Complete guide to boosting FPS in PC games. Learn how to increase FPS, update graphics drivers, fix low FPS and stuttering, and optimize performance in Valorant, Fortnite, Minecraft, and more.

How to Boost FPS in PC Games: The Ultimate Performance Guide (2026)

Updated August 2026

Low frame rates ruin the gaming experience. Whether you are dealing with constant stuttering, sudden FPS drops, or a frame rate that never feels smooth enough, this guide covers every method to boost FPS on PC. From simple settings changes to advanced system optimizations, we will show you how to get more FPS in any game you play.

These tips apply universally across games, and we include specific sections for popular titles like Valorant, Fortnite, and Minecraft. By the end, you will understand what causes low FPS, how to diagnose your specific bottleneck, and exactly what to do about it.

How to Check FPS in Games

Before optimizing, you need to know your current performance. Here is how to show FPS on PC and how to check FPS in games using different methods:

Windows Game Bar (built-in): Press Windows + G to open the Game Bar. Click the Performance widget to see real-time FPS, CPU usage, GPU usage, and RAM usage. This works in any game without additional software.

Steam FPS counter: If you play through Steam, go to Settings, In-Game, and enable "In-game FPS counter." Choose a corner position. This lightweight overlay works in any Steam game.

NVIDIA GeForce Experience: Press Alt + R to toggle the performance overlay in supported games. This shows detailed FPS, frame time, and hardware utilization metrics.

AMD Adrenalin: Press Ctrl + Shift + O to toggle the performance overlay. Shows FPS along with GPU temperature, clock speeds, and usage percentages.

MSI Afterburner + RivaTuner: The most detailed FPS counter for Windows. Install both applications, configure Afterburner's monitoring tab to select which metrics to display, and RivaTuner handles the on-screen overlay. This combination works with any GPU brand and provides frame time graphs that reveal stuttering invisible to simple FPS counters.

What FPS should you target? 60 FPS is the baseline for smooth gameplay. 144 FPS is ideal for competitive games if your monitor supports it. If your FPS frequently drops below 60, optimization will make a noticeable difference.

How to Update Graphics Drivers

Outdated graphics drivers are the most common and most easily fixed cause of poor gaming performance. Learning how to update graphics drivers should be your first step in any FPS optimization process.

NVIDIA Driver Update

Open GeForce Experience (download from nvidia.com if not installed).
Click the "Drivers" tab at the top.
If an update is available, click "Download."
Choose "Express Installation" for the simplest process.
Restart your computer after installation completes.

Alternatively, visit nvidia.com/drivers, select your GPU model, and download the latest Game Ready driver directly.

AMD Driver Update

Open AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition (download from amd.com/support if not installed).
The software automatically checks for updates on launch.
Click "Download" if an update is available.
Follow the installation prompts and restart.

Intel Driver Update

Visit intel.com and download the Intel Driver and Support Assistant.
Run the assistant. It scans your system and identifies outdated drivers.
Download and install any available graphics driver updates.

Important: Always download drivers from official sources (nvidia.com, amd.com, intel.com). Third-party driver update tools often bundle unwanted software and may install incorrect drivers.

Windows Optimizations for Gaming

These system-level changes help fix low FPS by reducing overhead and prioritizing gaming performance:

Enable Game Mode

Go to Settings, Gaming, Game Mode, and toggle it on. Game Mode tells Windows to allocate more resources to the active game by reducing background task priority and preventing Windows Update from installing during gameplay.

Set High Performance Power Plan

Open Control Panel, Power Options, and select "High Performance." The default "Balanced" plan throttles your CPU speed to save power, which directly reduces FPS. On laptops, use High Performance when plugged in and gaming.

Disable Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling

While this feature can help on newer systems, it causes stuttering on some hardware. Test with it on and off: go to Settings, System, Display, Graphics, and toggle "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling." Compare FPS in your games with each setting.

Disable Unnecessary Startup Programs

Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), click the Startup tab, and disable programs you do not need running when your computer starts. Common resource hogs include cloud sync clients, update checkers, and manufacturer bloatware. Every program running in the background steals CPU cycles and RAM from your games.

Adjust Visual Effects

Right-click Start, select System, click "Advanced system settings," go to Performance Settings, and choose "Adjust for best performance." This disables Windows animations and transparency effects that consume GPU resources.

In-Game Settings That Impact FPS Most

Not all graphics settings affect performance equally. Here are the settings that have the biggest impact on FPS, ranked from most to least impactful:

Setting	FPS Impact	Recommended for FPS Boost
Resolution	Very High	Lower from 4K/1440p to 1080p
Ray Tracing	Very High	Disable unless GPU supports it well
Shadow Quality	High	Low or Medium
Anti-Aliasing	High	FXAA or TAA (avoid MSAA)
View/Draw Distance	High	Medium
Volumetric Effects	Medium-High	Low or Off
Post Processing	Medium	Low
Texture Quality	Low (if VRAM sufficient)	High (uses VRAM, not FPS)
Anisotropic Filtering	Very Low	16x (negligible cost)

The key insight: texture quality barely affects FPS as long as your GPU has enough VRAM. Keep textures high for visual quality and cut shadows, volumetrics, and ray tracing for the biggest performance gains.

How to Fix FPS Drops and Game Stuttering

Consistent low FPS and random FPS drops have different causes. If your FPS is stable but low, you need general optimization. If your FPS is normally fine but periodically tanks, you have a game stuttering problem that requires different solutions:

Thermal throttling: Your CPU or GPU overheats and slows itself down to prevent damage. Monitor temperatures using HWMonitor or MSI Afterburner. If your CPU exceeds 90C or GPU exceeds 85C under load, you need better cooling. Clean dust from fans and heatsinks, reapply thermal paste if temperatures are extreme, or add case fans.

Background processes: A program suddenly consuming resources causes momentary FPS drops. Windows Update, antivirus scans, and cloud sync services are common culprits. Schedule scans for times you are not gaming.

RAM limitations: When your system runs out of physical RAM, it starts using the hard drive as overflow (paging), causing massive stuttering. Monitor RAM usage while gaming. If it consistently exceeds 80% of your total RAM, closing background applications or upgrading RAM is the fix.

Shader compilation: Many modern games compile shaders on the fly, causing stutters the first time you encounter new visual effects. This typically improves after your first few sessions as the shader cache builds up. Some games offer a "compile shaders" option in settings; always use it.

Storage speed: Games installed on slow mechanical hard drives experience stuttering during asset loading. Moving games to an SSD eliminates this type of stutter entirely.

Game Booster Software: Do They Work?

Many players search for a game booster for PC hoping for a one-click performance solution. Here is the honest assessment:

What game boosters actually do: Most game booster applications close background processes, set your power plan to high performance, disable Windows notifications, and clear RAM. These are things you can do manually with the steps already covered in this guide.

Do they increase FPS? On systems with many background processes running, a game booster can provide a small FPS improvement (5-15%) by freeing resources. On a system that is already optimized, the improvement is negligible.

Recommended options: If you prefer an automated approach, Razer Cortex is a reputable free option that handles background process management without installing bloatware. Windows Game Mode performs a similar function natively without third-party software.

What to avoid: Be cautious of game boosters that claim dramatic FPS increases, require payment, or ask for excessive system permissions. No software can magically make your hardware faster. Legitimate performance gains come from the optimization techniques described in this guide.

How to Allocate More RAM to a Game

Some games benefit from having more system memory available. Here is how to allocate more RAM to a game using different methods:

Set process priority: While a game is running, open Task Manager, find the game process under the Details tab, right-click it, and set Priority to "High." This tells Windows to prioritize the game's memory and CPU requests over other processes.

Minecraft-specific: In the Minecraft Launcher, go to Installations, select your profile, click the three dots, select Edit, click More Options, and modify the JVM arguments. Change -Xmx2G to -Xmx4G or higher (do not exceed half your total RAM). This directly controls how much memory Java allocates to Minecraft.

Close memory-hungry applications: The most effective way to give a game more RAM is to close applications consuming it. Chrome with multiple tabs is the usual suspect. Close browser tabs you are not using before gaming.

Game-Specific FPS Optimization

How to Boost FPS in Valorant

Valorant is CPU-dependent, so boosting FPS in Valorant focuses on CPU optimization:

Set Material, Texture, Detail, and UI Quality to Low.
Disable Vignette, VSync, and Anti-Aliasing.
Enable Multithreaded Rendering (this is crucial for Valorant performance).
Set your power plan to High Performance.
Close all background applications, especially browsers.
In NVIDIA Control Panel, set Low Latency Mode to "On" for Valorant.

How to Boost FPS in Fortnite

Fortnite offers extensive graphics options. For maximum FPS:

Use Performance Mode in the rendering settings (significant FPS boost with minimal visual loss).
Set View Distance to Medium (does not affect competitive visibility).
Disable Shadows completely (also gives a competitive advantage).
Set Effects and Post Processing to Low.
Enable DLSS or FSR if your GPU supports them (free FPS with minimal quality loss).
Cap your frame rate to your monitor's refresh rate to reduce GPU strain and input lag.

How to Boost FPS in Minecraft

Minecraft is notoriously unoptimized in its vanilla state. These changes make a dramatic difference:

Install Sodium mod (Fabric) or OptiFine. Sodium typically doubles FPS compared to vanilla.
Reduce render distance from 12 to 8 chunks.
Set graphics to Fast instead of Fancy.
Disable smooth lighting or set it to Minimum.
Allocate 4GB of RAM to Minecraft via launcher settings.
Use Lithium and Starlight mods alongside Sodium for further optimization.

Hardware Upgrades Ranked by FPS Impact

When software optimization is not enough, these are the most cost-effective hardware upgrades for gaming performance:

GPU upgrade: The graphics card has the single biggest impact on gaming FPS. Moving from integrated graphics to a dedicated GPU or upgrading to a newer generation provides the largest FPS increase per dollar.
SSD installation: Replacing a mechanical hard drive with an SSD eliminates loading stutters and dramatically reduces game load times. An NVMe SSD is ideal, but even a SATA SSD is a massive improvement.
RAM upgrade: Going from 8GB to 16GB eliminates stuttering caused by memory pressure. 16GB is the current standard for gaming; 32GB provides headroom for streaming and multitasking.
CPU upgrade: CPU matters most in CPU-bound games like Valorant, Minecraft, and strategy games. If your CPU usage hits 100% while gaming but your GPU sits at 50-60%, a CPU upgrade will help more than a GPU upgrade.
Monitor upgrade: A 144Hz or higher monitor does not increase FPS, but it makes the FPS you have look and feel dramatically smoother. Pairing a high-refresh monitor with FPS above 100 transforms the gaming experience.

Diagnosing Your Specific Bottleneck

The most important step in boosting FPS is identifying what is actually limiting your performance. Here is how to diagnose your bottleneck:

Open Task Manager or MSI Afterburner's overlay while gaming.
Watch CPU usage and GPU usage simultaneously.
If GPU usage is at 95-100% and CPU is lower, you are GPU-bottlenecked. Lower graphics settings or upgrade your GPU.
If CPU usage is at 90-100% and GPU is below 80%, you are CPU-bottlenecked. Close background applications, lower CPU-intensive settings (physics, draw distance), or upgrade your CPU.
If both are below 80% but FPS is still low, check RAM usage and temperatures. Memory pressure or thermal throttling might be the issue.
If everything looks fine in Task Manager but the game still stutters, the bottleneck is likely storage speed (install on SSD) or network latency (for online games).

Understanding your bottleneck prevents you from wasting money on upgrades that will not help. A GPU upgrade will not fix a CPU bottleneck, and lowering resolution will not help if your CPU is the limiting factor.

Summary: Your FPS Optimization Checklist

Follow this order for the most efficient path to higher FPS:

Update your graphics drivers to the latest version.
Set Windows power plan to High Performance and enable Game Mode.
Close unnecessary background applications.
Lower the most impactful in-game settings (shadows, ray tracing, resolution).
Monitor your FPS and hardware usage to identify your specific bottleneck.
Disable unnecessary startup programs.
Ensure games are installed on an SSD.
Monitor temperatures and address any thermal throttling.
Apply game-specific optimizations from the sections above.
Consider targeted hardware upgrades based on your diagnosed bottleneck.

Most players see meaningful improvement from the first four steps alone. Work through them in order, test your FPS after each change, and stop when you reach your target frame rate. You do not need to do everything on this list to enjoy smooth gameplay.

Get Your Custom FPS Optimization Checklist

A step-by-step checklist covering drivers, Windows settings, and per-game tweaks — check off each item to maximize your FPS.