How to Optimize Windows 11 23H2 for Gaming performance

The latest Windows 11 23H2 is available as a free upgrade for compatible devices with a number of new features and improvements. The tech giant promises the latest operating system (windows 11) is specially optimized for gaming, with notable features including AutoHDR, which can make your games look a lot better (if you have a HDR monitor). Windows 11 will improve gaming with Better CPU scheduling support, There is a direct storage feature that significantly improves game load times and more. But still, you need to tweak some settings on Windows 11 to get a smoother gaming session. Here in this article Guide How to Optimize Windows 11 for Gaming.

Users can perform several steps to boost their gaming experience on windows 11, especially with Game Mode, which has been ruthlessly polished for a long time.

Activate Game Mode

Perhaps the easiest and most obvious way to optimize your PC’s performance is to enable Game Mode in Windows 11. This feature, which made its debut in this operating system when Xbox and Windows options were integrated, stops background activities. That is, for Windows updates, notifications, and other unnecessary processes to try to increase the FPS in your games.

Press the Windows key + I keys to open the Settings app.
Select Gaming in the left pane, then select Game Mode in the right pane.
And finally, Turn the toggle switch On next to Game Mode.

Game mode windows 11

- Advertisement -

Install the latest Windows 11 updates

Microsoft regularly releases windows updates with security enhancements and fixes, also include new security patches that help protect those who play online games and socialize. Overall installing the latest windows update or the latest version of the operating system usually offers slightly better performance. To help optimize Windows 11 for gaming performance, we recommend check and install the latest Windows updates following the steps below.

Press the Windows key + X and select settings,
Go to Windows Update and hit check for updates button
If new updates are available allow windows to download it from the Microsoft server and install on your device.
Once done reboot your PC to apply them and changes to start working.

Windows 11 update download

Keep your graphics drivers up to date

Regardless of whether we have Nvidia or AMD, what both manufacturers advise is that our graphics card drivers must be updated. This process happens much more often than we think, and updates usually arrive with every major release.

To make sure that we have the latest drivers we can have or update Windows 11 itself since the big patches come with Windows Update, or we can do it by hand with the Nvidia GeForce Experience or AMD Radeon Software programs.

no matter if your PC has an AMD or NVIDIA GPU, you’ll need to use the proper dedicated software.

To update your NVIDIA drivers:

Press the Windows key + S, search for and Launch NVIDIA GeForce Experience, And Click on “Check For Updates.”
If new updates are available click on Download to get the latest driver, once done you need to click on Install the driver.

Or you can download and install the latest NVIDIA graphics driver from its official site here.

Update NVIDIA driver

To update AMD GPU driver

To update AMD GPU drivers, you’ll need the AMD Radeon software.

Launch the AMD Radeon Software on your device, you can search AMD Radeon on the start menu search and select the first result.

AMD Radeon Software

Select “Check For Updates, Then Go to the “Drivers & Software section and Download and install any new updates.

Also, you can download and install the latest AMD graphics driver from its official site here.

Update the integrated graphics driver

If you’re using a PC or laptop with integrated graphics for example intel graphics driver then you can update the same from the device manager.

Press Windows key + X and select device manager,
This will display all installed device driver lists, locate and expand the display adapter,
Right-click on the integrated graphics drivers and select “Update Driver.”
Click on Search Automatically For Drivers, and follow on-screen instructions to get the latest intel graphics driver update from the Microsoft server.
Once done you need to reboot your system to apply the changes.

update graphics driver

Customize Power Mode

Power options are ignored due to little real effect. But this is not true, since what we select will be what our computer really consumes. From very little, to a little to as much as you can. To play in the best conditions, we must have High-Performance mode activated, since this allows the CPU and GPU to absorb all the energy they need to work, so we will not be putting energy limits on them.

To select the High-Performance plan, you just have to open the power options window using powercfg.cpl.
Once there click where it says High Performance, as you can see in the image.

High performance power plan

Remember that if you have a laptop, it is best to change the power plan depending on how you are using it at any given time, or the battery will only last a few minutes even if you are writing in Word.

Disable visual effects in Windows 11

GUI animations can be a drag on your PC’s performance, thus preventing you from getting the maximum FPS in demanding games. By default, the appearance settings of Windows 11 are focused on aesthetics, harmonious animations and transition effects, but turning them off is very easy and helps a lot.

To do this, go to System Properties using sysdm.cpl
Move to the Advanced tab, then under performance click on settings,
And under Performance Options click Adjust for best performance.

Disable visual effects

Click on apply then select the Advanced tab, and Ensure that the Adjust the best performance is set to Programs.

Select the correct GPU when gaming

On computers with multiple GPUs, you can manually specify which graphics card a Windows app/game should use by default to improve performance. In this way we can select the integrated graphics for things like watching videos on YouTube while for games we select the dedicated graphics card for video games and more demanding tasks.

Open Windows 11 settings then go to System,
Click on Display then Graphics
Here Go to any app you want to modify, click on its name then the options button that appears,
Here Select the GPU power Saving or High Performance, you want it to use. Refer to the image below.

Graphics preference

Close unnecessary processes

Closing unnecessary applications and processes when we are going to play a game is a very necessary cleaning task, which is especially noticeable on older and less powerful computers, and the difference can be several FPS.

To close these processes, the easiest thing is to open the Task Manager and close them by clicking the End Task button once we have selected the one we want to close.

Everything that is browsers, clients that you are not running, applications in the background… removing them will help you make the gaming experience totally different. And if you are one of those who barely have 8 GB of RAM as soon as you try it, you will thank us.

Uninstall applications that we do not use

Just as closing unnecessary apps and processes helps, uninstalling greedy applications also helps, since the more space we have on the hard drive, the better the games will be because the space affects the performance of the computer in general.

Bringing hard drives to bursting with programs and files does not sit well with Windows, which is usually dedicated to organizing information so that it is more accessible.

In addition, uninstalling programs also help the previous step, since this way we will not have to finish the process of that app that you never use but that is always in the background.

Switch to open DNS

This is very helpful if you are playing online games on your device. Switch to a Better DNS such as Google DNS or Cloudflare DNS give you a stable internet connection that not only loads the game faster but also enhances the gaming experience as well.

Open Windows 11 settings and go to Network & Internet,
Select the Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection you have, then click on Properties,
Here, Next to DNS server assignment, select Edit the manual from the drop-down menu,
Toggle on the IPv4 switch, set preferred DNS 1.1.1.1 and Alternate DNS 1.0.0.1 (This is Cloudflare open DNS) you can also use Google open DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
Click on save and restart your PC, and enjoy your online gaming session.

Change DNS address windows 11

Turn off automatic updates

Windows 11 automatically updates your operating system and will schedule a reboot without your permission. Although this feature doesn’t activate often, you don’t want to be caught off guard and put your save game at risk. Not only can automatic updates restart Windows without warning, but downloading updates in the background limits your bandwidth (which affects your in-game ping).

As for the automatic restart, this can be delayed, not completely disabled. So the best thing is that you update outside the game and restart yourself manually, so as not to get scared while playing.

In addition, run the system file checker utility and chkdsk command the check disk drive errors and repair or replace corrupted system files that help fix different errors on your computer and optimize the system performance include for gaming.

As you can see, there are a wide variety of settings that Windows 11 allows us to optimize the PC in search of better performance without spending money, just touching options that the operating system itself gives us.

Conclusion:

With a few adjustments our operating system can be optimized so that it stops wasting resources on unnecessary processes and focuses on what really matters: giving your best on the battlefield.