How to Optimize Windows 10 for Gaming

I have read so many articles providing different ways to optimize Windows 10 for gaming. However, what I found in most of these articles is that they usually provide cliché answers such as, buy a Solid State Drive, or do some simple performance tweaks.

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However, as a gamer myself, I have tried many different methods to optimize Windows 10 for a better gaming experience. Most of the time these methods only provide some or no benefit at all. So, I have compiled a list of methods that actually worked for me.

Tips for Optimizing Windows 10 for Better Gaming Performance

Windows 10 itself is pretty well optimized and it all depends on your hardware to get the most out of your computer. However, you can perform some tweaks to gain some gaming performance optimizations in your Windows 10 PC.

Even if your hardware is performing pretty well, optimizing the software aspect of your system will provide you better results. If your gaming experience is smoother you will have a lot more fun.

So, here are a few tips that you can use to optimize your Windows 10 computer to get better gaming performance.

These tips are tailored for your current hardware and I will not include hardware upgrades in these tips.

Make a restore point before optimizing Windows 10 for gaming

Although all the optimizations that I will show you in this article are safe to use, however, you should still create a restore point. The reason for creating a restore point is that you can revert all the changes that you are making.

If you already know how to make a restore point you can skip this portion.

Making a Restore Point

• Click on the start menu or search button and type create a restore point. Then open the restore point settings.

• Select your Windows drive and click on create a restore point.

• Now the system protection box will pop up. Write a name for your restore point and click create.

• It will take a few seconds for Windows to create a restore point.

Using a restore point

• To use a restore point open your start menu or search bar again and type create a restore point and open the restore point settings again. Now click on System Restore.

• In the next dialog box click on next and select your restore point that you just created. However, if you cannot see your desired restore point tick the “show more restore points” option and click next.

Choose a better power plan to optimize windows 10 gaming performance.

Your Windows 10 computer usually runs on a balanced power plan by default. The balanced power plan will perform fine however It will create a balance between power and resource-saving.

As a gamer, you will prefer using the maximum performance of your computer. Although, using these power plans will use more energy and hardware resources. So, choosing a performance power plan can provide benefits.

Select “High Performance” Power Plan

• Again click on the start menu or search button on the bottom left corner of your screen.
• Type “Choose a Power Plan” and open the choose power plan settings.

• Now select “Show additional plans” and select the “High performance” power plan.

Enable and Select Ultimate Performance Power Plan.

Although the “High Performance” power plan is good enough for gaming, however, you can try the Ultimate Performance power plan. I don’t have the exact numbers on how much it optimizes or improves your gaming performance.

This power plan was introduced back in 2018 to remove micro latencies in high-end systems. You can read details about this power plan from this article > Ultimate Performance Power Plan.

To enable this power plan, follow these steps:

• Open the Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell as admin

• Now add this command and press Enter.
  powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
• This command will add the option to select the ultimate performance power plan. So, again open the “choose a power plan” option.
• Select the “Ultimate Performance Power Plan” from additional power plans.

Please note you can only use this power plan on Windows 10 Pro.

Disable overlays to optimize gaming performance in Windows 10.

Overlays can degrade your gaming performance. Depending on your system specs, you might be having laggy gameplays due to in-game overlays. By default, Windows 10 has Xbox overlay enabled.

The Xbox overlay affected my in-game fps a lot when I was using a low-end gaming system. Other than the Xbox overlay, there are many others such as steam, Nvidia, discord, etc.

It’s a great idea to disable all these overlays if you are not using them. As disabling them can provide performance enhancements.

Disabling Windows Xbox Game Bar Overlay

• Click on the start menu or search icon and type “Enable Xbox Game Bar ” and open the settings.

• Now Turn off the Xbox Game bar

Disabling NVIDIA Overlay

NVIDIA In-game overlay provides us with a variety of features. This overlay is one of my favorites as it provides the option to record, upload, or stream my gameplay. However, it utilizes your system resources to work.

So, if you have a low-end pc and facing lag issues, you should disable this overlay. However, please note that this overlay can only be enabled if you have installed and logged in to GeForce Experience.

• To disable the NVIDIA In-game overlay Type “GeForce Experience” in the search bar and open the app.

• Now click on the Settings icon on the top right corner of the app.

• Click on general and under the in-game overlay tab disable the Nvidia Overlay.

Disabling Steam Overlay

• Open the steam client and login into your account. Then click on the steam option on the top left corner of the app and click

• Now click on the “In-game” option and untick the “Enable Steam Overlay In-game” option and click OK.

Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling and Game mode.

The game mode is an embedded feature of Windows 10 which enhances gaming performance. However, it’s a hit or miss feature. It works out for some people and, for others, it degrades the gaming performance. You can enable it to test if it works out for you.

Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling is a new feature for Windows 10. However, It has not yet been tested thoroughly.

However, my games felt smoother after enabling Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling. But it might have only worked out for me so test it out for yourself.

So here is how you can enable Game Mode and Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.

• Type “Game Mode Settings” in the search bar and open the game mode settings.
• Then Enable “Game mode” and select “Graphics Settings” under related settings on the left corner of your screen.

• Now turn on Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling