If you want to increase fps on pc, you don’t need to randomly drag every graphics slider to “low” and hope for the best. FPS goes up fastest when you fix the few things that silently limit performance: refresh rate mistakes, heavy in-game settings (shadows and volumetrics are usual suspects), background apps, power limits, driver issues, and heat.
This guide walks through simple steps that work and helps you spot what’s holding your system back, so you get higher FPS and steadier frame pacing (less stutter) in real gameplay.
The quick truth: “more FPS” is not the only goal
Many players chase a bigger number and still feel stutter. That’s because smooth gameplay is a mix of FPS and frame timing. You can have “high FPS” and still get dips that feel rough when you move the camera, enter a new area, or jump into a busy fight.
So we’ll focus on two wins at the same time:
- Higher FPS in the moments that matter
- More stable frame delivery so motion feels clean
That combo is what most people mean when they say “I want to increase fps on pc.”
Quick 2-minute check before changing anything
Do this first. It prevents wasted tweaking.
Confirm your monitor refresh rate in Windows
A lot of gaming monitors ship at a high refresh rate yet run at 60Hz in Windows. If your refresh rate is wrong, your game can feel “stuck” even when your GPU is fine.
What to do
Open Windows display settings and set your screen to its real refresh rate. Then open the game and verify the game is also using the same refresh rate in its display menu.
What you’ll notice
Mouse movement feels more direct, camera panning looks cleaner, and tearing often becomes less obvious.
Use one overlay to read the real limit
You only need one overlay: an FPS counter plus GPU usage, CPU usage, and VRAM usage (if available). Keep it simple.
Read it like this
- GPU usage stays near the top and FPS is low → the GPU is your limit right now
- GPU usage is low yet FPS is low → CPU limits, background tasks, or game settings like crowd density and view distance
- VRAM is near full and you see hitching → texture settings and asset streaming are likely causing stutter
This small check tells you which steps will actually increase fps on pc on your setup.
Fast in-game changes that increase FPS on PC
If you want quick results, start in the game’s video menu. These changes are usually the biggest and safest.
Render scale beats blind resolution drops
Many games let you change render scale (sometimes called resolution scale). It lowers the internal workload while keeping your monitor resolution.
Why it works
Dropping render scale a little can raise FPS without making menus and HUD text look messy.
What to try
Lower render scale in small steps. Test in a busy scene, not an empty room. Stop when the image looks too soft, then raise it one notch.
Shadows: the classic FPS killer
Shadows are expensive in a lot of modern titles. Shadow distance can also hit performance hard in open areas.
What to try
Move shadows down one level. If there’s shadow distance, reduce it slightly. This is one of the most common ways to increase fps on pc without making a game look “flat.”
Volumetrics and fog: heavy cost, subtle payoff
Volumetric lighting, volumetric fog, and heavy atmosphere effects look cinematic, yet they can cut FPS a lot in motion.
What to try
Drop volumetrics one level before touching textures. Many players are surprised how much FPS returns.
Reflections and ray tracing: treat them as optional
Reflections can be costly. Ray tracing can be very costly. If your main goal is higher FPS and steady gameplay, ray tracing is often the first “luxury” to switch off.
What to try
Turn ray tracing off, then test. If you really want it, re-enable one RT feature at the lowest level and test again.
Anti-aliasing and clarity
Some anti-aliasing modes blur the image, and some cost more performance than you’d expect. If your game supports upscaling (DLSS, FSR, XeSS), aggressive AA on top can stack blur.
What to try
Use a moderate AA choice, then add a small sharpening value if the image looks too soft. Keep changes small so you can feel what each setting does.
Textures and VRAM: don’t confuse “looks” with “runs”
Textures don’t always reduce FPS directly, yet they can cause hitching when VRAM is overloaded. That hitching feels like stutter, even when the FPS counter looks okay.
What to try
If you see stutters when turning quickly or entering new areas, drop textures one level. You may keep most other visuals high and still get a smoother experience.
FPS cap: a quiet fix for wild frame swings
Capping FPS can feel smoother than running uncapped, even if the peak number drops. That’s because your GPU stops sprinting into heat and sudden dips.
Where to cap
A common approach is to cap around your monitor refresh rate. Some systems feel best slightly below the refresh rate. Test both.
V-Sync, VRR, and tearing
Tearing looks like a horizontal split during motion. VRR (FreeSync, G-Sync, HDMI VRR) helps match refresh to frames.
A simple testing order
Turn VRR on if your monitor supports it. If tearing still bothers you, test V-Sync in-game. If input then feels heavy, turn V-Sync off again and rely on VRR plus an FPS cap.
Windows settings that can raise FPS without touching the game
Games don’t run in isolation. Windows settings, background apps, and power limits can lower FPS and make frame pacing uneven.
Game Mode: worth a quick test
Windows Game Mode can help by favoring game performance when other tasks are running. It won’t transform a weak GPU into a fast one, yet it can help consistency for some setups.
What to do
Turn it on, restart, and test the same in-game scene again.
Kill the background FPS thieves
Browsers, launchers, RGB apps, recording tools, and overlays can steal CPU time or memory. You don’t need to close everything. Close what’s loud.
What to close for testing
Close extra browser tabs, pause video playback, stop downloads, and turn off overlays you don’t need. Then test again.
Power mode and laptop limits
Laptops can throttle hard on battery. Desktops can also sit in a power plan that holds back performance.
What to do
On a laptop, plug in power before testing FPS. On any system, pick a power mode that favors performance while gaming.
Startup clutter and scheduled tasks
Some systems run update checks and background scans while you play.
What to do
If FPS drops happen at random times, check what else is running at the same moment. If it lines up with a scan or an update task, schedule that task for off-hours.
GPU drivers and control panel settings
Drivers matter. Not because “newer is always faster,” but because driver bugs, corrupted installs, or messy settings stacks can reduce FPS.
A clean driver routine
Update your GPU driver from the official tool for your GPU brand. Restart after installation. Then test again.
If you recently updated and performance became worse, rolling back one driver version can help. Keep one “known good” driver version in mind.
Avoid stacked limits that fight each other
Many systems end up with multiple FPS caps: one in-game, one in the GPU control panel, one in a third-party overlay. That can cause odd frame pacing.
What to do
Pick one place for FPS capping. Start with in-game. Keep other caps disabled while testing.
Control panel tweaks that are usually safe
Stay conservative. It’s easy to make settings worse by forcing overrides everywhere.
A good default approach
Leave global settings mostly alone, then adjust per-game only when needed. Keep sync settings consistent between the game and the driver.
Storage, RAM, VRAM: the hidden stutter triangle
Some “low FPS” complaints are actually “slow loading mid-match” problems. That’s usually storage and memory behavior, not the GPU.
Storage: why an SSD can feel like an FPS upgrade
Many modern games stream assets constantly. On slow storage, the game may hitch when it loads new textures or objects.
What to do
If you have an SSD, install your main competitive games on it. If you already do and still hitch, look at texture settings and VRAM use next.
RAM: when “enough” becomes “not enough”
If you run a game plus a browser plus voice chat plus recording, RAM use jumps quickly. When the system runs short on memory, it swaps data to disk, and that can cause stutter.
What to do
Close heavy apps while testing. Then decide if you want to keep those apps open long-term and add more RAM later.
VRAM: texture settings are your main tool
VRAM overload creates hitching that feels like FPS drops. If your VRAM is close to full during play, textures and sometimes shadows should come down.
Increase FPS on PC by matching settings to your resolution
Resolution changes everything. Don’t use a one-size setup.
1080p settings: the high-FPS comfort zone
At 1080p, many systems can push higher FPS. Your biggest wins are often refresh rate, FPS cap stability, and a few heavy graphics toggles like shadows and volumetrics.
A practical target
Aim for stable gameplay first. If you can hold your target FPS in the busiest scenes, you’ve already succeeded.
1440p settings: balance clarity and speed
1440p looks sharper, yet it raises workload. Upscaling helps a lot in this range.
A practical plan
Keep textures at a level your VRAM can handle, use balanced upscaling if offered, and lower shadows one step before dropping resolution.
4K settings: smoothness takes priority
4K is heavy. Chasing ultra visuals at 4K can lead to frame swings.
A practical plan
Use upscaling, drop shadows and volumetrics, and keep ray tracing off unless you have a lot of headroom.
If FPS still won’t go up: diagnose the real bottleneck
At this point you’ve tried the quick wins. Now it’s time to identify what’s truly limiting you.
CPU-bound signs and fixes
Some games are CPU-heavy because of world simulation, physics, crowd counts, AI, or huge draw distances.
Signs you’re CPU-limited
GPU usage is low while FPS stays low. FPS drops are worst in cities, crowded fights, or busy open-world scenes.
What to change
Lower settings tied to CPU load: view distance, crowd density, simulation detail, or large-scale environment detail. These options vary by game, yet they usually exist in some form.
Heat and throttling: the silent FPS killer
A PC that runs too hot will reduce clocks to protect itself. That turns into lower FPS after 10–20 minutes, even if the first minutes were smooth.
What to look for
FPS starts high, then slowly falls. Fans get loud. The case feels hot.
What to do
Clean dust from filters, confirm fans are spinning, improve airflow, and check that the laptop isn’t suffocating on a soft surface. A small cleanup can increase fps on pc more than any graphics tweak.
Network confusion: online lag is not FPS
Sometimes “it feels bad” is actually network delay, not FPS. FPS changes won’t fix rubber-banding.
A quick sanity check
If your FPS counter is stable while the game feels delayed, test a different server region or check your network load at home.
Reset game settings when things get messy
After patches, games can carry old config files and odd settings states.
What to do
Reset graphics settings to a preset, then re-apply only the high-impact changes: refresh rate, display mode, render scale, shadows, volumetrics, ray tracing, FPS cap.
A short section about the “dictionary noise” around the word “increase”
When you search increase fps on pc, you may see results that look nothing like gaming. That’s because “increase” is a common word, and search systems often blend language-learning pages and dictionary entries into suggestions.
You may run into terms like edr日英対訳辞書, weblio, 研究社, 新英和中辞典, eゲイト英和辞典, 日本語wordnet, or Tanaka corpus. Some pages show buttons and labels such as 例文帳に追加, 該当件数, weblio会員, and collections like email例文集. You might even see phrases like weblio英和・和英辞典とは or mentions of 『wiktionary』.
Some results focus on grammar forms of the verb “increase,” like third-person singular, simple past, past participle, participle, plus forms like increased and increasing. Others pull in language notes like 増やす, 増加させる, 増えさせる, 上昇する, rise, upward trend, move upwards, and terms like amount, number, quantity, degree, rate, growth, position, state, and even odd tags like inc.rss increase.
You may even see unrelated words mixed in because of broad matching: intermediate, intermediate range, latin intermediātus, verb-forming suffix, suffix, or totally off-topic items like ballistic missile, population, and wage increase.
All that noise is normal. It doesn’t change what raises FPS in games. Treat it as search clutter and stick to the practical steps in this guide.
A clean “Increase FPS on PC” checklist you can repeat
You don’t need a huge list. You need a repeatable routine.
A quick order that works in most games
Start with refresh rate and display mode. Then render scale. Then shadows and volumetrics. Then ray tracing off. Then textures if VRAM is tight. Then an FPS cap for steady play. Then close background apps. Then check temps after 15 minutes.
A note on expectations
A small tweak can raise FPS a little. A few smart changes can raise FPS a lot. The biggest jumps often come from fixing refresh rate mistakes, cutting shadows/volumetrics, and avoiding heat throttling.
Conclusion
To increase fps on pc, don’t chase every setting. Fix the big levers in the right order: refresh rate, render scale, shadows, volumetrics, ray tracing, texture load, and a sensible FPS cap. Back it up with a clean Windows session (fewer background apps), stable drivers, and good cooling. Once you do that, most games feel smoother even before you start thinking about upgrades.