How to Increase FPS in Games: 10 Proven Tips
Low frame rates don't always mean you need new hardware. Before you upgrade, work through these free and low-effort fixes — many players gain 20–50% more FPS just from settings and maintenance.
Software and settings
- Update your GPU drivers. New drivers regularly add big performance gains for the latest games.
- Lower the heaviest settings first. Shadows, ambient occlusion, volumetric effects, and ray tracing cost the most frames for the least visual gain.
- Turn on upscaling (DLSS, FSR, or XeSS). This is the single biggest free FPS boost on modern cards, often with little visible quality loss.
- Cap or match your refresh rate. Enabling the right sync options reduces stutter and tearing for a smoother feel.
- Drop the resolution scale. Rendering slightly below native and upscaling back up recovers a lot of frames.
System maintenance
- Close background apps. Browsers, chat apps, and overlays quietly eat CPU and RAM.
- Set the game to High Performance in your power and graphics settings so it uses your dedicated GPU.
- Keep temperatures in check. An overheating CPU or GPU throttles and loses performance — clean dust and ensure good airflow.
- Enable your RAM's XMP/EXPO profile in the BIOS so memory runs at its rated speed in dual-channel.
- Free up storage and use an SSD. A nearly full or slow drive causes stutter and long loads.
When it's time to upgrade
If you've done all of the above and still fall short, the bottleneck is likely hardware. Check which component is holding you back before spending: in many cases a GPU is the answer, but for high-refresh or CPU-heavy games a processor upgrade helps more.
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