PC slow in games? See how to squeeze more performance without spending a cent

Your PC freezes at the wrong moment, stutters mid-match, or simply doesn’t deliver the frames you expected? Before considering swapping parts or buying a new SSD, there’s an entire path of software optimizations that most gamers ignore. None of them cost money, and together they make a real difference, especially on machines with modest hardware or that have never had a settings cleanup since purchase.

This article is a practical tutorial. You’ll leave here with a concrete checklist to apply today on Windows 11, which is the predominant system in 2026, although the tips also work on Windows 10. There’s no magic: the goal is to remove what consumes resources without delivering anything and keep the system focused on the game. For those with a relatively capable GPU (graphics card) but feeling it’s not being fully utilized, the gain can be surprising.

Minimum requirements to follow the tutorial: a PC with Windows 10 or Windows 11, administrator account access, and about an hour available. No paid software is needed.

Adjust the power plan before anything else

Windows, by default, usually comes configured with the Balanced power plan, which reduces the processor’s frequency when it detects low activity. The problem is that this detection isn’t always fast enough for the demand spikes of a game. The practical result: the processor hesitates for fractions of a second before speeding up, and this translates to small stutters that ruin the experience.

1. Open Control Panel (you can search in the Windows bar).
2. Go to Power options.
3. Select High performance. If it doesn’t appear, click “Show additional plans”.
4. On laptops, do this only when plugged in, as battery consumption increases considerably.

In Windows 11, there’s also the Power saver plan, introduced for ARM-based notebooks, which is the worst scenario possible for gaming. If you see this option selected, change it immediately.

Configure Game Mode and system priorities

Windows’ Game Mode has existed since Windows 10 and has been refined over the years. When active, it tries to concentrate CPU and GPU resources on the game process, reducing interference from other programs. To activate:

1. Go to Settings > Gaming > Game Mode.
2. Turn on the toggle.

Along with this, disable notifications during matches. Each popup that appears on the screen steals GPU attention for an instant. In Settings > Gaming > Xbox Game Bar, you can leave the Game Bar disabled if you don’t use it, which frees up a small memory overhead.

A lesser-known tip: HAGS (Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling), available on NVIDIA GPUs from the RTX 20 series and AMD from the RX 5000 series, transfers part of the rendering queue management to the graphics card itself, reducing latency. To activate:

1. Open Settings > System > Display.
2. Look for Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling and enable it.

Restart your PC after the change for it to take effect.

Clean up what runs at startup and in the background

Each program that opens with Windows takes up RAM (random access memory) and can compete for processor cycles with your game. Many people accumulate years of software that registers at startup without asking permission.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
2. Go to the Startup tab (or “Startup apps” in Windows 11).
3. Disable everything that’s not essential: manufacturer update clients, printer assistants you don’t use, chat software that can open later manually.

In the Processes tab, while a game is open, observe which applications consume CPU and RAM unnecessarily. Close them before gaming. Discord, browsers with dozens of tabs open, and torrent clients actively downloading are the most common culprits.

Adjust video settings within the game

Many people put everything on maximum and then complain about performance. Some settings cost a lot in terms of performance and deliver little in noticeable visual quality during gameplay, especially when you’re focused on the action.

The ones that weigh the most and can be reduced without great visual impact:

• Dynamic shadows: can be set to medium or low. In fast-paced games, you barely notice the difference.
• Rendering distance for vegetation and world details: in shooter games, distant vegetation on ultra is GPU waste.
• Anti-aliasing: prefer temporal solutions like TAA or upscalers like DLSS (NVIDIA), FSR (AMD, available on any GPU) or XeSS (Intel). These technologies render the game at lower resolution and reconstruct the image with algorithms, delivering extra frames with acceptable or even superior visual quality to conventional anti-aliasing.
• Ray tracing: if your GPU isn’t one of the most recent, disable it. The performance cost is high.

FSR 4, released by AMD in early 2026 according to public manufacturer information, significantly improved image reconstruction quality compared to previous versions. Even NVIDIA and Intel graphics card users can benefit, as FSR doesn’t require specific AMD hardware. Check in the game menu if it offers support for the latest available version.

Keep drivers and system updated (the right way)

Outdated drivers are one of the most common causes of inconsistent performance and crashes. But there’s an important caveat: the newest driver isn’t always the best for your favorite game. Sometimes an older version is more stable.

• NVIDIA: use the NVIDIA App (which replaced GeForce Experience) to update drivers. It allows you to install the “Game Ready” or “Studio” version, with the former being more suitable for games.
• AMD: AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition serves the same purpose and even offers automatic game profiles.
• Intel Arc: Intel Arc Control manages drivers for Arc graphics cards.

For Windows Update, keep the system updated, but avoid installing major updates immediately before an important gaming session. System updates can include kernel scheduler changes that affect behavior with specific games.

Optimize storage without buying anything

If your operating system or game is installed on an HDD (mechanical hard drive with spinning platter) instead of an SSD (solid-state drive, with no moving parts), load times will be slow, but FPS during actual gameplay is usually not affected by disk type, except in games with real-time asset streaming, like large open worlds.

What you can do without spending anything:

1. Run Disk Defragmentation on the HDD (never on SSD, as it doesn’t help and wears out the device). In Windows 11, go to Optimize Drives in the search menu.
2. Free up space: very full disks can impact temporary write operations. Keep at least 15% of free space on your system drive.
3. Enable high-performance mode for the disk in Device Manager, if your HDD allows it. Access the device in Device Manager > Disk drives > Properties > Policies and select “Better performance”.

As for video connection, if you use a 4K or high refresh rate monitor, make sure the HDMI or DisplayPort cable is adequate. An inadequate cable can limit the resolution or refresh rate delivered to the monitor. To better understand how to choose the right cable for 4K, check out the article on HDMI cable for 4K on a budget: how to choose the right one published here on the site.

BIOS settings and XMP for the not-so-faint-hearted

This step is optional and requires a bit more attention, but can unlock real performance without any cost. XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) or EXPO (in the case of AMD platforms) is a profile stored in the RAM module that activates the official memory speed, as by default the system may run RAM below the frequency you paid for.

1. Restart your PC and enter BIOS (usually by pressing Delete or F2 right after startup, as indicated on the screen).
2. Look for XMP or EXPO in memory settings.
3. Enable the available profile.
4. Save and restart.

RAM running at the correct frequency can improve performance of processors that share memory with integrated GPU (such as AMD Ryzen chips with integrated Radeon graphics) quite noticeably.

Frequently asked questions about PC gaming optimization

Does cleaning your PC with software like CCleaner really help?

CCleaner and similar tools can remove temporary files and clean the Windows registry, but the performance gain in games is rarely noticeable. Windows 11 already has native tools for this in Settings > System > Storage > Temporary files. Avoid old versions of CCleaner, which in compromised past versions were distributed with malicious code.

Is it worth reinstalling Windows to gain performance?

Yes, if the system has accumulated years of software, conflicting drivers, and configuration clutter. A clean reinstall can restore the system’s original behavior. Windows 11 allows you to reset your PC directly in Settings > System > Recovery, without needing external media, which makes the process much easier.

What is stutter and why does it happen even with high FPS?

Stutter is that visual hiccup where the game seems to freeze for a fraction of a second, even though the FPS counter shows a high number. It happens when frames don’t arrive at regular intervals to the monitor. It can be caused by CPU bottlenecks, insufficient VRAM (graphics card memory) for the game’s assets, or interference from other processes. Enabling HAGS and ensuring no heavy processes run in the background are the first steps to reducing stutter.

Does using NVIDIA or AMD’s “Maximum Performance” mode in the control panel help?

Yes. In NVIDIA’s control panel or AMD Adrenalin, you can set the GPU’s power mode to maximum performance, preventing the card from reducing clocks during low-demand moments. It’s especially useful in less demanding games where the GPU might underestimate how hard it needs to work.

The starting point before any hardware investment

Before buying a new graphics card, more RAM, or any other component, applying these settings is mandatory. It doesn’t make sense to spend money on hardware if software is still holding back what you already have. In many cases, especially on PCs assembled two or three years ago and never reviewed, the gain after these optimizations can be significant enough to postpone hardware upgrades for another cycle.

If after all this performance is still below expectations, then it’s time to evaluate hardware more carefully, look at public benchmarks from specialized sites, and consider where your system is really bottlenecking. But that’s another article.