How to Increase FPS on PC

Even with a great gaming setup, there are some crucial tweaks and adjustments that are necessary if you want to increase the frames per second (FPS) rate on your gaming PC or laptop. 

A low FPS can make games stutter or even look blurry. Increasing your FPS means that games look better and run more smoothly on your PC. Over time, gaming systems often need some maintenance which is why it's useful to follow these tips.

While some solutions and tips take seconds to implement, others may require a bit more time to get right. Whatever your skill level or level of free time, below are a series of tips to help increase and boost your FPS on your gaming PC. 

How to Get More FPS on Your PC

The simplest way to get the most from your graphics card and boost the FPS is to update the graphics card drivers. Updating the drivers ensures the card is using the latest software which brings with it new features, performance updates, and other optimizations.

If you use an Nvidia graphics card, updating the Nvidia drivers is particularly easy with dedicated software, GeForce Experience, which streamlines the process.

Optimize Your Game’s Settings

If you're trying to get one particular game to run smoothly, look for options within the game that relate to the performance level. Look for settings like Render Distance, Texture Quality, and Shadow Depth. By lowering them, you're likely to increase the FPS. 

Also, running a game at a lower resolution boosts FPS. The higher the resolution, the more your graphics card needs to do at any one moment. By lowering it, you can focus on a higher quality FPS level with a more close-up view of what you're playing.

Dedicated tools like GeForce Experience AMD Adrenalin are also capable of making these adjustments and can sometimes do so more efficiently as they're designed for the specific graphics card you are using. 

Enable Game Mode

Windows 10 and above has a dedicated Game Mode that automatically makes games run faster and more smoothly. It should be enabled by default any time you load a game, prioritizing resources and deactivating background activities, but if not, you can head to Settings > Gaming and check that Game Mode is toggled on to make sure it always works.

Game Mode saves you from needing to tweak so many settings yourself, with Windows automatically optimized for gaming while it's active.

Defragment Your Hard Drive

Data fragmentation means that data is spread across different sectors of a hard drive which means it takes your PC longer to find the relevant files, leading to lower FPS.

By defragmenting a hard drive, the files and data are moved more efficiently so that you gain shorter loading times as well as improved FPS.

Close Other Apps and Programs

If you're playing a game at the same time as other apps are open, this can reduce the amount of RAM made available to a game leading to lower FPS and inferior performance.

Even your web browser can use up a lot of memory, especially if you have many tabs open, so it's important to keep as many apps closed as possible while you play a game.

Overclock Your Hardware

If you're keen to try more advanced methods of improving your FPS, try overclocking your PC's RAM or graphics card. Many methods are reasonably safe and a good way of getting more from your existing hardware for free, but you need to be comfortable with using your PC's BIOS and editing some advanced settings. 

Overclocking is never guaranteed to work as some RAM and graphics cards may not be able to deal with the stress of it, so it can be considered a risky option. However, if you're keen to experiment, many users can reap substantial benefits by changing internal settings.

Update Your BIOS

Most people don't need to consider updating the BIOS of their PC but if they want to experiment with gaining the best performance, it can be helpful. The process involves updating the software built into your motherboard which ensures your entire PC works correctly. If the computer loses power during the BIOS update, it can 'brick' the PC leading it to be inoperable. 

The process differs depending on the motherboard involved but often requires you to go to the motherboard manufacturer's site and find your motherboard, before downloading the update onto a USB drive. 

It may not make a difference to performance but in some cases—particularly when using a gaming motherboard—it can unlock more options for overclocking other components.

Buy a New Graphics Card

If you've tried all the above steps and your PC continues to struggle to play games at the FPS rate you want, it may be time to buy a new graphics card.

Research the topic and make sure you buy one that is compatible with the rest of your system. Be aware that if your system is aging, you may feel more comfortable upgrading your whole setup as well as the graphics card. 

To upgrade your graphics card, you'll need to feel comfortable opening up your PC to install the graphics card. If you don't, buying a prebuilt gaming desktop may be a better idea.

Laptop graphics cards are much harder to upgrade, so you may need to buy a new laptop if all other tips haven't succeeded.