How to Improve the Gaming Performance of Your PC

If you use your PC for gaming, you already know that it’s not easy. As new games come out with more advanced requirements, you are hard-pressed to get new and better hardware. However, adding new hardware to your gaming PC is not always the answer. Sometimes, performance is simply a matter of configuring and optimizing your existing hardware. Following are some handy tips to optimize your PC and its existing setup for better gaming performance.

Optimize Graphics Card Settings

Tweak and optimize the settings of your graphics card to make the most out of it. You can do so by navigating to the control panel of the graphics card. Both Nvidia and AMD offer their graphics cards with a comprehensive control panel. This is the Nvidia GeForce Experience in the case of Nvidia cards and AMD Gaming Evolved if you are using an AMD card. You can adjust the settings to suit specific scenarios of gameplay. For instance, if you are playing a 3D game, you can adjust the 3D settings in the control panel to enable better performance.

Upgrade Your Graphics Card Drivers

Overhaul your PC’s gaming prowess by upgrading the graphics card drivers. Updates for graphics card drivers are rolled out on a regular basis by popular vendors like Nvidia and AMD. It is important to install these updates because they bring many improvements to the performance of your graphics card. You can adjust the settings of the drivers so that they can automatically update on a routine basis. Alternatively, you can manually check the updates every once in a while to see if a new version is available.

Overclock your GPU

The graphics card in your gaming PC comes with a standard factory setting. The power, speed and memory it offers depend on this setting. The good news is that you can adjust this setting to increase the performance of a graphics card. This is commonly known as overclocking. Overclocking a GPU is like running a car on nitro. It delivers far better performance but it also comes with some risk. In the case of the graphics card, overclocking must be done with care. Start by overclocking the card by a mere 10 % to 15%. Keep a record of the temperature of your machine as overclocking generates more heat. MSI Afterburner is a comprehensive overclocking solution that works perfectly with most graphics cards.

Upgrade your PC Hardware

Sometimes, getting a better gaming experience is as simple as upgrading your gaming hardware. The main component of your PC’s gaming hardware is the graphics card. Each card comes with its own performance benchmarks and limitations. A card designed for low-resolution gameplay, for instance, will not run high-res games very well. You will particularly need to upgrade the hardware if you want to run the latest games on your PC. Newer graphics cards offer a better frame rate, high-resolution graphics, and a smoother gaming experience.

Replace HDD with SSD

You launch a game and it takes a considerable amount to load which can be annoying. In such a case, your hard disk is to blame. The older, mechanical HDD hard disks are slower and take more time to load. In comparison, the SSDs are a more robust and fast variant of hard disks. SSDs used to carry a steep price tag but they have come down to very affordable levels today. Replacing HDD with SSD can reduce the game loading time on your machine by more than 200%!

Stop Unnecessary Processes and Applications

A lot of programs and applications are constantly running in the background on your PC. These can slow down your machine and consume precious resources like CPU and Memory. To take a look at which programs and applications are currently running, simply hit CTRL+ALT+DEL. This opens up the Task Manager. Here you can sort the running processes by their memory and CPU usage. You can kill any unnecessary processes from the Task Manager. You can also identify the ones that are taking up the most memory or CPU and then temporarily close them to allocate these resources to your gaming.

Optimize Internet Connectivity to Reduce Lag

When you are playing a game on the network, even the slightest lag can be very annoying. It can also mar the gameplay – imagine shooting at the enemy and hitting him ten seconds too late due to lag. To reduce lag, you need to optimize your internet connection. Make sure you are plugged into the router, as opposed to Wi-Fi connectivity, as you will get better speeds through a direct cabled link. Also check your connection speed to see if you are getting the full speed from your ISP. You can easily do this by using a speed test utility such as the Google speed test.

Use Hardware Defragmentation

On traditional hard disks, data can get fragmented over time and scattered to different locations on the HDD. When you try to access this data, the computer takes a long time to consolidate it and make it available. This is known as fragmentation. Defragmentation of the hard disk involves reorganizing the data on your hard disk and moving it closer together. You can easily defragment your HDD by using the default Windows Disk Defragmenter. To access the tool, navigate to Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Alternatively, simply write ‘Defragmenter’ in the search bar of the Start Menu and you will find the tool.

Conclusion

Now that you know a number of tricks to boost the gaming performance of your PC, it’s time to put them to use. The best thing about many of these methods is that most of them cost nothing and nearly all require a very little effort on your part. As you implement these tips, don’t forget to use benchmarks to monitor the results of these methods. Implementing some of them could make all the difference for your game-play and remove lag, stuttering, and overheating on your machine.