How to Improve FPS in Any Game (Step-by-Step Guide)

Low FPS is one of those problems that sneaks up on you. The game ran fine last month, nothing obvious changed, and now it feels sluggish in every firefight. Most of the time you don't need new hardware to fix it. You need to find the one or two things that are actually holding your frames back.

Here's the process I use, in order, from the free stuff that takes two minutes to the changes that need a screwdriver.

First, What Counts as Good FPS?

It depends entirely on your monitor. There's no universal number.

60Hz monitor: 60 FPS is your ceiling. Anything above it is wasted unless you want lower input lag.
120Hz / 144Hz: aim for 100 to 144 FPS. This is the sweet spot most people notice instantly.
240Hz and up: competitive shooters only. You want 200+ FPS or the panel is not earning its price.

Steady frames matter more than high frames, by the way. A locked 90 FPS feels better than something bouncing between 70 and 140.

Step 1: Measure Your Baseline Before You Change Anything

Skip this and you're guessing. Get a real number first, then you can tell whether a tweak helped or did nothing.

Run our FPS Tester to see what your system and browser can push.
Confirm your panel is actually running at its rated speed with the Refresh Rate Test. A surprising number of 144Hz monitors ship set to 60Hz.
If the image looks split during fast movement, check the Screen Tearing Test. That's a sync problem, not an FPS problem.
In games, turn on the built-in FPS counter or use the overlay in the NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel app.

Write the number down. Seriously. You'll forget.

Step 2: The Free Wins (Two Minutes, No Risk)

These cost nothing and often give back 10 to 20 percent on their own.

Close background apps. Chrome with 40 tabs, Discord streaming, Spotify, and a browser playing YouTube in the background all eat memory and CPU time.
Kill overlays you don't use. Discord overlay, Xbox Game Bar, RGB software, and old capture tools all hook into the game. Each one costs a few frames.
Set the power plan to High Performance. On laptops this is huge. Balanced mode throttles the CPU on purpose.
Plug the laptop in. Most laptops cut GPU power hard on battery, sometimes by half.
Restart. Boring advice, still works, especially after a long uptime.

Step 3: Update Your GPU Drivers Properly

Driver updates matter most for new releases, where the gain can be 10 to 30 percent in the first few patches.

Download from NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel directly. Not from a driver updater tool.
Pick the clean install option so old settings don't carry over.
If you keep getting crashes after an update, roll back a version. Newest is not always best.

Also update your chipset drivers once in a while. People forget those exist and they affect CPU behavior.

Step 4: The In-Game Settings That Actually Cost Frames

Most settings barely matter. A handful eat your GPU alive. Turn these down first instead of dropping everything to Low and making the game look terrible.

Setting	Typical FPS gain when lowered	Visual cost
Ray tracing	30 to 60%	High, but only in reflections and lighting
Shadow quality	10 to 25%	Low at medium settings
Volumetric fog / lighting	10 to 20%	Noticeable in some scenes
Anti-aliasing (MSAA)	10 to 20%	Some jagged edges, TAA is cheaper
View / draw distance	5 to 15%	Pop-in at long range
Ambient occlusion	5 to 10%	Slightly flatter shading
Texture quality	0 to 5% if VRAM is fine	High, so leave it up

Rule of thumb: keep textures high, cut shadows and effects. That gives you the best looking game per frame.

Step 5: Resolution and Upscaling (DLSS, FSR, XeSS)

Resolution is the single biggest lever you have. Going from 1440p to 1080p can add 40 percent or more.

But you don't have to accept a blurry screen anymore. Upscalers render the game at a lower internal resolution and rebuild it back up:

DLSS for NVIDIA RTX cards. Usually the cleanest.
FSR works on almost anything, including older AMD and NVIDIA cards.
XeSS for Intel Arc, and it runs on other GPUs too.

Start on Quality mode. If you still need more, Balanced is fine at 1440p and above. Performance mode at 1080p tends to look soft, so I'd avoid it unless you're desperate.

Step 6: Fix Sync Before You Chase More Frames

Sometimes the game isn't slow, it just feels wrong. Tearing and stutter get blamed on FPS all the time.

Turn on G-Sync or FreeSync in your monitor's OSD and in the GPU control panel.
Cap your frame rate about 3 FPS below your refresh rate. On 144Hz, cap at 141.
Leave V-Sync off in game if variable refresh is working, it adds latency.

Do this and a stable 100 FPS suddenly feels much smoother than an unlocked 130 that tears.

Step 7: Hardware Fixes That Don't Cost Money

Before buying anything, check these. I've seen all four fix "my PC is slow" complaints.

RAM in dual channel. Two sticks in the correct slots. A single stick can cost 15 to 30 percent in CPU heavy games.
XMP or EXPO enabled in BIOS. Without it, fast RAM runs at slow default speeds.
Thermals. Dusty fans mean thermal throttling, which shows up as FPS that starts fine and drops after ten minutes. Clean the filters, check temps.
Storage. Games on an old hard drive stutter while loading assets even if FPS looks okay on paper.

Step 8: Windows Settings Worth Changing

Turn on Game Mode in Windows settings.
Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling, then test. It helps some systems and hurts others, so measure both ways.
Trim startup apps in Task Manager. Half of them don't need to run.
Make sure the game is using your dedicated GPU, not the integrated one. Laptops get this wrong constantly.
Keep at least 10 to 15 percent of your drive free so Windows can breathe.

Step 9: Are You CPU-Bound or GPU-Bound?

This decides whether tweaking settings will help at all.

GPU usage near 95 to 100%: you're GPU-bound. Lowering graphics settings will raise FPS.
GPU usage at 60 to 70% with high CPU load: you're CPU-bound. Lowering graphics does almost nothing. Reduce crowd density, draw distance, physics, or raise resolution instead since it's free.

If you want to dig deeper, we have a full guide on telling which one is bottlenecking you.

Quick Troubleshooting Table

What you see	Likely cause	Fix
FPS good, then drops after 10 minutes	Thermal throttling	Clean fans, check temps, improve airflow
Image splits horizontally	No sync	Enable G-Sync/FreeSync, cap FPS
Random hitches with high average FPS	Shader compilation or storage	Let shaders build, move game to SSD
Low FPS only on laptop	Battery mode or iGPU	Plug in, force dedicated GPU
Low FPS in every game after an update	Driver issue	Clean install or roll back drivers
Textures look muddy and stutter	VRAM full	Lower texture quality one step

When It's Genuinely Time to Upgrade

If you've done all of the above, your GPU sits at 99 percent, temps are fine, and you're still under 60 FPS at low settings, then the hardware is the limit. In that case the order that usually gives the most per dollar is GPU first, then RAM to 16GB or 32GB, then CPU.

Don't upgrade a monitor to 240Hz before your PC can feed it. That's money spent on a number you'll never see.

FAQ

Does lowering resolution really help that much?

Yes, it's usually the biggest single gain. Try an upscaler first though, it looks better than just dropping the resolution.

Do FPS booster programs work?

Mostly no. They close background tasks you could close yourself, and some add their own overhead. Skip them.

Is 60 FPS enough in 2026?

For single player games, absolutely. For competitive shooters, 120 and up makes a real difference in tracking fast targets.

Why is my FPS high but the game still feels choppy?

That's frame pacing or tearing, not raw FPS. Cap your frame rate, enable variable refresh, and check for stutter separately.

Should I overclock my GPU?

A mild undervolt often gives you better sustained performance than an overclock, because it keeps temperatures down. Try that first.

How often should I update drivers?

Around new game launches, or every couple of months. No need to chase every release.

The Short Checklist

Measure your baseline FPS.
Close background apps and overlays, set High Performance power.
Clean install the latest GPU driver.
Drop shadows, ray tracing, and volumetrics before anything else.
Turn on DLSS, FSR, or XeSS at Quality.
Enable G-Sync or FreeSync and cap FPS just under your refresh rate.
Check dual channel RAM, XMP, temps, and storage.
Confirm whether you're CPU or GPU-bound before spending money.

Work through it in order and re-test after each step. That way you'll know exactly what gave you the frames back, which is worth a lot the next time this happens.