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How to Get Better Frames Per Second | Why It Matters

If you're like me, you go to the extreme and upgrade your computer every year for better gaming performance. But eventually, even with all the new upgrades and spending $5,000 on your gaming system, it still seems that not everything is running as smoothly as it should be. 

With fast gaming, you need to consider getting better frames per second for a more stable, playable, and enjoyable gaming experience. 

And while some pc gamers may be satisfied with 30+ FPS, others want a solid 60 frames or above. Thankfully, I will help you achieve higher FPS and crush your enemies with ease. 

Follow along!

What Is Low FPS?

Frames per second, or FPS, measures how many images your video card can process each second. The higher the FPS, the smoother the video looks on your PC monitor.

The FPS rating on your card is essential because it affects the games you play. After all, modern games are generally designed to support 60-100 frames per second. While this might sound like an enormous range, most modern games run smoothly at 60 FPS and look great at that level of detail.

a person playing a game

Why Is My FPS So-Low?? 

Hardware Issues

The most popular reason is hardware bottlenecks. That is, you have a hardware setup that's simply not up to snuff for the games you want to play. That means you're using too slow of a memory card or using an old video card. 

For instance, your graphics card is responsible for rendering the image on your screen. It does this by calculating light rays and rendering them as pixels on your monitor. If a lot of light rays need to be rendered at once (such as when there are a lot of objects on screen), it takes your graphics card more processing power to render those pixels. If your computer isn't powerful enough to handle the demand, there will be low FPS.

Insufficient RAM

Your RAM stores the information that your CPU needs to access often while playing games. This includes textures, game files, and shaders (which tell your GPU how to draw certain elements). 

If you don't have enough RAM installed on your machine, it will take longer for the CPU to load these elements from storage devices like hard drives and solid state drives, which can cause lag spikes.

In-game Settings

Make sure you have the in-game settings turned down. This includes reducing the resolution scale, turning off anti-aliasing, turning off shadows, and turning off any post-processing effects like motion blur or depth of field.

Background Programs

Close any other open programs before launching your game. This includes web browsers, file downloaders, torrent clients — anything that might be hogging system resources and preventing games from running smoothly.

Outdated Drivers 

The most common cause of low frame rates in gaming is outdated video drivers.

Video cards are great for high-resolution video, but they don't do so well with games that require faster frame rates. This is why multi-monitor setups are so popular among gamers. If you're not using multiple monitors, check if your drivers are up to date.

Unnecessary Resolution 

Today, many games have very high resolutions to keep up with modern monitors or TVs. High-resolution settings take more power to render than a lower one, which means that if your hardware isn't powerful enough, it will result in too much strain on the computer, leading to low FPS.  

Why Is Higher FPS Better?

It's essential to reliably maintain a high FPS, especially when it comes to first-person shooters that require constant, precise aiming.

We all have those moments, when it becomes 'Do or Die, then we take that leap of faith and jump into the gorgeous mountainside scene—and for a moment, we are in Heaven!

Higher frame rates mean more action, which is good for gamers. Even if you're not playing a video game, higher frame rates can make your entire experience smoother and more fluid — think of the difference it makes when a Blu-ray disc goes from 24 frames per second to 30 or 60 fps.

Frame rates are an important part of how a game feels — they affect how snappy and responsive everything feels. But they don't directly improve performance on your graphics hardware or anything else.

So, yes. The higher your FPS, the smoother your animations will be, making you more agile and more accurate in competitive gaming.

a person with headphones playing a game

How to Get Better Frames Per Second to Improve Gaming Performance?

If you're seeing a little too much lag while playing your favorite games, here are some tips to give your gaming PC a performance boost.

  1. Upgrade Your Graphics Card

The graphics card is the most critical part of a gaming PC, so you should make sure you have the best one for your budget and that it's running correctly. 

You can even buy a new one for relatively cheap if yours is old and out of date. Make sure you select one that's compatible with your PC. You can also check this guide to choose the best graphics card to increase fps.

  1. Optimize In-Game Settings

Most computer games have a slew of gaming settings that are tweaked to improve performance on older machines. You'll want to crank down (or turn off) things like anti-aliasing or ambient occlusion, which are unnecessary eye candy during gameplay but can significantly impact your frame rate. 

The specific options vary based on the game, so you'll need to check out the settings in each game you play to see what works best on your system.

  1. Enable Game Mode in Windows 10

Game Mode is a feature introduced in the Creators Update for Windows 10 that focuses system resources on games when enabled. 

Windows game mode feature allows the system to use less energy when playing a game. This can help reduce power consumption and heat generation. It can also decrease PC fan noise as it allows the graphics card to run faster than normal.

Basically, it can stabilize the monitor's refresh rate during games that require more processing power.

It's particularly useful if you want to play games with graphics settings at maximum (some are limited by hardware specifications). It's also helpful if you're playing at high resolutions or on multiple gaming monitors.

4. Install The Latest Video Drivers

gaming monitor

If you want to improve gaming performance, the first thing you should do is to make sure your video drivers are up to date. 

To get the latest drivers, visit the manufacturer's website. If you own an NVIDIA-based graphics card and use an NVIDIA display driver, head over to NVIDIA's driver download page. 

Similarly, if you have an AMD-based graphics card and use an AMD Catalyst driver, you can head over to AMD's driver download page.

For Intel integrated graphics cards, both Microsoft and Intel keep a current list of available drivers along with their version numbers on their websites.

  1. Reduce Your Screen Resolution

The most significant single factor in frame rate is the screen resolution you're running at. The higher the resolution, the more pixels are being rendered on the screen. The more pixels that are being rendered, the more time it takes to draw them and the longer the frame will take to draw. 

In other words, if you have much higher resolution display settings than your graphics card can actually display at a given frame rate, you'll be dealing with a situation called "overdraw,". 

gaming computer tower

This happens when too much work has to be done by your graphics card and not enough by your monitor/screen.

A common way to improve performance is to lower your resolution. Usually, you'll want to drop from 1080p (Full HD) down to 720p resolution when gaming with an entry-level GPU or integrated graphics solution. However, if you have a better graphics card, you may not lose much in visual quality when playing at 720p. This isn't going to have a huge impact on most games, but it does make them run faster. 

Click Windows Settings, then ‘System' Scroll down. Head over to ‘Advanced display settings where you will see resolution and refresh rate. 

  1. Invest in FPS Booster Software

Over the years, we’ve seen many FPS booster software applications. One of the most common ones is Razer Cortex: Boost. Razer Cortex is a free app with many useful tools, one of which is a pc optimization software. 

It temporarily shuts down unnecessary background apps, processes, and applications to devote all of your computer’s resources to games, improving their performance.

There are also paid alternatives like GeForce Experience for Nvidia graphics card owners or Radeon Software Adrenalin by AMD. They help users optimize the game’s video settings for high game performance experiences based on their system specifications.

Conclusion 

Hopefully, this article proves useful for all you high-end gamers out there. You can always try other remedies, but these may be the easiest and least disruptive ways to optimize your gaming system. 

Just remember—no one said it has to be easy! Though these ways might be tedious, they will definitely give a noticeable improvement in FPS.

About Dusan Stanar

I'm the founder of VSS Monitoring. I have been both writing and working in technology in a number of roles for dozens of years and wanted to bring my experience online to make it publicly available. Visit https://www.vssmonitoring.com/about-us/ to read more about myself and the rest of the team.

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