How to Optimize Windows 10 for Gaming? Here Are Reliable Guides

Nowadays, PC games have become one of the most popular entertainments. However, when playing games on PC, some users complain that the games on Windows 10 are slow, the computer lags and their game experiences are poor.

So, is it possible for you to make games run faster on Windows 10? Of course, you can optimize Windows 10 for gaming. In general, the PC game performance may be affected by the graphics card, CPU, memory, hard disk, network, etc. So, this post will show you how to optimize Windows 10 for gaming. To boost computer performance for gaming, you can choose to optimize Windows 10 game mode, disable Nagle’s Algorithm, upgrade hard drive to SSD via MiniTool ShadowMaker, tweak visual effects settings, perform high-performance power plan, update GPU drivers, etc.

Therefore, in this post, we will show you the detailed instructions for optimizing Windows 10 for gaming.

How to Optimize Windows 10 for Gaming?

Way 1. Optimize Windows 10 with Game Mode

As for how to improve gaming performance on Windows 10, you can choose to optimize Windows 10 with Game Mode.

Now, here is the tutorial.

  1. Press Windows key and I key together to open Settings.
  2. Then choose Gaming.
  3. In the pop-up window, click Game Mode on the left panel and then switch the button of Use Game Mode to on.

After that, reboot your computer and re-launch the games and check whether its performance has been improved.

Way 2. Disable Nagle’s Algorithm

Nagle’s Algorithm is a way to improve the efficiency of TCP/IP networks by decreasing the number of packets that need to be sent over the network.

So, in order to improve game performance on Windows 10, you can try disabling Nagle’s Algorithm.

Now, here is the tutorial.

  1. Press Windows key and R key together to open Run
  2. Then type regedit in the box and click OK to continue.
  3. Navigate to the path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
  4. To access the file, match your IP address to the listed DhcpIPAddressin one of those folders.
  5. Right-click it and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
  6. Create two new keys and name them as TcpAckFrequencyand TCPNoDelay.
  7. After that, double-click them and change their value data to 1.

Once all steps are finished, reboot your computer and run game again and check whether the performance has changed.

Way 3. Upgrade Hard Drive to SSD

As is well known, the performance of an SSD is better than HDD. So, in order to improve computer performance and game performance, you can try upgrading hard drive to SSD. You can choose to replace original system disk with a new SSD and reinstall the operating system, but, this way would lead to data loss. Hence, you can choose to clone OS from HDD to SSD without data loss with MiniTool ShadowMaker.

MiniTool Software company has been dedicated to developing reliable data backup and restore utility,  data recovery software, disk partition management software for users from 180+ countries and areas for over 10 years. Trusted by many industry experts, MiniTool  products have got featured authoritative technology sites such as TechRadar, PCWorld, CNET,  Softpedia, LifeHacker, FileHorse, and more.

Now, here is the tutorial.

  1. Connect the new SSD to your computer.
  2. Install MiniTool ShadowMaker and launch it.
  3. Then go to the Tools page, and choose Clone Disk.
  4. Click the Source module to choose a disk clone source. Here, you need to choose the original system disk.
  5. Then click the Destination module to choose a target disk. Here, you need to select the new SSD.
  6. Then click OK to start hard drive upgrading process.

After the disk cloning process is finished, disconnect the original system hard drive and boot your computer to enter BIOS. Then set the target SSD as the default first boot sequence. Then reboot your computer to check whether your Windows 10 runs faster and check whether the gaming performance is boosted.

Way 4. Tweak Visual Effects Settings

In order to optimize Windows 10 for gaming, you can try tweaking visual effects settings.

Now, here is the tutorial.

  1. Type view advanced system settings in the search box of Windows and choose the best-matched one.
  2. In the pop-up window, navigate to the Advanced
  3. Then click Settings under Performance
  4. Next, switch to the Visual Effects
  5. Check the option Adjust for best performance.
  6. At last, click Apply and OK to save the changes.

Once all steps are finished, reboot your computer to make these settings take effect and run game again and check whether the game performance is improved.

Way 5. Use High-Performance Power Plan

Changing power plan may help you to optimize Windows 10 for gaming since power plans are designed to better manage battery use on portable devices.

Now, here is the tutorial.

  1. Press Windows key and I key together to open Settings.
  2. Then System.
  3. In the pop-up window, choose Power & sleep in the left panel.
  4. Then click Additional power settings on the right panel.
  5. Next, click Show additional plans and check the option High performance.

After all steps are finished, reboot your computer and check whether the game performance is improved.

Way 6. Update GPU Driver

The Graphic Processor Unit is the core of your PC gaming experiences and it requires the latest Windows driver to keep games run faster and better.

So, in order to optimize Windows 10 for gaming and improve the game performance, you can choose to update GPU driver.

Now, here is the tutorial.

  1. Press Windows key and R key together to open Run
  2. Type msc in the box and click OK to continue.
  3. In the Device Manager window, expand the Display adapter and select the driver on your computer.
  4. Right-click it and choose Update driver.
  5. Then select Search automatically for updated driver software and follow the on-screen wizard to continue.

Besides this way to update GPU driver, you can also download it from the official site and install it on your computer.

After all steps are finished, reboot your computer and run games again to check whether the gaming performance is improved.

As for how to optimize Windows 10 for gaming, this post has shown 6 reliable solutions. Apart from these, you can also try to manage active hours on PC, prevent Steam from auto-updating games, disable mouse acceleration, install DirectX 12, etc. So, try these ways to optimize Windows 10 for gaming and improve game performance.