The PC gaming industry has never been bigger than it is now, and it’s showing no sign of slowing down. If you’re an avid gamer yourself, you might be looking for ways to make your computer run faster for gaming and avoid laggy games.
To be able to run ever more complex games without lag on your PC, you might find yourself constantly wanting to upgrade your hardware to keep up with the latest technologies - which, unfortunately for your wallet, isn’t cheap. Luckily, there are a few ways to improve pc gaming performance - without spending any money!
To help you along, we have 7 tips that will help you optimise your PC for gaming so that you don’t have to spend a cent. Follow this advice to learn how to make your computer run faster for gaming.
1. Update your drivers
Whenever you have a problem with a game slowing down, one of the first things you should do is check for new drivers and update your software. Keeping your drivers up to date may seem like an annoyance, but it's something we all should do. With a bit of research and some basic IT knowledge, this is totally doable and will result in less laggy games. Although, installing updates will usually sort out existing issues with graphic cards and game software bugs, resulting in some big performance benefits.
2. Declutter inside and out
To improve PC gaming performance, a good defragging can help your PC and your games run much more efficiently. By reducing file fragmentation, it will help reduce the time it takes for your PC to access data and hence speed up computational processes. Consider the inside of your machine for a second. There’s dust, skin particles, and the occasional food crumb that all manage to find their way inside your PC case, clogging up vents and possibly causing it to heat up. When this happens the PC will automatically slow down the CPU and GPU to avoid damaging components.
With this in mind, open it up once in a while and give it a good dusting, but be careful, those parts can be delicate. If you’re not completely confident that you know what you’re doing, take your PC to someone who is, otherwise a tiny mistake could be a costly one.
3. Get an Antivirus solution
Malware can slow down your PC considerably and having a decent Antivirus program can keep your machine running trouble-free. Consider checking your PC with ESET’s FREE Online Scanner which will help detect and remove Malware. For more complete detection & protection capabilities, try ESET Smart Security Premium.
It’s crucial these days to prioritise safe gaming, so by using an Antivirus program, not only will you learn how to make your computer run faster for gaming, but you’ll be keeping your privacy and data safe.
4. Overclock (but beware)
Overclocking involves pushing your components beyond their intended normal usage and can improve PC gaming performance. However, running them harder and faster, results in them heating up. Make sure you don’t override and increase the clock speed too much, because then you’ll need to spend money on a cooling solution to deal with the extra heat, otherwise you’ll likely end up destroying your components. This is only recommended for more advanced users, and again, it needs to be said that unless you know exactly what you’re doing, there’s a huge risk of damaging your PC components permanently.
5. Optimise in-game settings
While making the most of the video settings and special effects may make for a more immersive gaming experience, that’s no good if it’s causing a lag in video games. For a big boost in performance, you may want to turn down these visual gaming settings. Depending on the game, you could explore the settings to find where to adjust the visuals and special effects. Saving some processing power could make the world of difference, for free.
6. Try out a boost program
Over the years there have been a few programs designed to help gamers improve PC performance. Nvidia and AMD both offer free programs – the GeForce Experience and the AMD Gaming Evolved Client. Another free option is Razer Cortex which comes with a boost function that can automatically make changes to your PC on the fly to improve how your games run, preventing a lag in gaming.
7. Adjust screen resolution and game settings
Adjusting your screen resolution to a lower setting will put less strain on your graphics card and CPU and keep your game running smoothly. Another common solution, if you’re experiencing performance issues, is to tweak your game’s graphic settings, which most modern games allow you to do.
Some common fixes to help improve performance are:
- Disable Anti-Aliasing
- Reduce texture quality
- Reduce render or view distance
- Reduce shadow quality
Optimise your PC for gaming
Give the above tips a go, and if you still need more, take a look at some of our other tips to help speed up your PC. Bear in mind that viruses and malware can cause some serious PC slowdowns, taking up valuable computing capacity. To keep lagging games and general slow PC performance at bay, an easy solution is to install internet security and an Antivirus solution. Browse our range of security products to help you discover how to make your computer run faster for gaming.