Curiousity: What do you do to boost your device's gaming performance?

[jamail77]

Yes, even consoles. The things you can do you if you jailbreak a console, you know? Or...I assume so
*Stares at space where lack of video game consoles newer than 9 years old are kept*

Personally, I play on a laptop with an AMD Phenom(tm) II N970 Quad-Core Processor at 2.20 GHz with a recently upgraded to 8 GB of Ram (7.75GB usable). It's a 64-bit Windows 7 (edit: Ultimate, should have said that. I don't think there are newer Service Packs for the Ultimate version) Service Pack 1 OS. The video card is of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series with total available graphics memory of 3067 MB, dedicated video memory of 256 MB, system video memory of 0 MB, and shared system memory of 2811 MB. It's obviously not meant for gaming and that's not why my Dad bought it for me.

I often have to play newer games on minimum settings in windowed mode at the lowest screen resolution and window size. Even with that I still have to make sure certain memory hogging processes and services are off and don't begin at startup or boot. I turn off things like Windows themes, making sure my Desktop wallpaper/background is plain Windows Classic blue, and end stuff like explorer.exe. I also use two game boosters in conjunction with each other, GBoost and Razer Cortex Game Booster.

So, what do all of you do to boost gaming performance on what I assume are your much more capable machines?

 

[Morgoth780]

I am pretty certain that windowed mode is more intensive on the CPU than full screen. So it might be worth running in full screen but on a low resolution... Assuming that doesn't murder your eyes.

I used to have my i5 over clocked to 4.5ghz and my HD 7950 to 1100 mhz core clock. Then this became unstable and gave me some pretty bad frame latency, so I was lazy and lowered my CPU overclock to 4 ghz. Then I started playing cs:go a lot, and noticed I was getting worse performance than friends with weaker setups. They suggested I run everything at stock, and my performance drastically improved. I guess cs:go doesn't like overclock for some reason.

 

[jamail77]

I am pretty certain that windowed mode is more intensive on the CPU than full screen. So it might be worth running in full screen but on a low resolution... Assuming that doesn't murder your eyes.

I think it differs from game to game and how it's implemented. The reasoning you're probably thinking of goes that the computer has to do keep the desktop looking nice and play the game in its little window. For me, this is already not the case since I end explorer.exe every time (so no desktop icons) and use a Windows Classic blue theme with Themes and all other shiny Desktop settings off to begin with. Even accounting for all of that, it's not like the desktop stops existing in full screen; it's just not...I don't know the right word...rendering it, I guess.

For literally every single game I have played it runs worse in full screen because it is...well taking up the whole screen. I'm sure there will eventually be an exception, but I have yet to test for one. Putting all my games in windowed mode has drastically increased performance frankly.

 

[Strelok]

I was using a gaming laptop, a Sager with dual 280m Nvidia cards was a dual core processor, build quality was terrible, but it held together as far as pushing the graphics with a stable frame rate went. My experience would be different than yours though as it was a dedicated gaming laptop. I loved the eye candy I would decrease the AA as the main method of getting performance out of it, monitor refresh rate was only 30 so I didn't have to sacrifice much, would lower PhysX if I really had to. I built a desktop last week, and have now retired the laptop so I guess that is another method to improve performance/visuals, its an i7 with dual 980s, thinking of adding a 750ti as a dedicated PhysX card next, love me some PhysX. LOL

Pretty sure windowed mode depends on the resolution you are attempting to play at as to whether or not you will notice a change in FPS.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

For literally every single game I have played it runs worse in full screen because it is...well taking up the whole screen. I'm sure there will eventually be an exception, but I have yet to test for one. Putting all my games in windowed mode has drastically increased performance frankly.

I think that it depends on a number of things.

- Using a smaller resolution means you've got faster draws
- Using full-screen means that you don't need to deal with as much of the bloat from the other running processes
- Using full-screen with a lower than native resolution probably has some overhead that might be worse than the background processes, and you are still coloring the same number of pixels but...
- Lots of games nowadays render to textures and do post-processing which is probably more expensive than displaying it to the monitor

With my old laptop I had difficulty running most games smoothly (or at all), so I had to tweak things a lot to get them to work (Intel HD 3000 graphics yo!). I was well below the requirements for Alan Wake, but I managed to get it running at around 30fps with full screen and a really low resolution. I found that full screen was positive move, but I suspect that's largely because all the post-processing that had to be done with the lighting effects were what was slowing it down so badly in the first place.

 

[Amir Kondori]

I buy high end hardware, keep my system clean, and turn off Hairworks.

If you are really interested in improving performance in certain games check out Low Spec Gamer channel on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQkd05iAYed2-LOmhjzDG6g

Pretty cool channel that helps people with lower end hardware run games.

 

[jamail77]

I am pretty certain that windowed mode is more intensive on the CPU than full screen. So it might be worth running in full screen but on a low resolution... Assuming that doesn't murder your eyes.

Pretty sure windowed mode depends on the resolution you are attempting to play at as to whether or not you will notice a change in FPS.

I think that it depends on a number of things.[snip]

Most of the newer games I try to play can't even play at the resolution my actual screen is at. I notice the biggest increase at the absolute lowest resolution and an even bigger increase when I then put the game in windowed mode, which makes sense if you consider all the factors. My desktop wallpaper/background is made barebones, I end so many background processes that they aren't really going to affect when I go out of fullscreen, and the absolute minimum resolution of the games renders that extra full screen space useless. There's also, as I said before, the factor of how each game is optimized and implemented. I may be wrong on some of this, but I think I got the gist of why it works.

If you are really interested in improving performance in certain games check out Low Spec Gamer channel on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQkd05iAYed2-LOmhjzDG6g

Pretty cool channel that helps people with lower end hardware run games.

Awesome. The game I've been playing lately, Batman: Arkham Origins was on his channel and I watched the whole thing. I knew everything he mentioned, but after going in and out of the shop with my laptop, and the game not being on the new hard drive, and not having played the game for so long I completely forgot to look at the configuration files. Nice refesher! Appreciate it! My friend is having some problems with running Skyrim so I will definitely refer this.

 

[Something Amyss]

Dark Magic.

I actually don't do much of anything to boost devices. My computer's handled everything I've thrown at it since my latest (year-ish old) graphics card install. But I don't run out and buy a lot of new games, so I may have to resort to low-resolution, etc. if I get there.

I actually limit my phone's performance to save on battery life. So I'm doing the opposite there.

 

[Morgoth780]

I am pretty certain that windowed mode is more intensive on the CPU than full screen. So it might be worth running in full screen but on a low resolution... Assuming that doesn't murder your eyes.

I think it differs from game to game and how it's implemented. The reasoning you're probably thinking of goes that the computer has to do keep the desktop looking nice and play the game in its little window. For me, this is already not the case since I end explorer.exe every time (so no desktop icons) and use a Windows Classic blue theme with Themes and all other shiny Desktop settings off to begin with. Even accounting for all of that, it's not like the desktop stops existing in full screen; it's just not...I don't know the right word...rendering it, I guess.

For literally every single game I have played it runs worse in full screen because it is...well taking up the whole screen. I'm sure there will eventually be an exception, but I have yet to test for one. Putting all my games in windowed mode has drastically increased performance frankly.

At least in my experience, in csgo I'll lose about 100 frames if I do windowed full screen instead of full screen, and it also turns into a stuttery, unplayable mess.

Maybe it's because you are doing windowed, not full screen windowed? I don't know. Regardless, if it works better for you, you might as well continue doing it.

 

[JelDeRebel]

I downloaded more ram

http://downloadmoreram.com/

 

[Bad Jim]

NVidia drivers allow you to set up a custom resolution, if you are trying to find that sweet spot where the framerate is good but the resolution still reasonable. If you are willing to tolerate absurdly low resolutions, you can also do something like 640x360 if necessary to keep the framerate up. You can probably do something similar on ATI drivers.

Resolution is the main thing that affects framerate. Other things that have a significant effect are anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, so turn them off.

 

[Rabbitboy]

I sacrifice virgins to the Dark Ones.

 

[EHKOS]

I used to turn off explorer.exe too. I just got a new laptop since my old one died, and I had to step down from a quad-core at 2.4 to a dual at 2.2. Both were i5s but I'm not sure exactly what I lost. The upside is I got a Geforce 940M with 2GB dedicated instead of the integrated intel graphics. I'm just praying I can run Fallout 4, I don't care what settings.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I overclock it until it hertz.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm of the plug-n-play school of thought.

 

[jamail77]

At least in my experience, in csgo I'll lose about 100 frames if I do windowed full screen instead of full screen, and it also turns into a stuttery, unplayable mess.

Maybe it's because you are doing windowed, not full screen windowed? I don't know. Regardless, if it works better for you, you might as well continue doing it.

Yes, I am doing windowed with no fullscreen, so I suggest trying that with CS:GO and seeing what happens versus doing windowed full screen. And, yes, it has consistently worked better, even if only by a little bit for some games versus others.

I downloaded more ram

http://downloadmoreram.com/

Why must you taunt us so?

I used to turn off explorer.exe too.

I've heard ending certain services and processes on the computer and setting the priority of your games to real time in Windows Task Manager can destabilize your computer over time. So far I haven't noticed anything, but now that I think about it and with EHKOS' using the same trick can anyone confirm on this?

I'm of the plug-n-play school of thought.

Has it ever failed you?

 

[jamail77]

4) Regularly run CC cleaner to remove junk files

How about that? Someone else who uses CCleaner. Do you also happen to use Soluto, GBoost, and Razer Cortex Game Booster? I pretty much do everything you said, but I really should defragment the hard drive and air dust it more. We both seem to be on the right track though even if you don't use that fairly low powered laptop any longer.

6) Expand you computers virtual memory allowance (it's someone in the computer settings, it'll default to either your ram size or just above, you want at least doubt your ram as the virtual memory)[snip]
8) I literally go into the CPU battery settings and make sure it's set up so that plugged in it's at absolute max for everything it can be you'd be amazed how some power settings plugged in still limits the computer from using it's full processing power.

I have never done #6 though. For #6 if I'm understanding you right I should be doing this:

As for #8 I think I may have done that already, but I'm not sure. Can you give me a screenshot or online image example so I can know what you're talking about?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm of the plug-n-play school of thought.

Has it ever failed you?

Not for a second.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Snip

I just wrote a long post in a different thread about doing this, but I'll condense it here to help out and stuff.You probably do a lot of these things already, but I do this for a living and a lot of people still don't do this kind of maintenance and it helps a lot:

Getting rid of bad shit:

Even if you have Defender or Norton (you shouldn't have Norton or McAfee), there's free programs I highly recommend that pick up a lot of stuff that gets past the filters.

Update and run Malwarebytes Free https://www.malwarebytes.org/ and SuperAntiSpyware Free http://superantispyware.com/. Malwarebytes gets rid of a lot of malware, adware, spyware, tracking cookies and blah blah that slows things down. SuperAntiSpyware picks up what makes it past there and is great for getting rid of "piggyback" programs that come with installers like toolbars and things that waste memory. Update and run these 2 about once a week.

Keep your hard drive defragmented (unless its an SSD, then you don't need to worry about it). The utility built into Windows works, but I recommend Defraggler by the folks who make CCleaner (I saw that program mentioned in the thread and I really recommend it as well). I had friends with $2,000 computers who had like 55% fragmentation on their HDDs, and it can make everything slower and not good and stuff.

Make sure your graphics drivers are updated. In your specific case, I recommend going to the manufacturer of your Laptop and making sure that you have the most up to date drivers for pretty much everything. Windows Update should pick up most of that if you have it enabled and automated, but it never hurts to check your manufacturer or also the "optional" Windows updates. While you're there you might as well update your BIOS, but this is up to you. You may not see performance improvements from it, and while the process is a HELL of a lot safer than it used to be, there's still an inherent risk in your computer losing power or something while the BIOS is being flashed. If any of this makes you uncomfortable, don't worry about upgrading your BIOS.

Make sure DirectX is up to date. Steam games should install dependencies when they first run, but running Microsoft's web installer for DirectX is a good call: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35.

Make sure you aren't booting your computer with programs you don't need. If you click the start button and type "msconfig" (without the quotes) in the search bar, then open msconfig, then click the "startup" tab, you'll see a list of all the programs that launch when the computer does and stay running in the background while it's on. If you don't know what a program is, Google it to see if you need it running all the time or ignore it. Basically, you don't need Itunes and Quicktime and shit starting every time you turn your computer on and this is where you stop them from doing that. Uncheck what you don't need and then restart when requested.

If you're cool with 3rd party programs, I love Razer's Game Booster. It "boosts" in preparation of a game launch by stopping all programs and services that don't involve running the game (your printer spooler and the like). I've seen people gain 800-1200MB of RAM by doing a boost before running a game. You can also have the booster stop explorer.exe, and optionally launch the game in a dedicated desktop mode for additional help. The program also has an optional FPS counter, screenshot taker, and video recorder. It can also defrag individual folders for your game installations. I use it pretty much every time I launch a game: http://www.razerzone.com/cortex/game-booster

Sidenotes: Don't launch a game in windowed mode to gain performance, you generally won't and will only make your life more difficult if you don't need your game windowed/borderless windowed. If possible, use your monitor's native resolution to run a game and work the other settings around that, upscaling is very bad and lowering the resolution needlessly can actually make the performance more reliant on your CPU instead of your GPU. Lowering shadow resolution/quality is the first place to go for big gains that aren't noticed a whole lot visually. With a laptop I don't recommend MSAA for most games as its too "expensive" (resource wise) but FXAA and MLAA are post-process solutions that are less expensive and worth it if you're okay with their relative blurriness compared to the jaggies they get rid of.

Before launching any game, check out the pcgamingwiki entry for it: pcgamingwiki.com. Some games have weird quirks or literally essential mods or settings to run and look optimal, and this site is a great resource to make sure that you're running the game the best you can.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about anything, there's also the "PC builders and hardware group" here at the Escapist where we talk about things like this sometimes and it's what I do for fun when it isn't my job. Good luck!