Microsoft’s Windows 11 is a well-designed operating system designed to achieve maximum productivity but that’s not its sole focus. In addition to the productivity features, Windows 11 has dozens of gaming features and different settings that make it pretty solid for gaming meaning many want to know how to optimise Windows 11 for gaming.
If you are a PC gamer no matter casual or serious, then we have some great suggestions on how to make your PC even better for gaming and to squeeze every last frame out of your hardware to ensure the best experience regardless of the games you're playing.
How to optimise Windows 11 for gaming
In this guide, we will explore different Windows 11 settings from dedicated gaming mode, graphics, and display settings, to security measures to optimize performance for gaming. Let’s get started.
Enable Game Mode
Windows is more focused on providing gaming features by offering a dedicated Game Mode feature in Windows 11 that stops all the background processes (For instance, preventing the Windows update from installing drivers) and prioritises the gaming with consistent frame rates.
In Windows 11, this feature is “turned on” by default but you can check in your system whether the game mode is on or off by following these simple steps.
- Launch the Windows 11 settings app on your PC.
- Click on the Gaming option.
- Tap on the Game mode.
- Lastly, Turn on the game mode toggle.
Turn on Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling settings
Turning on the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling setting minimizes the rendering latency and improves the gaming performance.
- Go to the settings app
- Click on System followed by Display.
- Select the Graphics option.
- Click on the Change default graphics settings.
- Flip the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling toggle to on and also turn on the optimizations for the windowed games option.
If your PC setup is compatible then you will get to see a variable refresh rate option, make sure to toggle it on.
Tweak Display settings
Changing Windows 11 display settings to the recommendations so you will gain the benefits of a high-resolution display and maximum refresh rate.
- Open the Settings app.
- Go to the System followed by a display.
- Set the display resolution at the maximum level and adjust the scaling to the recommended levels.
- Turn on the HDR toggle if your monitor supports it.
- Go back to the display option then click on the Advanced display.
- Choose the highest refresh rate if your monitor supports otherwise it will be at 60Hz by default.
Disable Enhanced Pointer Precision
This is an optional setting but if you are facing a mouse control issue while gaming, you can disable this pointer precision setting feature for better mouse movement while gaming. Here are the steps to disable this feature.
- Open the Windows 11 settings app and choose the Bluetooth & devices.
- Click on Mouse then scroll down to Related settings.
- Tap on the Additional mouse settings.
- This will open the small Mouse Properties window, click on the Pointer Options, and untick Enhanced Pointer Precision.
- Click on Apply and then OK.
Disable Windows 11 security settings
The last suggestion we want to cover is changing the Windows 11 security settings. Whether this tweak will work or not depends on the circumstances. Windows 11 has a security feature called Memory Integrity that protects the system against malware attacks.
This feature runs in the background in real-time and it takes much-needed CPU power and resources that games would need, resulting in affecting the game's overall performance. If your game requires the most resources then you can consider turning off Memory Integrity and Virtual Machine Platform settings to free up resources.
- Launch the Settings app and search Core Isolation on the search bar.
- This will open the Windows security tab then turn off the Memory Integrity switch.
- Restart the PC.
To turn off the Virtual Machine Platform follow the below steps:
- Press the Window button then search for the Windows features in the Windows search bar.
- Tap on the Turn Windows Features on or off from the result
- Search for Virtual Machine Platform then uncheck it.
- Click OK and again Restart your PC.
It's worth noting that disabling the Memory Integrity feature makes your PC more vulnerable to malware attacks. We advise you please reset the setting when your gaming session ends.
These are the best ways to optimize Windows 11 for gaming. For more such articles check out out Tech, How To, and Google pages.