Before spending money on hardware, it’s worth ruling out software — there’s a real amount of free frame rate sitting in settings most people never touch. Here’s what’s actually worth using.
Windows’ own Game Mode
Search “Game Mode” in Windows Settings and make sure it’s turned on. It deprioritizes background processes and Windows Update activity in favor of whatever game is in focus. It’s not a massive gain on its own, but it’s free, built-in, and has no downside — there’s no reason to leave it off.
GPU manufacturer software (NVIDIA / AMD / Intel)
Whichever GPU brand you have, its official control software is the single most useful free tool for FPS:
- NVIDIA app / GeForce Experience — keeps drivers current (driver updates regularly include game-specific performance fixes) and includes NVIDIA Reflex for reduced latency in supported titles.
- AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition — same idea for AMD cards, plus Radeon Anti-Lag and Radeon Boost for supported games.
- Intel Arc Control — for Arc GPUs, similarly bundles driver management and performance overlays.
Outdated drivers are a genuinely common, boring cause of underperformance — checking for updates here costs nothing and occasionally fixes stutter that looks like a hardware problem.
Estimate Your Expected FPSMSI Afterburner (for monitoring and light tuning)
Free, works with any GPU brand, and gives you a real-time FPS/temperature/usage overlay so you can actually see what a setting change did rather than guessing. It also enables safe, incremental GPU overclocking if you want to go that route later — but the monitoring alone is worth installing it for.
Windows power plan
Search “power plan” in Windows Settings and make sure you’re on Balanced or Best Performance, not a power-saving plan — laptops in particular often ship set to prioritize battery life over performance, which caps CPU clock speeds and can meaningfully hold back frame rate in demanding games.
Storage: closing background apps vs. a real fix
Closing background apps before playing helps a little, but if you’re consistently running low on RAM or on a hard drive instead of an SSD, no amount of closing Chrome tabs will fix the underlying bottleneck. Check your specs first — see our guide on checking your PC specs on Windows if you haven’t confirmed what you’re working with.
What to skip
Random “PC booster” or “FPS booster” apps from third-party download sites are, at best, a repackaged version of the free tools above with ads attached, and at worst carry malware. If a tool isn’t from Microsoft or your hardware manufacturer directly, there’s rarely a reason to trust it over the options listed here.
