How to Increase FPS — 10 Real Ways

Low FPS (frames per second) makes gaming uncomfortable: the image stutters, it's hard to hit the target. Before you buy a new video card, try these ten tips — many of them are completely free, and the results are often quite noticeable.

1. Update your video card driver

This is the first step. Manufacturers release optimized drivers when new games are released, which sometimes increase performance by tens of percent. Use NVIDIA App or AMD Adrenalin.

2. Enable DLSS or FSR

This is one of the most effective settings in modern games. The technology renders the game at a lower resolution and then intelligently upscales the image. The result — significantly more frames, with minimal loss of image quality. Read more: What are DLSS 4 and FSR 4?.

3. Set the correct parameters

Not all settings consume resources equally. The most "heavy" and least noticeable are:

• Shadow quality — Lower it to medium, the picture will hardly change.
• Ray tracing — Disable if FPS is critical.
• Ambient Occlusion and Volumetric effects — It's expensive, the effect is modest.
• Texture quality — On the contrary, leave it high: it consumes VRAM, not GPU power (if you have enough video memory).

4. Check if the RAM is working in dual-channel mode

If you have one module installed, adding another one can sometimes give the 10-20% more frames — especially in processor-intensive games. See RAM Guide.

5. Enable XMP or EXPO profile

This profile is disabled by default in the BIOS, and your memory runs at a lower frequency than declared. One switch — free performance.

6. Check the temperature

When overheating, the processor and video card automatically reduce their frequency to avoid damage. If the FPS drops within 10 minutes of starting the game, this is likely what is happening. See Computer cooling article.

7. Close background applications

A dozen browser tabs, a Discord overlay, streaming apps — they all eat up RAM and CPU time. In Windows„ Task Manager, sort processes by resource usage and close unnecessary ones.

8. Turn on Game Mode and disable unnecessary effects

Windows Game Mode prioritizes gaming. Also, turn off background recording (Xbox Game Bar) if you're not using it.

9. Move the game to SSD

This doesn't directly increase FPS, but it does significantly reduce loading times and texture "lag" in open world games. If you're still running games on your HDD, see SSD or HDD.

10. Clean the computer from dust

Accumulated dust blocks air movement, raises temperatures, and reduces performance. Cleaning once a year is often enough to bring back lost footage.

When is optimization no longer enough?

If you've gone through all these steps and the framerate is still low, the problem is hardware-related. Find out which component is limiting: if the video card is loading at 95-100% during the game, it's a "vegetable"; if the processor is at 100% and the video card is at 60%, the processor is holding you back.

To estimate the number of frames you need for a specific configuration, use our FPS calculator, and will help you plan your upgrade Configurator.