PC Tweaks for Gaming: 10 Windows Settings That Actually Boost FPS (2026)

Why most gaming PCs underperform out of the box

Windows ships with settings tuned for battery life, compatibility, and general desktop use. None of those priorities match high-refresh-rate gaming. The CPU clock states get held back by the default balanced power plan, GPU scheduling runs in a power-saving mode, and background services burn CPU cycles mid-game. These are the gaps that pc tweaks for gaming are designed to close.

This guide covers 10 changes that actually move the needle. Each one works on Windows 10 and Windows 11 in 2026, and each section tells you exactly how to revert the change if the result is not what you expected.

1. Switch to the High Performance or Ultimate Performance power plan

This is the most impactful tweak on older or mid-range hardware. The default Balanced plan throttles CPU frequency during micro-idle gaps between frames. High Performance removes that throttling. Ultimate Performance, available on Windows 10 Pro and Windows 11 Pro, goes further by disabling processor idle states entirely.

• Open Control Panel and go to Hardware and Sound > Power Options

• Select High Performance from the list. If you don’t see it, click “Show additional plans.”

• For Ultimate Performance on Windows 11 Pro, open PowerShell as Administrator and run: powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

To revert: go back to Power Options and select Balanced. On a laptop that’s unplugged, High Performance drains the battery faster. On a desktop there’s no downside. Our full breakdown with screenshots is in the High Performance power plan guide.

2. Turn off Xbox Game Bar and background recording

Game Bar sits inside every game session by default, tracking gameplay and waiting for a hotkey. Even when you never press a button, the DVR process consumes CPU and allocates GPU resources for potential recording. On systems with 8 GB or less of RAM, this overhead is measurable.

• Go to Settings > Gaming > Xbox Game Bar and toggle it off

• Then go to Settings > Gaming > Captures and turn off “Record in the background while I’m playing a game”

To revert: toggle both back on in the same menus.

3. Configure Windows Game Mode correctly

Game Mode deprioritizes background processes during active game sessions and signals GPU drivers to hold their clock speeds. The second behavior creates problems on AMD systems with pre-2024 driver versions: the GPU holds boost states even during idle scenes, which can raise temperatures in open-world games with variable load.

For 2026 drivers, Game Mode is safe to leave on for most users. If your GPU runs hot during gaming or you notice stutters on AMD hardware, turn Game Mode off and test for 30 minutes.

• Settings > Gaming > Game Mode

4. Disable startup programs that run in the background

Every program that launches at startup still runs in the background during games. Razer Synapse, Discord auto-start, OBS startup agent, browser crash reporters: individually small, collectively they can consume 400 to 800 MB of RAM and 5 to 10 percent background CPU on older hardware.

• Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager

• Click the Startup apps tab

• Sort by “Startup impact” and right-click to disable anything marked High that you don’t need before the game loads

Safe to disable: browser update helpers, cloud sync agents you don’t actively use, manufacturer toolbars, Spotify startup agent. Do not disable: antivirus, audio drivers, GPU control panel entries.

5. Set your GPU to maximum performance in NVIDIA or AMD settings

Both NVIDIA Control Panel and AMD Adrenalin default to power-saving or balanced GPU profiles. These profiles let the card drop clock speeds during gameplay moments the driver considers “not demanding enough.” The fix differs by vendor.

NVIDIA: Open NVIDIA Control Panel, go to Manage 3D Settings, then set Power Management Mode to “Prefer Maximum Performance.” Also set Texture Filtering Quality to “Performance” and Vertical Sync to “Off.” Control V-sync from in-game settings instead.

AMD: In AMD Software Adrenalin, under Gaming > Global Graphics, set the Graphics Profile to “eSports” or “Performance.” Under Tuning, set GPU tuning to “Automatic” if you aren’t manually overclocking.

The NVIDIA settings that matter most are in our NVIDIA Control Panel settings for gaming guide.

6. Adjust visual effects to favor performance

Windows animates window open/close, menu fades, thumbnail previews, and font smoothing for the desktop. These don’t affect game rendering, but they draw from the same GPU and CPU budget during the moments when you alt-tab or open the game launcher.

• Search for “Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows” in Start

• Select “Adjust for best performance” or manually uncheck specific animations

• One worth keeping: “Smooth edges of screen fonts” (affects text legibility outside the game)

7. Disable hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling if you see stutters

HAGS offloads GPU memory management from the CPU. On paper this reduces latency. On systems with older GPUs or certain NVIDIA driver versions, HAGS introduces frame time variance that registers as micro-stutters. It works reliably on RTX 40-series and RX 7000-series hardware. On older cards, the results vary.

To toggle: Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Change default graphics settings > Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling. Reboot after any change and test with a frame-pacing tool like CapFrameX to see whether frame time consistency improves.

Setting	Recommended Value	Why
Power Plan	High Performance or Ultimate Performance	Prevents CPU clock throttling between frames.
GPU Power Mode (NVIDIA)	Prefer Maximum Performance	Holds GPU boost clocks during all game loads, not just heavy ones.
GPU Power Mode (AMD)	eSports or Performance profile	Prevents frequency drops during low-load scenes.
Xbox Game Bar	Off	Eliminates background DVR overhead during gameplay.
Game Mode	On (most hardware) / Off (AMD pre-2024 drivers)	Deprioritizes background tasks; may interfere on older AMD systems.
HAGS	On for RTX 40+/RX 7000+; Off for older GPUs	Reduces latency on modern hardware but adds stutter on older cards.
Visual Effects	Adjust for best performance	Frees GPU/CPU from desktop animations.
Startup Programs	Disable high-impact background agents	Recovers RAM and background CPU consumed before the game launches.

8. Enable XMP or EXPO for your RAM in BIOS

Most DDR4 and DDR5 kits ship running at their base JEDEC speed, not the rated frequency advertised on the box. That rated speed only activates when you enable XMP (Intel platforms) or EXPO (AMD platforms) in BIOS. Running RAM below its rated speed reduces memory bandwidth available to the system and can bottleneck the CPU-to-GPU pipeline in frame-rate-sensitive games.

• Restart and enter BIOS (typically Delete or F2 during POST)

• Find the “XMP” or “EXPO” option under OC or DRAM Configuration

• Enable the profile matching your kit’s rated speed

• Save and reboot

If the system becomes unstable after enabling XMP, reset BIOS to defaults and RAM returns to its base frequency automatically.

9. Disable Windows Search indexing and SysMain if you’re on an SSD

Windows Search rebuilds its index on a schedule, reading your drive in the background. On HDDs this creates drive contention that shows up as load-time stutters. On SSDs the indexer uses cycles without giving back proportional search speed.

• Open Task Manager, click Services, sort by CPU

• Right-click WSearch (Windows Search) and set to Manual or Disabled if you rarely use file search

• SysMain (formerly SuperFetch): disable on SSDs, leave on for HDDs since it genuinely pre-caches game files on mechanical drives

10. Apply everything at once with FPSTweak

The nine settings above work, but applying them across Control Panel, BIOS, NVIDIA Control Panel, Device Manager, and Task Manager takes 30 to 40 minutes. FPSTweak applies the same Windows-level optimizations automatically, logs what changed, and lets you revert anything with one click.

If you prefer the manual route, the steps above cover the full list. For the FPS side specifically, see how to boost fps on PC and why some systems stop responding to software tweaks after a point. If input latency feels off after the GPU changes, the low latency gaming guide covers the remaining driver and hardware variables.

Frequently asked questions