The game is jerky, freezes and slows down. What can be done to speed it up? Why do games slow down (even on a powerful computer)? We eliminate lags and brakes! Eliminate lags and slowdowns in games
Do you experience microfreezes when playing games even though the optimal computer configuration is installed? Micro-stuttering in powerful high-performance PCs, completely satisfying system requirements of this or that game appeared after the Creators Update. There is a solution on how to remove stuttering in games on Windows 10.
Stuttering in games is a term that refers to the unpleasant effect of microfreezes and short-term dips in gameplay. gameplay. The game settings are set to high FPS, but when turning the camera there is a short-term freeze or a slight decrease in performance. This is annoying and ruins the fun, especially in multiplayer games that require precision and accuracy.
The problem with friezes, or in a broad sense with stuttering, is not something new and there can be many reasons for this:
- Incorrectly configured graphics.
- Insufficient amount of RAM.
- A slow hard drive that can’t keep up with reading textures.
- Driver errors and more.
It turns out that there is another source of reason that causes freezes and delays (lags) in games - this is the Windows memory control function.
Impact of Windows 10 Memory Control on Game Performance
After the Creators Update for Windows 10, users were faced with the fact that the memory control function on powerful PC hardware configurations causes microfreezes in games, in particular those developed on the Frostbite engine (for example, Battlefield 1).
What is the essence of the problem?
When the game process stops using a block of data written to memory, the system should theoretically get rid of it to make room for new data. But this doesn't happen. Instead, the unused block goes into a waiting list, where it is stored in case the game needs it later.
When the process needs data from this cell again, it reads it from the waiting list. When Windows detects that it doesn't have enough memory, it will begin to free it up by deleting unused items and creating space for new blocks.
In theory, the memory control function is good decision, since the system and processes will always have quick access to recently used data.
Unfortunately, in games, this principle of operation can lead to micro-freezes and freezes, since the waiting list can grow to enormous sizes, and the system will begin to delete unused memory blocks only when it detects a lack of space.
Intelligent Standby List Cleaner to eliminate freezes in games on Windows 10
You can solve the problem with stuttering using the Intelligent Standby List Cleaner program, which runs in the background and constantly clears unused data from memory. Its author is Wagnard, who developed famous application DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) to remove graphics drivers.
The application allows you to automatically clear the contents of memory when two conditions are met:
- the waiting list exceeds the specified size;
- The amount of allowed memory is less than the limit.
By default, the program starts cleaning when the waitlist size exceeds 1 GB (1024 MB) and there is less than 1 GB of free space on the hard drive. These thresholds can be changed at any time.
To start, click the Start button and minimize the program to the notification area. It works in the background, constantly monitors the memory and does not load it when cleaning.
Users on the forums confirm that this solution significantly reduces the number of freezes, stabilizes FPS, preventing sudden micro-cuts. This application will come in handy in large-scale games, For example Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which put a lot of stress on the equipment.
If the program brings positive effects, you can enable it to start automatically when the system boots. To do this, check the “Start minimized” checkbox.
Typical question from a user...
Hello.
One game on my computer is slow ( Diablo III). I tried a bunch of things, but nothing helps...
The computer exceeds the minimum game specifications stated by the manufacturer several times. I reduced the graphics and performance settings in the game to a minimum - I got ~10 FPS...
Tell me why the game can slow down even on a relatively powerful PC?
Good afternoon everyone!
There is probably not a single PC user who does not play computer games! And most of them encountered brakes, lags, delays, and other incidents. So the question presented in the article is a very popular one (perhaps only the name of the game is changing).
In this article, I will look at the main reasons why games slow down and give tips on how to eliminate and fix them. By the way, I don’t claim to be the ultimate truth 😉.
And so, now closer to the topic...
IMPORTANT!
First of all, pay attention to the system requirements of the specific game that is slowing you down. If its minimum requirements (and there are also recommended ones) your computer/laptop is not satisfactory - then the reason for the brakes is obvious (that’s why I won’t dwell on system requirements in this article). True, in this case, something can be done to speed up the game (more on that below).
Eliminate lags and slowdowns in games
I will structure the article in the form of questions, to each of which I will give an answer. By going through them and checking your PC, optimizing it, you will in any case get some (at least small) performance gain.
❶ What programs are loaded on the processor, hard drive, RAM and network?
The very first thing I want to start with is checking what your processor, hard drive, and RAM are loaded with. The fact is that even on a powerful computer, brakes can appear if, in addition to the game itself, another dozen or two different programs are running on it (not to mention various conflicts).
The easiest way to find out about their loading is to use task manager . To open it, press the buttons Ctrl+Shift+Esc(or Ctrl+Alt+Del). By the way, it is highly advisable to first open the task manager, then launch the game, and when it starts to slow down, minimize it and see where the main load is going.
Note: to minimize the game, press the Alt+Tab button combination, or the Win button.
In the task manager, first pay attention to what is most loaded: CPU, memory, disk or network. In my case - the CPU was loaded (approx. : the processor, by the way, is usually loaded more often than memory or disk) .
Please note the screenshot below - the CPU is not loaded Civilization game IV, but a conductor (in which the heels of the tabs are open and several operations are performed). No wonder the computer started to slow down when starting the game...
After the work in Explorer was completed (and it was restarted), the game began to function normally, not a single lag or freeze. Here is the recipe for recovery 👍...
In addition, pay attention to HDD : often torrents (so popular lately) can put a heavy load on it.
Note: Many programs that you have already closed may remain in memory and load your PC. That is why, in cases where problems occur in games, it is advisable to always check in the task manager to see if there is any extraneous process that is heavily loading the PC.
Therefore, to summarize, I will say the following: first of all, check to see if there are any third-party programs running that are taking up the lion’s share of PC resources instead of the desired game. Having made sure that the load is created directly by the game itself, you can move on...
To help!
How to increase CPU performance through power settings (core parking, how to enable all CPU cores ✔) -
❷ Do you know about problematic graphics in some games: fire, water, shadows, etc.?
Very often the reason for the brakes lies in the game itself, for example, often the developers did not optimize the graphics, say, for a certain line of video cards. As a result, for most users everything works as it should, but for some users the game is simply unrecognizable: everything lags, slows down, the picture twitches and is distorted.
It’s quite difficult to name for each game where and what problems it has (they can tell you much more about this on some forum dedicated to a specific game).
As for Diablo III (and some other games) - in the first releases the game had a problem with NVIDIA video cards due to the parameter enabled in the driver settings AMBIENT OCLUSION (Background lighting shading). When it is disabled in graphic settings- the game started to fly!
Pay attention to these elements like: fire, water, shadows, fog, dust, etc. If there is an option in the game to disable them (or reduce their detail) - try it! In some cases, games begin to behave completely differently.
❸ Have you used any utilities to speed up games?
No matter what anyone says about “magic buttons”, that they don’t exist, etc. - there are still utilities that can speed up your computer in a few steps, and as a result, reduce the number of errors and lags in games.
I won’t talk about them in detail here, as it will require quite a lot of space and time (especially since there is already such an article on the blog).
❹ Are your video drivers updated? Is there any conflict, are they optimal?
Video drivers have a very serious and significant impact on gaming performance.
For some video cards, choosing the optimal driver is not always easy: the newest driver may not be optimized, it may have errors, and it may not work correctly with some types of textures (but, as a rule, in new drivers, on the contrary, the number of errors tends to a minimum).
I'll give you one piece of advice: try downloading several versions of drivers for your video card. Then install one by one and check how the game works with one or another. Perhaps by installing another driver the error will disappear...
Updating Drivers in Windows 10 - 5 Review best programs(in Russian) -
How to update the driver for an AMD, nVidia and Intel HD video card: from A to Z -
In addition, I also recommend going to device Manager and check whether there is a driver conflict, whether drivers have been found and installed for all equipment (if there are any yellow exclamation marks. An example of what a problematic driver looks like in the device manager is).
To open device Manager : Press a combination of buttons Win+R and enter devmgmt.msc(example below).
Pay attention to the tabs "Video adapters" And "Unknown devices" - are there any devices with yellow exclamation marks (or simply unknown devices ).
If there are any, you need to find drivers for them and install them. Then restart your PC and check how gaming performance changes.
To help!
How to find and install a driver for an unknown device -
❺ Are your video drivers set for maximum performance?
I think it’s no secret that video driver settings greatly influence game performance. Sometimes, by changing some parameters, you can increase the game by 1.5 (or more) times!
How to speed up an AMD (Radeon) video card -
How to improve NVIDIA graphics card performance in games -
How to speed up an IntelHD video card, increase performance by at least 10-15% -
❻ Does the game have low graphics settings: resolution, details, shadows, etc.?
In addition to the video card settings, there are also settings for the game itself. By the way, their influence is no less than the video card settings (and maybe more!).
Absolutely every game (99.9%) has graphics settings. When you enter them, pay attention (first of all) to the following things:
- screen resolution: has a strong impact on the quality of the picture in the game, and on the loading of your video card. By lowering the resolution a little, you can significantly increase the performance of your PC in the game. By the way, I’ll add on my own behalf that in many games the decrease in resolution will be barely noticeable, while the performance will increase significantly! So, you always need to find a balance;
- quality of graphics, visualization, video: also has a strong impact on performance. If the game is lagging, try lowering the settings from high to medium (or even low);
- landscape detail, shadows, fog, etc.: remove, or completely disable, if this is provided by the game;
- vertical sync: Try enabling/disabling. Sometimes it gives a significant increase in FPS.
What to look for when setting up game graphics // using Civilization IV as an example
❼ Does the built-in video card switch to discrete when launching games?
This question concerns computers/laptops with two video cards: built-in and discrete. The fact is that when running games, the computer must use a discrete video card for maximum performance.
But this does not always happen; often the device does not switch the video card, and you play on the built-in one. Then, even if you have a powerful gaming laptop, you may well experience lags in relatively old games!
I already have an article on my blog dedicated to this problem. I recommend checking it out.
How to run a game on a discrete video card. How to check which video card the game is running on // using NVIDIA as an example -
Game mode in Windows 10: increasing your computer's performance in games -
❽ Have you checked the temperature of the components to see if they are overheating?
Crashes and slowdowns in games may be due to overheating. The fact is that games are quite demanding programs that significantly load both the processor, the video card, and sometimes the hard drive (with intensive data loading).
Particular attention should be paid to temperature in the following cases:
- strong hum of fans/coolers;
- when the PC is unstable: reboots, brakes, freezes;
- warm body (noticeable in laptops/netbooks);
- frequent critical errors, etc.
Usually, you have to think about temperature in warm summers, when the temperature in the room rises significantly and it actually becomes hot (not only for a person, but also for a computer 😊).
To find out and monitor the temperature of the main components (CPU, video card, hard drive), I recommend using one of the utilities:.
For example, in the screenshot below I have a utility Speccy.
In general, it is difficult to say what temperature is critical (a lot depends on the specific iron). But in general, in general, if we highlight:
- processor: pay attention to the temperature if it exceeds 60 °C in games ();
- hard drive: normal hard drive temperature is considered to be in the range of 25÷43°C. If yours is higher, I recommend that you seriously worry, since leaving this zone can seriously affect the durability of your disk ();
- video card: in general, some models of video cards (for example, NVIDIA) can withstand temperatures up to 100°C (but I personally cannot call this a normal situation). When the temperature in games is above 80÷85°C, I recommend reading the recommended temperature ranges of your video card manufacturer ().
To help!
The laptop is heating up: what to do? Temperature is always high: 85°C+ -
Important!
One of the main “enemies” of computer hardware is dust. It penetrates absolutely everywhere, over time clogs the cooling system, which leads to an increase in temperature. And this, in turn, can affect the speed of the PC, as well as its service life.
To help!
Cleaning your computer from dust: monitor, system unit, keyboard -
❾ Is Windows optimized for maximum speed?
It's no secret that an optimized Windows OS can work significantly faster than one that no one has worked on. Moreover, all this can also affect PC performance in games (and the number of FPS).
Just imagine: unnecessary services and programs that you never use are for some reason loaded into memory, executed, etc. All this requires spending PC resources.
Not to mention the fact that over time, a large amount of garbage accumulates in the system: temporary files, folders, erroneous registry entries, non-working shortcuts, etc. All this needs to be cleaned and put away, and then Windows will be much more responsive, there will be fewer errors, and better performance!
Optimizing Windows 10 // to speed up your computer - (also relevant for Windows 7, 8)
❿ What power supply circuit is used for the PC? Is the power saving mode enabled?
This point applies more to laptops. The fact is that in Windows there is a power supply section where operating modes are set. There are several options among the modes: economical, optimal (or balanced), and high-performance.
By default, most often, either optimal or economical is used. The latter can generally have a very significant effect on the performance of the laptop (and not only in games).
To open the settings and select the power plan, go to Windows at: .
High performance // Power supply
If you have a laptop with Windows 10 OS, please also note that you can increase performance using the battery icon in the tray.
Also, when it comes to laptops, some manufacturers equip their devices with special software. Among this software there are modules responsible for powering the laptop: for example, some devices from LENOVO have energy saving modes.
By the way, in some cases Turbo Boost may be disabled due to power settings (resulting in the processor operating far beyond its capabilities). You can find out how to check this point and use Turbo Boost from my previous article, the link to which is given below.
To help!
Because of which low performance Intel processor on a laptop. How can you speed it up (about Turbo Boost) -
I-❶ Do you have 2 hard drives? Is one of them disconnected?
If the game works and works, and then after a certain time it freezes for 0.5-1 seconds, and then works again, then this behavior is similar to turning off the hard drive. Those. Windows turned off the hard drive, and when it needed data from it and the game wanted to get it, it turned on again, and this was the time it took to get it back into operation (at the same time, if you listen closely, you can hear the disk starting to work (make noise)).
The conclusion suggests itself - you need to prohibit the hard drive from turning off during operation. By the way, this often happens when you have 2 or more hard drives in your system. Some of them are disabled when inactive.
To prevent this, Windows at: Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options . Next open the link "Setting up the power plan" in the active circuit (example below)!
Next, expand the section "HDD" and put "0" in the tab "disable hard drive via" . This means that the hard drive will never turn off (which is what you want). Save your settings and try returning to the game. Will this characteristic lag disappear?
never disconnect the hard drive // Windows 10
I-❷ Is your antivirus/firewall enabled, have you tried without it?
And the last thing I wanted to dwell on in this article is viruses and antiviruses (and other security software). In some cases, antiviruses/firewalls can significantly affect performance; for example, they may be scheduled to scan your computer for viruses while you are sitting down to play. Often, in this case, the game starts to slow down.
I'll be brief here:
This is where I end the article.
ZAny additions on the topic would be greatly appreciated.
Good day.
All game lovers (and non-gamers, I think too) have encountered the fact that running game started to slow down: the picture on the screen changed jerkily, twitched, sometimes it seemed that the computer was freezing (for half a second or a second). This can happen for various reasons, and it is not always so easy to determine the “culprit” of such lags ( lag - translated from English: lag, delay).
In this article, I want to dwell on the most common reasons why games start to run jerkily and slow down. And so, let's start to figure it out in order...
1. Required system characteristics games
The first thing I want to immediately draw your attention to is the system requirements of the game and the characteristics of the computer on which it is launched. The fact is that many users (based on my experience) confuse the minimum requirements with the recommended ones. An example of the minimum system requirements is usually always indicated on the game packaging (see example in Fig. 1).
Rice. 1. Minimum system requirements for Gothic 3
The recommended system requirements, most often, are either not indicated at all on the game disc, or they can be viewed during installation (in some file readme.txt). In general, today, when most computers are connected to the Internet, it is not long or difficult to find out such information :)
If the lags in the game are associated with old hardware, then, as a rule, it is quite difficult to achieve a comfortable game without updating components (but in some cases it is possible to partially correct the situation, about them below in the article).
By the way, I’m not revealing America, but replacing an old video card with a new one can significantly increase PC performance and remove slowdowns and stutters in games. A fairly good assortment of video cards is presented in the price.ua catalog - you can find the most productive video cards in Kyiv (you can sort by 10 parameters using filters in the sidebar of the site. I also recommend looking at the tests before purchasing. The question about them was partially touched upon in this article: ).
2. Drivers for the video card (selecting the “needed” ones and fine-tuning them)
I probably won’t exaggerate too much when I say that the performance of the video card plays a huge role in gaming performance. And the operation of the video card depends heavily on the installed drivers.
The fact is that different driver versions can behave completely differently: sometimes old version works better than the newer one (sometimes vice versa). In my opinion, it is best to test it experimentally by downloading several versions from the manufacturer’s official website.
Regarding driver updates, I have already written several articles, I recommend reading them:
- The best programs for auto-updating drivers:
- driver update Nvidia video cards,AMD Radeon:
- quick search for drivers:
Not only the drivers themselves are important, but also their configuration. The fact is that by adjusting the graphics settings you can achieve a significant increase in the performance of the video card. Since the topic of “fine-tuning” a video card is quite extensive so as not to be repeated, I will provide links below to a couple of my articles, which tell in detail how to do this.
3. What is the processor loaded with? (removing unnecessary applications)
Often, slowdowns in games appear not because of low PC performance, but because the computer’s processor is loaded not with the game, but with extraneous tasks. The easiest way to find out which programs “eat up” how many resources is to open the task manager (key combination Ctrl+Shift+Esc).
Before starting games, it is highly advisable to close all programs that you will not need during the game: browsers, video editors, etc. This way, all PC resources will be used by the game - as a result, fewer lags and a more comfortable gaming experience.
By the way, another important point: the processor can be loaded with non-specific programs that can be closed. In any case, if games are slow, I recommend that you take a closer look at the processor load, and if it is sometimes of an “incomprehensible” nature, I recommend that you read the article:
4. Windows OS optimization
You can slightly increase the performance of the game by optimizing and cleaning Windows (by the way, not only the game itself, but also the system as a whole will run faster). But I want to warn you right away that the performance of this operation will increase quite slightly (at least in most cases).
I have a whole section on my blog dedicated to optimizing and configuring Windows:
Programs for cleaning your PC from “garbage”:
5. Checking and setting up the hard drive
Often, lags in games appear due to the operation of the hard drive. The behavior is usually as follows:
- the game is on ok, but certain moment it “freezes” (as if a pause was pressed) for 0.5-1 seconds, at this moment you can hear the hard drive starting to make noise (especially noticeable, for example, on laptops where the hard drive is located under the keyboard) and after that the game runs fine without lags...
This happens because during idle time (for example, when the game is not loading anything from the disk), the hard drive stops, and then when the game starts accessing data from the disk, it takes time for it to start. Actually, because of this, such a characteristic “failure” most often occurs.
In Windows 7, 8, 10, to change power settings, you need to go to the control panel at:
Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options
Then, in the advanced settings, pay attention to how long the hard drive will be idle until it stops. Try changing this value to a longer time (say, from 10 minutes to 2-3 hours).
6. Antivirus, firewall...
Programs to protect your information (for example, an antivirus or firewall) can also cause problems in games. For example, an antivirus may start checking files on the computer’s hard drive during a game, which will immediately “eat up” a fairly large percentage of the PC’s resources...
In my opinion, the easiest way to determine whether this is actually the case is to disable (or better yet, remove) the antivirus from your computer (temporarily!) and then try the game without it. If the brakes disappear, then the reason has been found!
If nothing helps
Tip 1: if you haven’t cleaned your computer of dust for a long time, be sure to do it. The fact is that dust clogs the ventilation holes, thereby preventing hot air from escaping from the device’s body - because of this, the temperature begins to rise, and because of it, lags with brakes may well appear (and not only in games...) .
2nd tip: it may seem strange to some, but try installing the same game, but a different version (for example, I myself encountered that the Russian-language version of the game was slow, and the English-language version worked quite normally. The problem, apparently, was at a publisher who did not optimize his “translation”).
3rd tip: It is possible that the game itself is not optimized. For example, a similar thing was observed with Civilization V - the first versions of the game were slow even on relatively powerful PCs. In this case, there is nothing left to do but wait until the manufacturers optimize the game.
Tip 4: Some games behave differently in different versions Windows (for example, they can work great in Windows XP, but slow down in Windows 8). This usually happens because game manufacturers cannot anticipate all the “features” of new versions of Windows in advance.
That’s all for me, I will be grateful for constructive additions :) Good luck!
