PC gaming can seem a bit complicated to some, especially if they are first-timers. This is one of the reasons many folks have decided to buy a console instead of a gaming PC. And why not? Consoles are as plug and play as they come, while PC gaming requires a hands-on approach.

Well, let’s be fair, it doesn’t always require a hands-on approach due to improvements in drivers and Windows in the past couple years. However, the issue of not being as straightforward when compared to a console is still there. Here are some tips that will show you how to improve gaming performance on your Windows 10/8/7 laptop or PC.

Improve gaming performance on Windows 10

If you’re new to PC gaming, or a veteran who is having problems with performance, the following tips might turn out to be a major help.

1] Update graphic card drivers

The two main graphic card companies today are Nvidia and AMD. It is widely known that several games tend to perform better when a Nvidia card is installed, while AMD users have to sit back and wait for a driver update to get things to where it needs to be.

It’s not big of an issue anymore, but problems still persist. This is why drivers are still being released regularly, especially after the release of newer games. We’ve seen it time and time again when a new game hits the market, it doesn’t work as well until after a driver update from Nvidia and AMD.

Update the video adapter driver and the sound card driver is important as sometimes a simple driver update can improve the performance of older games as well.

You may make use of Intel Driver Update Utility or AMD Driver AutoDetect.  Here are some other links to help you download Drivers for your computer: GEFORCE Drivers | AMD & Radeon Drivers | Intel Drivers.

2] Get your software optimized

When playing video games on a console, one doesn’t have much to worry about seeing as the underlying software gets out of the way once the game is active. This isn’t necessarily the case with PC gaming, and as such, it can become a challenge.

When a game is launched, whatever software that is active in the background will continue to be active until something is done about it. An active software takes up precious resources that could improve the performance of your game. We suggest launching the Task Manager and close every active non-system process that is not important.

Is your web browser up and running with many tabs? Close them all. Are you encoding a video? Pause it, or finish the encoding process before launching your game.

We should point out that not every game requires a lot of resources to run, but for the ones that do, please allow it access to the resources it needs.

3] Select High Performance Power Plan

Open Control Panel > ower Options. Here select the High-Performance plan to increase laptop performance.

4] Improve multiplayer performance

To improve multiplayer performance in games, reduce the number of players who can play the game when you set up a LAN or Internet multiplayer game.

5] Play around with game settings

Here’s the thing, most video games come with their own settings area. This is where the player gets to tweak the game to get a better output or something less that is more in line with what their graphic card is capable of handling.

The software usually selects the best graphic setting for a game, and for the most part, it works. However, there are some instances when the software reverts to the lowest setting, even if the graphic card is capable of running the game on highest settings available.

At a time like this, one needs to jump in and make the changes to gain more performance.

It’s not ideal for everyone to do this seeing as many have no idea what is anti-aliasing or super-sampling.

6] Check your Hard Disk for errors

Run ChkDsk and set the tool to Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors as well as Automatically fix file system errors.

7] Adjust PC for best performance

Open Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > System properties Advanced tab > Performance Settings > Visual Effects. Select Adjust for best performance and click Apply and exit.

8] Try some free gaming boost software

Not everyone is willing to dig in and manually make changes, so this is where video game boost software comes into play. We recommend trying GBoost, a program that shuts down unwanted services to grant more resources to your game.

ToolWiz Game Boost is another program that is designed to improve gaming performance. It acts in similar ways to GBoost, so it should be just as easy to understand.

Fusion Utility for AMD Desktops can help you optimize your PC for Gaming.

9] If all else fails, upgrade your hardware

Sometimes one only needs to upgrade their hardware to get the performance they need. Older hardware tends to struggle with newer games, so consider upgrading your graphic card, processor, and RAM. In most cases, only one of the three needs to be replaced, but if you haven’t upgraded in years, then all might need an upgrade.

All the best!