New games, especially those in the AAA segment, make increasingly high demands on PC configuration, so sooner or later every gamer, unless he or she updates his or her system with top components quarterly, encounters lags and slowdowns. In this article, we will tell you how to increase FPS in games, consider all effective options, and also point out ineffective methods.
What is fps?
FPS in games is an indicator of the frame rate per second (from the English abbreviation FPS, frames per second), a value that displays how many frames the computer’s video card draws in one second (in reality, everything is a little more complicated, but for ease of perception, we will limit ourselves to this explanation). The minimum comfortable FPS indicator for games is 30 fps, but it is recommended to play with a higher frame rate – from 60 fps and above (in eSports shooters, this indicator can reach 144 – 240 fps).
The number of frames per second directly depends on the PC characteristics: the more powerful the computer, the higher the FPS can be achieved. This leads to the first and most obvious conclusion on the topic of increasing FPS, which we will consider further. Not the number, but the comfort of perceiving a high frame rate also depends on the monitor – namely the refresh rate. However, this is already a topic for another article.
How to increase fps
So, let’s move on to the main question – how to increase FPS in video games. This can be done in different ways, and not all of them are equally useful. Below we will tell you about them, starting with the most effective and ending with the insignificant.
PC Upgrade
The most expensive, but nevertheless the best way to achieve acceptable FPS in games. If you are trying to run a modern AAA shooter, filled to the brim with special effects, on hardware that is ten years old, then no tricks will help, and even complaints about poor optimization of the game will not justify the weakness of your system. The only possible solution is to buy new components.
But before that, it is advisable to make sure what exactly is the “bottleneck” in the system, pulling the other components along with it – this could be, for example, a weak processor or video card, a lack of RAM , and also, with a big stretch, a slow hard drive . However, we will not seriously consider the latter: for loading textures “on the fly” in games, with rare exceptions, even 5400 rpm models are enough, and installing on an SSD will speed up loading saves, but will minimally affect FPS.
Another thing is the processor, video card and RAM. For example, an insufficiently productive CPU will cause a drop in frame rate in open-world games , where it is necessary to generate many small details, manage NPC behavior, and calculate the interaction between objects. This is relevant for games such as GTA V, Assassin’s Creed Shadows , Watch Dogs Legion . New projects focus on multithreading, so dual- and quad-core processors are no longer enough for games – if you want to play comfortably, it is advisable to fork out for ten- to sixteen-core ones, and even with Hyper-Threading support.
A weak video card will not cope with rendering a large number of triangles and will start to skip frames, which will lead to a deterioration in game performance. This is especially true for high resolutions – 1440p , 4K, where the number of polygons increases several times in comparison with the resolution of 1080p, so you will have to buy a corresponding video card for a brand new 4K monitor .
Finally, RAM stores the data that the game accesses, which also affects performance. If you have a powerful processor and video card in conjunction with 4 GB of RAM, you will encounter unpleasant regular slowdowns. For games in 2025, you need 16 GB of RAM, and even better – 32 GB.
How can you find out what exactly your PC is missing? You can use programs to monitor system load. For example, MSI Afterburner : this utility will allow you to view the FPS and find out how loaded your PC is. Here you can display the frame rate counter, the level of load on the video card and processor, the amount of RAM and video memory consumed , as well as the temperature of the CPU and video chip.
Finding out what exactly is the weak point is quite simple. If the processor is loaded at 100%, and the video card is less than 90%, then in this particular game the processor has become the “bottleneck”. If the video card is loaded at 98-100%, but the FPS counter remains low, then it cannot cope with the load. If the RAM consumption approaches or exceeds its capacity, then it is time to buy another bar or two.
Paradoxically, it is not at all necessary to buy the best hardware when upgrading a PC – sometimes it is enough to choose a video card of similar performance, but belonging to a newer generation.
This is because newer components support current technologies, such as ray tracing , DLSS, the latest version of NVIDIA Reflex, etc. Therefore, there may be situations when the budget RTX 4060 will outperform the top RTX 2080 in terms of frames per second in modern games , simply because the user will be able to activate upscalers, enable frame creation technology, and other useful options.
This compromise solution will allow you to save on an upgrade while still getting a comfortable frame rate in games.
Overclocking your PC
Once upon a time, overclocking PC components was almost a science , and an inexperienced overclocker had every chance of damaging his hardware by careless interference in its operation. Now, even an ordinary amateur can handle overclocking, and modern components often have an auto-overclocking function, automatically increasing and decreasing frequencies depending on the load.
Overclocking is a good way to squeeze more out of a processor, video card or RAM beyond what they are capable of. The main thing here is to select the right components (for example, Intel supports overclocking with processors with the “K” index, and they require corresponding motherboards ), take care of good cooling, and, of course, do not overdo it – overclocking, although it will not disable the hardware, will nevertheless lead to unstable system operation, artifacts and crashes in games.
There are several good utilities for increasing FPS in games by overclocking. For video cards, this is the above-mentioned MSI Afterburner, as well as EVGA Precision, RivaTuner. As for the processor and RAM, it is better to overclock them using the standard tools of the motherboard BIOS. We will not go into details here, otherwise this article will go in a completely different direction.
Lowering graphics settings in games
By turning all the sliders to the right in the game’s graphics settings menu, even the owner of a top-end system risks encountering a drop in frame rate. All because of the PC- demanding effects, which will undoubtedly make the picture more beautiful, but will increase the load on the components.
Graphics settings in video games deserve a separate guide, because in those projects where the developers did not limit themselves to a lazy port from consoles, but put a lot of effort into creating a separate PC version, there are usually many options, each of which is responsible for a certain effect. The most demanding among them are:
- screen resolution – a parameter that is responsible for the number of pixels that make up the image. Accordingly, the more of them, the clearer the picture, the higher the load on the video card.
- Anti-aliasing is an effect that removes “jaggies” on the edges of objects. Depending on the anti-aliasing technology, it may have little or no effect on performance, or significantly affect it, and may “blur” the image or make it sharper. If you want “cheap and cheerful”, turn on FXAA, if you have a more powerful computer, use MSAA or SSAA.
- texture quality – a parameter that makes the surfaces of objects more or less detailed. It’s not that the FPS indicator depends on it much, but on a video card with a small amount of video memory you will see serious lags if you set this setting to “maximum” (depending on the game).
- shadow quality – obviously affects the clarity and range of shadows cast by objects and characters. The highest quality shadows can put a lot of strain on the video card, so it is recommended to sacrifice this parameter if lags are observed during the game.
- global shading is an effect that simulates shading in places where rays do not hit. This makes the picture more “deep” and realistic , but also significantly affects performance
- Lighting quality is a more general effect that simulates a full scene lighting model. Real-time ray tracing technology has been actively promoted recently, which allows realistically simulating the behavior of rays and their impact on the display of objects. It greatly reduces FPS in modern games, but also demonstrates a stunningly beautiful picture.
- drawing distance, object detailing – a parameter that determines at what distance from the character objects should appear and how well they should be detailed. A low value will result in objects appearing out of thin air literally in front of the character’s nose, while a high value will, accordingly, allow you to see the smallest details at a huge distance.
In contrast to the above options, the settings for anisotropic filtering, depth of field, tessellation, glow, motion blur, vignetting, shader quality, and post-processing will have a minimal load on computer resources.
PC Maintenance and Cleaning
Dust accumulated inside the system unit of a desktop PC or laptop case can affect its performance. However, for this to happen, you need to be completely irresponsible about computer maintenance – for example, not changing the thermal paste for years and not paying attention to the temperature regime.
Therefore, it is necessary, for the sake of prevention, to clean the PC from dust at least once every six months and, if necessary, change the thermal paste at least on the CPU, and also, if necessary, install more powerful cooling in the case and on the processor. Monitoring programs like MSI Afterburner will help you track the temperatures of components and see in a timely manner when they begin to approach undesirable values (depending on the specific hardware, but you should start worrying at temperatures above 80 ° C).
Updating and configuring drivers
Video card manufacturers periodically release new driver versions – usually timed to coincide with the release of a new AAA game or a major software update. You shouldn’t neglect installing updates: they optimize game performance, which allows you to win a couple of extra FPS in both new and older titles.
As for driver settings, you can also slightly increase the frame rate in games with their help. This can be done in the Nvidia Control Panel (for Nvidia graphics cards) and AMD Catalyst Control Center (for AMD graphics cards). Here you can set custom settings with an emphasis on performance, as a result of which the application will make appropriate adjustments to the game parameters. However, you will get much more flexibility in this regard if you do the graphics settings yourself (see point 2).
Using Windows Game Mode, Programs, and Tweaks to Speed Up Games
Windows has a “Game Mode” that optimizes your PC when a game is running. It’s supposed to prioritize your computer’s resources over the game and distribute resources more intelligently across background processes. However, in practice, it turns out that “Game Mode” is of little use: in rare cases, users manage to get an increase of 1-2 FPS, which remains at the level of statistical error.
Some gamers, in search of ways to increase the frame rate in PC games, download programs and tweaks to clean and speed up the system. Well, all sorts of Game Turbo Booster, Game Accelerator and other applications with loud names. There is little benefit from them, but there can be a lot of harm, from built-in advertising to spyware and keyloggers. Therefore, we recommend not to rely on such software and not to clutter the system with questionable programs.
As for other options for increasing FPS, such as cleaning and defragmenting the disk, scanning the system for viruses – these procedures are certainly worth doing periodically, but they have little to do with PC performance in games. So, in relation to the topic of our article, they should not be taken seriously.
Limiting the maximum frame rate
This point is not about increasing FPS, but about comfort during the game. If you play with a variable frame rate – say, the FPS counter will vary from 60 to 120, depending on the scene – then you will probably see jerks in the image and the so-called “tearing”, when the picture breaks up into several parts, each of which displays information from different frames. Therefore, to make the image as smooth as possible, it is worth limiting the frame rate to a given mark – for example, 60 FPS is enough for single-player games .
This can be done using programs like RivaTuner Statistic Server, or by enabling vertical sync in the game settings, which synchronizes the FPS with the monitor refresh rate. If you use a monitor with G-Sync or FreeSync support, your gaming will be more comfortable even without having to limit the frame rate: these monitors smooth out FPS jumps, providing a pleasantly smooth picture.
Conclusion
So, what conclusion can be drawn from this article? No advice on increasing FPS will be effective if your PC simply does not meet the system requirements of the new game. Therefore, the most effective (albeit the most expensive) way remains an upgrade.
In addition, reducing or disabling some graphics settings in video games can significantly increase the number of frames per second, sacrificing the beauty of the picture. Enthusiasts can try their hand at overclocking components. As for software tools and various “PC accelerators”, they are unlikely to have a serious impact on increasing productivity in games.
