[Saadherry]

Lately I’ve noticed that even on decent hardware, many modern games are not running as smoothly as expected. FPS drops, random stutters, and poor optimization seem pretty common now.

Is it mainly poor game optimization, background apps, or hardware limits? Also, what settings or tweaks have actually helped you improve performance without ruining visuals?

Would be interesting to hear real experiences and fixes from others.

[Gabriel20]

It is kinda hard and it depends from game to game.

I set the product to run on higher priority in task manager -> details, but I am not sure if it is actually helping.

In game, I tend to use worse shadows, since they usually take a lot of power to process. But it depends from game to game, since, for example, if I am playing a strategy/turn based game, I generally do not need to have such a high fps, but if I play an action game, I turn the graphics down to squeeze as much fps as I can.

Restarting my laptop also seems to help (I usually let it hibernate, but do a restart after a few days).

[R1mpl0]

I think it's mainly optimisation that is the issue, which has led to the criticism against 8GB VRAM GPU, as games are released buggy with no performance optimisations to prevent them from eating up all the resources on your PC, since they could be a port from console to Pc. Note that consoles technically have 16GB of unified memory for the System and GPU

Now, a caveat to that is that most of the people who complain about the 8GB are those expecting to play any game at 1440p OR HIGHER with MAX/Ultra graphics and smooth, stable fps, which I feel is an argument on sand.

I would also say that Nvidia hasn't helped with their buggy drivers in recent times. I recently had issues with the latest drivers, which caused external display glitches in games

[Saadherry]

One more thing I’ve tried in Minecraft is disabling VSync and lowering particle effects — it surprisingly smooths out FPS drops without making the game look bad. Sometimes small tweaks like this make a big difference.

[Saadherry]

@R1mpl0
Totally agree with you. I’ve noticed the same in Minecraft and other games — sometimes lowering things like shadows, particles, and render distance gives a noticeable FPS boost without making the game look bad. I also close background apps and make sure to restart my laptop every few days; it really helps smooth out stutters. It’s a mix of settings tweaks and just keeping the system fresh.

[UnapologeticDino]

@Saadherry Sometimes the issue could be in the game not being able to handle itself, I remember playing a 2016 game that would have a horrible fps drop just because it couldn't register something that has 4+ cores, I have to actually limit the cores in order to work when I upgraded my PC!
@R1mpl0 I agree on the optimization part, it feels like it's a lost craft now with games freely releasing uncompressed games (Looking at you Call of Duty with 50GB+ per update)

[R1mpl0]

Originally Posted by UnapologeticDino

@Saadherry Sometimes the issue could be in the game not being able to handle itself, I remember playing a 2016 game that would have a horrible fps drop just because it couldn't register something that has 4+ cores, I have to actually limit the cores in order to work when I upgraded my PC!
@R1mpl0 I agree on the optimization part, it feels like it's a lost craft now with games freely releasing uncompressed games (Looking at you Call of Duty with 50GB+ per update)

I don't nesscarily blame developers most of the time as it's the publisher or studio that is rashing them to push out unpolished games

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@Saadherry, I get you bro. I grew optimizing games for maximum FPS like changing the scripts of GTA5 so that it run smoother than the potato it run on so I don't shy away from comprising in games but these days, the juice ain't worth the squeeze 😂

[Antoniodeath678]

What everyone that had already commented is bether and mutch more detailed then what I would have writen

[Ryanmoris]

I think it’s usually a combination rather than one single cause. Poor optimization can create stutters even on strong hardware, but hardware limits become much easier to identify when you look at CPU and GPU usage together.
For example, if GPU usage stays low while one or two CPU cores are heavily loaded, lowering graphics settings may barely improve FPS because the CPU is holding things back. On the other hand, if the GPU is consistently near full load, reducing resolution or GPU-heavy settings should have a much clearer effect.
VRAM usage is worth watching too, especially at 1440p and higher settings. I’ve found that checking frame times alongside CPU/GPU utilization gives a much better picture than looking at FPS alone.

[Ryanmoris]

I think it’s usually a combination rather than one single cause. Poor optimization can create stutters even on strong hardware, but hardware limits become much easier to identify when you look at CPU and GPU usage together.For example, if GPU usage stays low while one or two CPU cores are heavily loaded, lowering graphics settings may barely improve FPS because the CPU is holding things back. On the other hand, if the GPU is consistently near full load, reducing resolution or GPU-heavy settings should have a much clearer effect.
VRAM usage is worth watching too, especially at 1440p and higher settings. I’ve found that checking frame times alongside CPU/GPU utilization gives a much better picture than looking at FPS alone.