Every PC gamer has been there — you launch a game, the FPS counter sits at 40, and you know you’re not getting the experience your hardware should deliver. Before you throw money at a new GPU, there are dozens of free tweaks that can boost your frame rate by 20-50% without spending a cent. This guide covers how to improve FPS on PC for any game in 2026, from Windows-level optimizations to universal in-game settings.
Step 1: Update Your GPU Drivers
This is the single most impactful thing you can do, and half of all FPS complaints are solved right here.
NVIDIA: Open GeForce Experience or visit NVIDIA’s driver page. Download the latest Game Ready Driver. Choose Custom Install > Clean Installation. Restart.
AMD: Open AMD Adrenalin Software. Check for updates under Home > Driver & Software. Install the latest Recommended (not Optional) driver. Use Factory Reset during install if you’re having issues. Restart.
Intel Arc: Visit Intel’s Arc driver page. Download the latest driver. Install and restart.
Fresh drivers include game-specific optimizations that often add 5-15% FPS in supported titles. A clean install removes leftover settings from old drivers that can cause conflicts and stuttering.
Step 2: Windows Power Plan
By default, Windows uses the Balanced power plan, which throttles your CPU to save energy. For gaming, switch to High Performance.
- Open Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options
- Select High Performance (you may need to click “Show additional plans”)
- If you’re on a laptop, plug in your charger — High Performance drains battery fast
This alone can add 5-10% FPS in CPU-bound games by preventing the processor from down-clocking during gameplay.
Step 3: Enable Game Mode and HAGS
Game Mode:
1. Settings > Gaming > Game Mode > On
2. This tells Windows to prioritize your game’s processes and prevents background tasks from interrupting gameplay
Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS):
1. Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Change default graphics settings
2. Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling
3. Restart your PC
HAGS lets the GPU manage its own video memory instead of relying on Windows. The result is smoother frame delivery and reduced latency in most modern games.
Step 4: Close Background Applications
You’d be shocked how much RAM and CPU power background apps consume. Before gaming:
- Close Chrome/Firefox — A browser with 10 tabs can use 2-4 GB of RAM and significant CPU
- Disable Discord overlay — User Settings > Game Overlay > Off (saves 1-3% FPS)
- Close hardware monitors — RGB software, fan controllers, and monitoring apps all use resources
- Quit launchers you’re not using — Epic, Battle.net, EA App all run background processes
- Disable Steam overlay if you don’t need it — Settings > In-Game > Uncheck “Enable Steam Overlay”
Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and sort by Memory or CPU usage. Kill anything non-essential before launching your game.
Step 5: Universal In-Game Settings Guide
These settings have the biggest performance impact in virtually every game. Adjust these first before touching anything else.
Settings That Destroy FPS (Lower These First)
| Setting | FPS Impact | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Ray Tracing | -30 to -50% | Off unless you have RTX 4070+ |
| Shadows | -15 to -25% | Low or Medium |
| Volumetric Fog/Clouds | -10 to -20% | Low or Off |
| Screen-Space Reflections | -5 to -15% | Low |
| Post-Processing | -5 to -15% | Low (reduces blur effects too) |
| Ambient Occlusion | -5 to -10% | SSAO or Low |
| Anti-Aliasing (MSAA) | -10 to -30% | Use FXAA or TAA instead |
| Draw Distance/View Distance | -5 to -15% | Medium |
Settings That Are Almost Free (Keep These High)
| Setting | FPS Impact | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Texture Quality | Minimal (~1-3%) | High (limited by VRAM, not FPS) |
| Texture Filtering | Minimal (~1%) | High or 16x |
| Anisotropic Filtering | Almost zero | 16x |
Textures are stored in VRAM. If you have enough VRAM for the texture setting (check with MSI Afterburner), raising texture quality costs almost nothing in FPS while dramatically improving visual quality.
Settings to Always Disable
- Motion Blur — Smears the screen, hides visual detail, no competitive benefit
- Film Grain — Adds noise for “cinematic” effect, costs a tiny amount of FPS for no gameplay benefit
- Chromatic Aberration — Adds color fringing to edges, looks terrible and costs FPS
- Depth of Field — Blurs parts of the screen, can hide enemies, wastes GPU resources
- Lens Flare — Cosmetic effect, disable for clarity
- V-Sync — Caps FPS to refresh rate and adds input lag. Use a frame rate cap instead
Step 6: Use DLSS, FSR, or XeSS
If your game supports upscaling technology, this is the easiest 30-60% FPS boost available.
NVIDIA DLSS: Uses AI to upscale a lower-resolution image. Quality mode is virtually indistinguishable from native. Available on RTX 2000+ GPUs.
AMD FSR 3: Software-based upscaling that works on any GPU (including NVIDIA and Intel). Slightly lower quality than DLSS but free performance on any hardware.
Intel XeSS: AI-upscaling on Intel Arc GPUs, spatial upscaling on others. Good middle ground.
Recommended presets:
– 1080p: Use Balanced mode for ~40% FPS boost
– 1440p: Use Quality mode for ~30% FPS boost with minimal visual loss
– 4K: Use Quality or Balanced for ~40-50% FPS boost
Frame Generation: Available with DLSS 3 (RTX 40+) and FSR 3. Adds extra frames but also adds input lag. Use for single-player games, disable for competitive multiplayer.
For a detailed comparison, check our DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS guide.
Step 7: Optimize Your Display Settings
Run games in Fullscreen (not Borderless): True fullscreen gives the game exclusive GPU access, bypassing Windows compositor. This can add 3-5% FPS and reduce input lag.
Set a frame rate cap: Instead of uncapped FPS (which causes your GPU to work as hard as possible), cap FPS at your monitor’s refresh rate using:
– In-game FPS limiter (if available)
– NVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Max Frame Rate
– AMD Adrenalin > Gaming > Frame Rate Target Control
– RivaTuner Statistics Server (most accurate, works with all GPUs)
Cap 3-4 frames below your refresh rate (e.g., 141 FPS for 144Hz) to prevent frame timing issues.
Enable NVIDIA Reflex or AMD Anti-Lag: These reduce system latency and are available in many modern games. Always enable them. Check our input lag reduction guide for more details.
Step 8: Storage Matters
Install games on an SSD, not an HDD. While SSDs don’t directly increase FPS, they dramatically reduce:
– Loading times
– Texture pop-in (textures load faster from SSD)
– Stuttering during streaming (open-world games constantly load assets)
NVMe SSDs are ideal, but even a basic SATA SSD is a massive improvement over any HDD. If you can only afford one SSD, put your OS and most-played games on it.
Step 9: Monitor Your Bottleneck
Use MSI Afterburner with the on-screen display (OSD) to monitor GPU usage, CPU usage, temperatures, and VRAM usage during gameplay.
If GPU is at 95-100% and CPU is lower: You’re GPU-bound. Lower resolution, reduce graphics settings, or use DLSS/FSR.
If CPU is at 90-100% and GPU is lower: You’re CPU-bound. Close background apps, lower draw distance, reduce NPC/physics settings, lower FOV.
If neither is maxed but FPS is low: You may have a RAM bottleneck (check RAM usage), a thermal throttle (check temperatures — GPU should be under 85C, CPU under 90C), or a driver issue.
If your hardware is genuinely underpowered, our budget PC build guide covers the best value components for gaming in 2026.
Step 10: Enable Resizable BAR (BIOS)
Resizable BAR (AMD SAM for AMD GPUs) allows the CPU to access your entire GPU VRAM at once instead of in small chunks. This can add 3-10% FPS in some games.
To enable:
1. Enter BIOS (restart, press Delete or F2)
2. Find “Resizable BAR” or “Above 4G Decoding” — enable both
3. Save and restart
4. Verify in GPU-Z or NVIDIA Control Panel that Resizable BAR is active
Not all games benefit equally, but it never hurts performance, so there’s no reason to leave it off.
Quick Checklist
- [ ] GPU drivers updated (clean install)
- [ ] Windows Power Plan set to High Performance
- [ ] Game Mode enabled
- [ ] HAGS enabled
- [ ] Background apps closed
- [ ] Shadows, RT, volumetric effects lowered
- [ ] Motion blur, film grain, DoF disabled
- [ ] DLSS/FSR enabled (Quality or Balanced)
- [ ] V-Sync off, frame rate capped
- [ ] Game installed on SSD
- [ ] Resizable BAR enabled in BIOS
- [ ] Temperatures monitored (no throttling)
Final Thoughts
Most FPS problems on PC aren’t hardware limitations — they’re configuration problems. A properly optimized mid-range PC will outperform a poorly configured high-end one. Start with drivers and Windows settings, then move to in-game tweaks, and use upscaling technology for the final push. These steps work for every game, from CS2 to Cyberpunk, and they’re all free.
