dust from fans and make sure the airflow is not blocked.

8. Use fast storage and enough memory

A game installed on an old hard drive can stutter when it loads new areas. An SSD fixes that. If your system has 8 GB of memory, the game and the operating system may be swapping data to disk, which causes hitches. Our guide on how much RAM you need covers when more memory helps.

What usually does not help

• "Game booster" programs that promise big gains. Their effect is small and sometimes negative.
• Changing the process priority of a game in the Task Manager. Windows already handles this well.
• Registry tweaks copied from forums. They can cause problems and rarely improve speed.

A simple order of work

1. Check what limits you.
2. Use an upscaler or lower the resolution.
3. Lower shadows, ray tracing and volumetric effects.
4. Cap the frame rate and enable variable refresh rate.
5. Close background programs and update the driver.

Stop as soon as the game feels smooth. A steady 60 FPS with good picture quality is better than 144 FPS with constant dips.