How To Fix FPS Drops? The ULTIMATE Solution Guide

How To Fix FPS Drops, in some video games, where players have an option to enable the display of other player’s point of view for purposes of easier aiming and accuracy, displaying those points-of-view can be taxing on a system’s resources.

The same is true for situations where a system needs to render complex scenes full of objects like detailed textures or large numbers of people doing complex actions like fighting (lots of particle effects) – this can cause it to fall behind in terms of being able to render the next frame in time before its deadline.

Several suggestions exist for how to fix FPS drops. How To Fix FPS Drops For example, update your hardware, such as graphics and sound cards; change your device settings, adjust program settings, uninstall software.

Delete files or folders that aren’t actually necessary to run a program smoothly or clean your registry or other areas of storage (like the Windows system drive) already filled with clutter.

Many things can cause FPS drops, so we’ve created a comprehensive list of everything that can be causing it and what you can do to fix it.

How To Fix FPS Drops?

Upgrading Your CPU To Remove A Bottleneck

It is absolutely normal for a GPU to be running at 70-100% while playing a game because it needs to work really hard to achieve the results that you see.

Processors also have an essential job, but they shouldn’t be running at 100% if you’re trying to play any game.

If your CPU is running at 100%, that means that your CPU is catching up with the ever-changing requirements of your project, and you need a stronger CPU to match the power of your GPUs.

Make Sure You Are Using The Correct GPU

Sometimes if you are using a CPU with integrated graphics and have a dedicated graphics card plugged in, there can be an issue.

Sometimes this conflict can result in Windows choosing the integrated graphics over a dedicated graphics card, resulting in poor performance.

Before attempting to fix something highly complicated, check and make sure that your HDMI or DisplayPort cable is plugged in properly.

When I built my own PC, I checked the components once, but didn’t check them a second time before putting everything in.

At least it was during the early stages of the building process so all I had to do was take out certain parts and put them back in. It’s important to do yourself since your PC will blow up if you skip this step.

If you’re testing with low graphics performance on your GPU, it’s possible that you haven’t properly set up the NVIDIA graphics driver. To solve this issue, please follow these steps:

Right-click your desktop.
Choose the “use the advanced 3D image settings” option.
Click “manage 3D settings” in the left sidebar, under “3D Settings”.
Under global settings, make the preferred graphics processor the high-performance NVIDIA processor option.
Then, click the “Configure Surround, PhysX” option in the left sidebar.
Change the processor to your dedicated GPU.
Make sure you press apply after every change.

To check if you have integrated graphics display on your computer, look under the Device Manager for Display Adapters and see if an Intel graphics device exists.

You have a dedicated graphics card, along with an Intel Integrated Graphics option.

If that’s the case, follow the guide above to ensure you are using the correct GPU for optimal performance.

Re-Install The Game You Have An Issue With

If it’s just one specific game causing you issues, we suggest that you uninstall and reinstall the game.

This strategy has worked several times for me as sometimes there is an issue with the installation or download that leads to issues in-game.

For example, one time with Apex Legends, I encountered a memory leak which resulted in the textures of some of my characters appearing as black shapes rather than anything else.

Luckily reinstalling the game fixed it and it never became a problem again.

If this problem is consistent across multiple games, try implementing our program before the second one. But it’s worth trying if only a particular game is troubling you.

Check For A RAM Shortage

Modern games can use more than 8GB of RAM, so if you are currently using 8GB of RAM or less, you will likely incur frame drops and even worse performance.

Not all games are made the same; some require more memory than others in order to run smoothly.

Games like Warzone ask for 8 GB of RAM, but this game can lag more than others, such as better-quality FPS games like Black Ops 3, which has minimum system requirements of 6 GB.

This is another type of bottleneck you might experience when building your PC. How To Fix FPS Drops Investing in an extra 8GB stick of RAM would be a smart choice if you’re only using one instead.

If you have installed two sticks of 4GB RAM, then I would recommend that you don’t buy another one; instead find someone who is looking to give them away and purchase four new sticks of 8GB RAM.

16GB of RAM will be the absolute minimum you should use, and if you have any extra money to spend on your home machine future proofing it with 32GB is a smart move as it’s one of those life-long purchases that sticks with you for a long time so you’ll also benefit from it when upgrading your other devices in the future.

If you want to measure your RAM usage in games, add MSI Afterburner as a separate metric for which you’d like to see in your on-screen display.

If you haven’t set up MSI Afterburner yet, check out the video above. It’s in the CPU Bottleneck section .

Check For Malware!

The internet is rife with several traps that can easily infect our device with different types of malicious software, hijacking the system to make it vulnerable to a host of other threats.

Malware is a very tricky threat to your data. After all, it’s a lot smarter than any of us could ever be. The first line of defense for any malware: be smart about what you download.

And don’t click on anything you don’t trust 100%. But if that fails, providing solid protection from the basics isn’t difficult with our software.

Malware detection software is sort of like a gardener. It’s designed to keep your computer clean so anything causing too much clutter won’t be able to take over without you noticing it and intervening in the process before any serious damage can be done.

I use Malwarebytes to prevent malware. The paid version includes real-time protection, but the free version is effective as well; it just lacks real-time updates.

Malwarebytes monitors your computer for any signs of malware by default. If you think it’s found something suspicious, its advanced settings allow you to check out what it has quarantined.

Once malicious software has been identified, you can manage and delete it safely in a special place called quarantine. Quarantine is a section of your app where all suspicious material is held until it has stopped posing a danger to you computer.

If you know something is malware or virus related, or if you aren’t quite sure what’s been put in the quarantine bin, it’s a great idea to delete it. You can always restore that file if you need it later.

There is a certain probability that your antivirus will mark something as false positive at some point. You can remove the data from quarantine by consulting with your antivirus provider.

For example, after I installed Superhot, I ran a malware scan a day later, and it was put into the quarantine bin. I knew Superhot is a game that I downloaded from the Play Store which is not malware, so I removed it.

System performance issues are called system crashes. How To Fix FPS Drops The best way to fix them is by running a scan for malware as quickly as possible which should solve most of these problems immediately if not help keep your computer safe and secure in the long run.

Poor Optimization Of A Game

If you’re playing a few different games on the same computer and you’ve noticed that one game in particular is suffering from some major FPS drops whereas the rest are acceptable, it may be due to a problem with how the game is configured.

PUBG was famous for this when the game had just released because it was not programmed well and wasn’t utilizing all of your computer’s abilities to their full potential.

The Cyberpunk 2077 release, which was just recently made available to a wider audience than it had been previously, has already received much criticism due to the game not running as smoothly as one might want on powerful machines.

Unfortunately, How To Fix FPS Drops this happens too often these days.

In this case, the only thing you can do is lower your graphical settings until you reach an acceptable frame rate. If an issue pops up and looks particularly terrible, then it’s time to find a compromise between graphics and performance.

Over time the company that makes the game should release Several Patches and Updates that fix the game’s performance issues. But this can take Weeks, if not Months, to do.

Unless you are willing to wait it out, you will likely have to reduce your graphical settings until you can reach a good enough FPS.

Make Sure You Aren’t Mistaking The FPS Drops For Lag.

If you’ve made it to this part of the article, then you might have already ruled out the confusion of PC gaming when this was pointed out earlier.

Lag happens in online games and can be caused by a poor internet connection but sometimes also happens due to hardware issues on the client side of the game.

An excellent way to eliminate this problem is by turning on a ping or latency counter in-game if there is the option.

Some games even have an option where you can slow down time to be able to get a better shot on your enemy or escape from the situation.

However, look out for spikes in ping, packet loss or weak signal indications as these can all happen during lagging and may feel similar in certain ways to FPS drops.

Updating Your GPU Drivers

This is a routine thing you will continue to do throughout your whole time gaming on a PC, which is especially true if you intend to play the latest titles.

Graphics card companies actually often create drivers for new games before they’re released, and you should always grab these new releases should you want to play that particular game.

You should also continue to check for new drivers as time progresses. How To Fix FPS Drops While you always hope that the next driver you receive will be the “good one” – occasionally, they are not as suitable as expected and cause performance issues.

This, in some cases, can help with FPS drops in a newer title because the drivers support the GPU and CPU in doing their respective jobs better.

In addition, drivers can sometimes include new features that may not be specifically designed to increase your frame rate but that might give you a boost anyway.

I’m talking about DLSS, a feature that aims to have no graphical downgrading but provide massive FPS through better usage of your PC’s processor power.

Currently, DLSS is completely reliant on game developers to integrate it themselves into their game. This is why not all games on supported platforms will be able to use it at the same time.

However, once the technology is integrated there will be a graphics driver update which will allow for DLSS to be enabled regardless of whether or not a game contains this application programming interface (API).

That’s why you should stay current with your graphics drivers. They can help get you better performance in both higher FPS and more stable FPS.

Check Your Cooling On Your GPU And CPU

If your components become too hot, this may lead to thermal throttling or malfunctions that create frame drops and unstable performance. For optimal performance, make sure you keep your graphics card cool.

Whenever your computer is turned on, there is a fan which is designed to help with the dispersal of heat.

If this turns into a faulty and worn out component, How To Fix FPS Drops not only will you need to replace it with a brand new one, but it might lead to an overheating of the CPU if left idling and untreated.

This can happen with multiple parts. If the thermal throttling fails and thus the CPU becomes distastefully hot, this will lead to a system’s shutdown, in the event at which an emergency caution occurs.

To measure your CPU or GPU temperatures, go to Afterburner and view the on-screen display.

This will give you an idea of how hot those two parts are running when you’re playing your game.

If you notice that your CPU’s temperature is reaching dangerously high levels as your FPS is dropping, then you may be experiencing thermal throttling.

This issue is most likely caused when the CPU fan or thermal paste needs to be reapplied, but it could also be caused if you have a clogged air vent.

First, make sure that the CPU fan is on and functioning while your computer is in use; you can turn it on by simply pressing the blue power button. If it isn’t, then make sure that the cables are secured into the slots on the motherboard.

If the CPU cooling fan still isn’t cooling, you may have a defective CPU cooler, How To Fix FPS Drops and you should get in touch with the support for that product for more information.

If the CPU fan is spinning rapidly at top speed and the device still remains too hot to touch, you may need to buy a new CPU cooler.

If you’re still using an old CPU type, consider upgrading to a new model because they can break easily and risk overheating your computer. Water-cooling is often a cheaper alternative to using fans in cases where these are too inefficient.

However, what isn’t shown is the times when your consumption of thermal paste has been lacking.

It has been regrettably noted that you have many times failed to maintain steady levels of thermal compounds in your servers causing them to start overheating and dramatically decrease in performance.

Thermal paste is a medium used to transfer heat from the CPU to your CPU cooler. Without enough, the heat won’t get transferred properly.

However, you only need a pea-sized drop of thermal paste to make sure that the cooling is sufficient and that your system remains cool .

As long as you have at least a grain of paste on your CPU, you should be fine in this circumstance.

You should replace thermal paste every two to three years, as it will begin to deteriorate over time and may even find alternative methods of conductivity like replacing your fan or cleaning out the inside of your PC.

This is cheaper than purchasing a new system altogether and can save you money in the long run.

Next up is the GPU and there isn’t a whole ton you can do to control the heat coming from your graphics card. Here are a few ideas, but remember that we don’t promise their success.

Have an extra fan? Make sure it’s blowing down towards your computer as opposed to up towards your ceiling so your system will benefit from its cooling properties.

It’s important to keep your GPU running in top form. If the GPU is heating up, you should start looking into options to cool it down so you can avoid any damage.

When I was playing Red Dead Redemption 2 for the first time, I noticed my computer getting uncomfortably hot. At that point, it became impossible to continue playing as my experience was highly compromised.

My solution to this problem was to install EVGA Precision, but MSI Afterburner also allows users to manually adjust the fan curve.

The fan curve is similar to a motor’s RPM (revolutions per minute), How To Fix FPS Drops but varies with operating temperature. Fans are generally low speed and quiet until the processor begins to overheat, then they rev-up in speed.

Alternatively, you can also set your GPU to always run the fans at a speed of your choosing.

This is a good option for fans who do not want to deal with fan curves, or for those that wish to find what speed of their fans will keep them cool so they know what to change about their fan curve.

Now let’s talk about how you can alter the “fan” of your virility profile.

If your MSI Afterburner looks like this window, click the cogwheel next to fan speed which will activate user-defined fan speeds. 1 pic

If you’re using a different interface, the buttons will be labeled differently, but you can use them to adjust the fan’s speed.

Once you have activated this, you can test the default fan curve by playing a video game and monitoring the GPU temperature in the on-screen display.

If you notice your graphics card still going to very high temps, back out of the game and return to MSI Afterburner

From here, click on the Afterburner settings cogwheel and navigate to where you’ll find the custom fan settings.

Once you’re in the fan tab, you ought to see a chart at the bottom that reflects both percent temperature and fan speed.

The fan has two speeds: high and low. How To Fix FPS Drops If you click and drag the points at certain temperatures along the horizontal axis, you can raise or lower the fan speed at that temperature on high or low respectively.

It is suggested that you have higher fan speeds to compensate for high temperatures, otherwise you may have to deal with lower temperatures.

There are many factors that account for thermal throttling. However, the best way to avoid it is by using a custom fan curve instead of relying solely on factory settings in your BIOS.

This worked great for me and did help stabilize my performance while playing RDR 2 on my ultrawide monitor, which was quite strenuous.

If this doesn’t work for you, please check the airflow in your case to make sure the heat is able to properly escape.

Constantly running machines like PC’s and other appliances consume a lot of energy from the grid to power themselves as they do their work.

Your site should give you at least a choice of an entry point or two but ideally, How To Fix FPS Drops a choice of several entry points.

If you already have a case with some minimum requirements, you can add more fans to the top or bottom of your case to increase the flow of air in it.

One year ago, I put two fans at the bottom of my PC with air blowing directly at my GPU. I’d noticed a slight improvement at first but only recently did I realize that my computer was running a lot cooler.

I used a cooler for my M.2 slot which is in a position that I can often locate to have particularly hot air around it and not enough airflow.

Lower Your Graphical Settings

This is typically the starting point for most people, How To Fix FPS Drops so forgive me if this one is a bit obvious.

Whenever you see that there’s an upcoming game release, it’s probably a good idea to check out what kind of machine requirements the developer has in mind.

That way you can be sure that your gaming experience is not going to be marred by any unnecessary lag or other visual glitches you might encounter in the heat of performance.

It is also possible that this will make your FPS much lower at the cost of having better visual quality.

However, if you have a better GPU and take the settings down to high, you can maintain a stable FPS and even increase it.

This is because your graphics will be now simpler and easier to draw, How To Fix FPS Drops therefore you are decreasing the load on your graphic’s processing unit, allowing it to put more focus on higher-quality graphics.

At the very least, if you can get your FPS high enough it won’t be as noticeable if you’re dropping from 100 to 60 for example.

If the game above 30 FPS, cap your frame rate at 30 FPS so that you can run the game on most computers with ease.

Turning Off These Windows Settings

Windows 10 has included plenty of unnecessary features that will either go unused or duplicate something else you may already have. The newer Google Chrome for example, How To Fix FPS Drops uses the same features that were featured in Microsoft Edge.

In this instance, the video game can be causing your computer to have problems. This may be because of the game’s disk being damaged or not loading properly. So maybe try removing it (the disk) from your system to see if that helps solve your FPS problem.

And while we’re talking about turning off privacy settings, there’s one that you might want to turn on.

Navigate to your Windows settings,
Click System, then Power Options.
Once in the Power Options tab, click on the Additional power settings option.
Choose high performance under preferred plans.

This ensures your device’s power is focused on functionality rather than managing your electricity consumption.

Upgrading Your Tech

If you’ve tried or ruled out all the solutions above to no avail, and your computer is on its last leg, then it may be time to upgrade your tech.

If you have older equipment, it may impact your performance in-game, even to the point where you might experience big frame drops or low FPS.

Newer games are only becoming more demanding, which means having a machine that’s at least five years old probably won’t cut it.

Changing Your NVIDIA Graphics Settings

AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards are essentially the same, but when you want to customize or make some minor adjustments, you can usually do so with the desktop control panel app on either of these brands.

This has significantly helped people with FPS drops and stutters, How To Fix FPS Drops but it has also largely increased many people’s FPS.

My settings are a bit messy at the moment and would love to show you what has been working well for me in the past year.

Conclusion

We hope one of these fixes was able to help you if you have been experiencing issues that could be attributed to your game’s fps dropping.

We tried to include as many potential fixes we could find on the internet, but if you happen to know of anymore, let us know in the comments and we’ll be sure to add them.

Some things like using an SSD are great, but in the long term don’t make a significant difference. Using a GPU power cable can help improve fps slightly and fix fps drops if done correctly.

As for the rest, I believe I’ve used most of these things in the past sporadically during an encounter with lag or otherwise when working on my PC.

I recommend beginning with the broad strokes and work your way into the finer details.

Sometimes simple fixes are all that you need to get you going again. How To Fix FPS Drops These are easier to implement initially before moving onto the more complex tasks.

Shari Torres

Hello, My name is Shari & I am a writer for the ‘Outlook AppIns’ blog. I’m a CSIT graduate & I’ve been working in the IT industry for 3 years.