Five Windows 7 Tips to increase Gaming Performance

[Geralt]

So - you've installed Windows 7, and your games run great; do you want even more performance out of your games? Then read ahead.


1) Use ReadyBoost:

• Ready Boost is a great feature of Windows 7 which can improve your systems performance. Ready Boost is a facility that can utilize your USB flash drive for providing quick access memory which the operating system can use as surplus RAM. To set up Ready Boost, follow the steps given below:

1. Connect a USB flash drive.
2. Open ‘My Computer’.
3. Right-click the USB Drive.
4. Select the ‘Ready Boost’ tab.
5. Select the ‘Use this device’ checkbox.

• If you have 2GB RAM or more, you probably won't benefit as much from this as users with less RAM.

2) Keep your PC updated:

• It's always a good idea to have the latest driver and software updates on your PC. Do a Windows Update at regular intervals, and check for driver updates on your PC - I recommend buying Driver Genius, it automatically detects your hardware and finds driver updates for it: Driver Genius Professional Edition - Backup, restore and update all your drivers easily

3) Defrag your Hard-Drive / Keep it clean:

• You should also do regular hard-drive defrags. Doing a regular Defrag rearranges the files on your hard drive so it is quicker to access. If you do not want to pay for a program, I recommend using Defraggler: Defraggler - Defragment your files!

• Try and keep your hard-drive as clean as possible. Remove unneeded programs and files. A helpful, and free, cleaning program is CCleaner: CCleaner - Home

• CCleaner will remove unneeded temporary files, fix registry issues and more.

4) Scan for viruses / malware:

• Viruses can slow your PC down more than you think. It is a good idea to keep all your virus software updated, and do regular scans. A few good, and free, programs that I recommend are:

1. The home of Spybot-S&D!
2. Ad-Aware by Lavasoft - Antivirus software, free spyware removal, firewall
3. avast! - Download antivirus software for spyware and virus protection
4. Malwarebytes.org

5) Download and use Game Booster:

• Game Booster allows you to disable all the unneeded background applications while playing your games. This can sometimes give you a significant performance boost, if you have a lot of background applications. Game Booster | Faster Play, Free Download | Free Game Accelerator Download

So there you are - 5 quick tips to help you get better performance out of your games on Windows 7. Do you have your own tips? Post them here.

 

[zaxis]

Hey I thought you were going to say do not install windows 7 Nice one.

 

[AstaLaVista]

Hmmm, 3rd party game booster... no thanks, I am an extreme pessimist when it comes to "To good to be True" things

 

[Neilsouth]

These tips are completely obvious , game booster isn't needed unless ofcause you have a messy os and don't look after it

 

[jfar]

Thanks for posting them for all to see.

 

[Zidane24]

In Game Booster's Defense I downloaded it and tried it out. Before I couldn't get 100% frames in my PS2 emulator at 1024x768 res. Applying Game Booster allowed me to reach that goal. Now before someone says to just disable those services for now on I use AERO and alot of the other services that Game Booster disabled. This provides an easy one-click to game mode

Thanks Geralt for the tips

 

[Zidane24]

These tips are completely obvious , game booster isn't needed unless ofcause you have a messy os and don't look after it

Game Booster disables Windows services that come default with a clean install...it will boost performance

To an average joe that wants to just play games these tips are not obvious...think of the subset you are talking about before making a comment

 

[DeaconFrost]

Also, about ReadyBoost, if you have more than 1 GB of system memory, you won't see any benefit to running this. Considering this post was aimed at gamers, they wouldn't be running with so little system memory anyway.

2, 3, and 4 are good tips regardless of what you do with your computer. As for an application that will boost gaming performance across the board...not gonna happen, so don't bother. Keep your system optimized, and you'll have the best gaming performance.

Game Booster disables Windows services that come default with a clean install...it will boost performance

That would be one more reason why it would never see my system. Disabling services is never a good idea. Besides, it's been proven that disabling unneccessary services doesn't actually free up resources...those resources weren't in use to begin with. That may have applied years ago on our Pentium III systems, with 256 MB of memory, but not so much anymore. Freeing up a couple of MBs (of that) of memory isn't going to provide a measurable benefit, but it most certainly could leave your system unstable.

 

[Geralt]

Also, about ReadyBoost, if you have more than 1 GB of system memory, you won't see any benefit to running this. Considering this post was aimed at gamers, they wouldn't be running with so little system memory anyway.

With more than 1GB of memory, there will be a difference but it would be very minimal. And not all games have high-end systems.

That would be one more reason why it would never see my system. Disabling services is never a good idea. Besides, it's been proven that disabling unneccessary services doesn't actually.........

You'd be surprised how well it does actually work - I noticed less stutter in games, especially GTAIV. GameBooster is safe. It disables what it can, it won't disable anything which will make your system unstable - all you need to do is download the program and click "Switch to Gaming Mode", and you can switch back to normal mode whenever you wish.

I never said any of these tips would be miracles, but they all help. After doing these, I've gained about 3-8 frames in games. May not seem like much - but for those who have lower framerates it will make a difference.

 

[DeaconFrost]

With more than 1GB of memory, there will be a difference but it would be very minimal. And not all games have high-end systems.

If you check out any tests and comparisons concernign ReadyBoost, you'll find that at 1 GB and above, the gain is barely measurable, if at all. Microsoft even marketed ReadyBoost initially to people with less than 1 GB of system memory.

 

[Geralt]

Exactly what I said - "there will be a difference but it would be very minimal."

There is a difference, but it's not really noticeable.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I agree completely. But I have to ask, if it isn't noticeable, why make it the first tweak in a thread entitled "Five Windows 7 Tipes to increase gaming performance"?

That's the point I was trying to make. I'm all for giving people tips to benefit them, but Windows 7 is a different animal than XP was, and doesn't need the tweaking. The most common tweaking advice ever given for Vista and Windows 7 revolves around your middle three tips....and the always popular phrase "Leave it alone".

 

[Geralt]

Is it not a Tip for Windows 7 that can increase gaming performance? Maybe it won't work for all gamers - but it will help some.

The order of the tips is totally random.

 

[DeaconFrost]

If you have less than 1 GB of memory, you aren't running a gaming system anyway, so it's a moot point. That's not what ReadyBoost was designed for. If a system isn't up to par to play intense games, no software tweak is going to change that. That's like saying if I change the color of my 325xi, it will suddenly be a better car for the track.

There's another thread that illustrates my point. A user is asking what drivers for his onboard, Intel graphics card will be best for gaming (recent, high-end games). He isn't suddenly going to find a new driver revision that will allow that card to run the high end games at decent rates. A software tweak/setting isn't ever going to make up for lacking hardware.

 

[Geralt]

I never said these were miracles - I just said that they will help squeeze a few frames out of your system, as they did with mine. And I never said there is a software tweak that will change it; these are just to help get as much out of your system as possible, without upgrading.

If you have less than 1 GB of memory, you aren't running a gaming system anyway

Depends how you look at it, really. Not everyone wants to play the latest games - they're fine with older titles.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Depends how you look at it, really.

If you say so, I guess. We'll just have to agree to disagree. 1 GB of system memory has been generally considered the lowest amount for XP to be usable in terms of doing any kind of multi-tasking. I understand the separate between the regular user community and the enthusiast community, so I'm trying to keep that in mind, but I wouldn't expect to see many, if anyone, participating on a Windows 7 only board running less than 1 GB of system memory.

 

[Geralt]

Okay.

Well - this thread is here for if anyone else wants to share any tips, so if you find something that does/may increase performance; share it.

 

[Neilsouth]

To an average joe that wants to just play games these tips are not obvious...think of the subset you are talking about before making a comment

Yes Sir , still enjoy your 1fps increase

This is far better , so the thread isn't really needed
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/

 

[Zidane24]

To an average joe that wants to just play games these tips are not obvious...think of the subset you are talking about before making a comment

Yes Sir , still enjoy your 1fps increase

More like 20FPS with my PS2 emulation...but whatever I guess that is nothing to shake at

 

[Uber Philf]

Handy tips Zidane, lucky i do them all on a regular basis.