Why do games slow down (even on a powerful computer)? Eliminate lags and brakes! The game is jerky, freezes and slows down. What can be done to speed it up? Freezes in games hard drive
When playing games, you feel microfreezes despite the fact that the optimal computer configuration is set? Micro freezes in powerful high-performance PCs, fully satisfying system requirements of a particular game appeared after the Creators Update. There is a solution how to remove friezes (stuttering) in games on Windows 10.
Stuttering in games is a term that refers to the annoying effect of micro-stutters and short-term glitches in gameplay. The game settings are set to high FPS, but when you turn the camera, there is a short-term freeze or a slight decrease in performance. This is annoying and spoils the fun, especially in multiplayer games where accuracy and accuracy are needed.
The problem with friezes, or stuttering in a broad sense, is not something new and there can be many reasons for this:
- Incorrectly configured graphics.
- Insufficient amount of RAM.
- Slow HDD, which does not have time to read textures.
- Bugs in drivers and more.
It turns out that another source of the reason has appeared, due to which friezes and delays (lags) occur in games - this is the control function Windows memory.
Impact of Windows 10 Memory Control on Game Performance
Since the Creators Update for Windows 10, users have experienced memory sensing on high-end PC hardware configurations causing micro-freezes in games, particularly games developed with the Frostbite engine (such as Battlefield 1).
What is the essence of the problem?
When a game process stops using a block of data written to memory, then the system should theoretically get rid of it in order to make room for new data. But it doesn't happen. Instead, an unused block is put on a waiting list, where it is stored in case the game needs it later.
When the process needs data from that cell again, it reads it from the waiting list. When Windows detects that it does not have enough memory, it will start freeing it up by removing unused elements and making room for new blocks.
Theoretically, the memory control function is good decision, as 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 a huge size, and the system will start deleting unused memory blocks only when it detects a lack of space.
Intelligent Standby List Cleaner to fix freezes in games on Windows 10
You can solve the problem with stuttering using the Intelligent Standby List Cleaner program, which works in background and constantly clears unused data from memory. Its author is Wagnard, who developed the famous DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) application to uninstall 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 waiting list 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 such a solution significantly reduces the number of freezes, stabilizes FPS, preventing sudden micro-breaks. This application will come in handy in large-scale games, such as Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which heavily load the equipment.
If the program brings positive effects, you can enable it to automatically start when the system boots. To do this, check the box "Start minimized".
Typical user question...
Hello.
One game (Diablo III) is slowing down on my computer. Tried a lot of things but nothing helps...
The computer several times exceeds the minimum characteristics of the game, declared by the manufacturer. I lowered 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 time everyone!
There is probably not a single PC user who does not play computer games! And most of them faced 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 changes).
In this article, I will look at the main reasons why games slow down, and give advice on how to eliminate and fix them. By the way, I do not pretend to be the ultimate truth 😉.
So, now on to the topic...
IMPORTANT!
First of all, pay attention to the system requirements of the specific game that slows you down. If her minimum requirements (and there are also recommended ones) your computer / laptop does not satisfy - then the reason for the brakes is obvious (Therefore, I do not 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 brakes in games
I will build the article in the form of questions, for each of which I will give an answer. Going through them and checking your PC, optimizing it - in any case, you will get some (even if it's small) performance gain.
❶ What programs load the processor, hard drive, RAM and network?
The very first thing I want to start with is to check 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 launched on it (I'm not talking about various conflicts).
The easiest way to find out about downloading them is to use task manager . To open it, press the buttons Ctrl+Shift+Esc(or Ctrl+Alt+Del ). By the way, it is highly desirable to first open the task manager, then start the game, and when the brakes start in it, turn it off and see what the main load is.
Note: to minimize the game, press the key combination Alt + Tab, or the Win button.
In the task manager, pay attention first 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) .
Pay attention to the screenshot below - the CPU is loaded not with the Civilization IV game, but with Explorer (in which there are five tabs open and several operations). No wonder the computer began to slow down when starting the game...
After the work in the explorer was completed (and it was restarted), the game began to function normally, not a single lag or freeze. Here's a recipe for recovery 👍...
In addition, pay attention to HDD : often it can be loaded with torrents (so popular lately).
Note: Many programs that you have already closed may remain in memory and boot your PC. That is why, in cases of problems in games, it is advisable to always check in the task manager if there is any extraneous process that heavily loads the PC.
Therefore, summing up, I will say the following: first of all, check if any third-party programs are running that take the lion's share of PC resources instead of the desired game. After making 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 (parking cores, 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, and for some users, the game is simply unrecognizable: everything lags, slows down, the picture twitches and distorts.
It is quite difficult to name for each game where and what problems it has (much more can be said about this on some forum dedicated to a particular game).
As for the same Diablo III (and some other games) - the game in the first releases had a problem with NVIDIA video cards due to the parameter enabled in the driver settings AMBIENT OCLUSION (backlight shading). When it was disabled in the graphic settings, the game started to fly!
Pay attention to these items like: fire, water, shadows, fog, dust, etc. If it is possible to disable them in the game (or reduce their detail) - try it! In some cases, games begin to behave in a completely different way.
❸ Have you used utilities to speed up games?
Who would not say anything about "magic buttons", that they do not exist, etc. - there are still utilities that can speed up a computer in a few steps, and as a result, reduce the number of errors and lags in games.
I will not talk about them in detail here, since this will require quite a lot of space and time (especially since there is already such an article on the blog).
❹ Are video drivers updated? Is there a conflict, are they optimal?
Video drivers have a very serious and significant impact on performance in games.
For some video cards, choosing the optimal driver is not always easy: the newest driver may not be optimized, it may contain errors, 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 multiple versions of drivers for your graphics 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 - Overview 5 the best programs(in Russian) -
How to update the driver for AMD, nVidia and Intel HD graphics cards: from A to Z -
In addition, I recommend that you also go to device Manager and check if there is a driver conflict, if drivers are found and installed for all equipment (if there are any yellow exclamation marks. An example of how a problematic driver looks in the device manager is).
To open device Manager : press a combination of buttons Win+R and type devmgmt.msc(example below).
Pay attention to the tabs "Video adapters" and "Unknown devices" - are there any devices with yellow exclamation marks (or just unknown devices ).
If there are any, you need to find drivers for them and install them. Then restart the PC and check how the performance in games changes.
To help!
How to find and install a driver for an unknown device -
❺ Are video drivers tuned for maximum performance?
I think that it's not a secret for anyone that the performance in games depends very much on the settings of video drivers. Sometimes, by changing some parameters, it is possible to increase the game by 1.5 (or more) times!
How to speed up an AMD graphics card (Radeon) -
How to improve the performance of your NVIDIA graphics card in games -
How to speed up an IntelHD graphics card, at least 10-15% performance increase -
❻ Is the game set to 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. Going into them, pay attention (first of all) to the following things:
- screen resolution: has the strongest 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 that in many games, the decrease in resolution will be hardly noticeable, while the performance will grow significantly! So, you always need to look for a balance;
- quality of graphics, visualization, video: also has the strongest impact on performance. If the game lags, 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 the number of FPS.
What to look for when setting up the graphics of the game // on the example of Civilization IV
❼ Does the built-in graphics card switch to discrete when playing games?
This question concerns computers / laptops with two video cards: integrated and discrete. The fact is that when starting games, the computer must use a discrete graphics 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 observe lags in relatively old games!
I already have an article on my blog about this problem. I recommend to take a look.
How to run the game on a discrete graphics card. How to check on which video card the game is running // using NVIDIA as an example -
Game mode in Windows 10: improve the performance of your computer in games -
❽ Have you checked the temperature of the components, is there any overheating?
Crashes and brakes in games can be associated with overheating. The fact is that games are rather demanding programs that significantly load both the processor and the video card, and sometimes the hard drive (with intensive data loading).
Particular attention should be paid to the temperature in the following cases:
- strong hum of fans/coolers;
- during unstable PC operation: reboots, brakes, freezes;
- warm case (noticeable in laptops / netbooks);
- frequent critical errors, etc.
Usually, you have to remember about the temperature in a warm summer, when the temperature in the room rises significantly and it becomes really hot (not only for a person, but also for a computer 😊).
To find out and control 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 you highlight, then:
- processor: pay attention to the temperature if in games it began to exceed 60 ° C ();
- hard disk : normal hard disk temperature range is 25÷43°C. If yours is higher, I recommend that you seriously worry, as leaving this zone can seriously affect the longevity of your disk ();
- video card: in general, some video card models (for example, NVIDIA) can withstand temperatures up to 100 ° C (but personally I cannot call this a normal situation). At temperatures in games 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 high all the time: 85°C+ -
Important!
One of the main "enemies" of computer hardware is dust. It penetrates absolutely everywhere, over time it 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 the computer from dust: monitor, system unit, keyboard -
❾ Is Windows OS optimized for top speed work?
It's no secret that an optimized Windows operating system can run significantly faster than one that no one has worked on. Moreover, all this can also affect the performance of the PC in games (and the number of FPS).
Imagine for yourself: extra services and programs that you never use are loaded into memory for some reason, executed, etc. All this takes up PC resources.
I'm not talking about the fact that over time a large amount of garbage accumulates in the system: temporary files, folders, erroneous entries in the registry, non-working shortcuts, etc. All this needs to be cleaned and cleaned, and then Windows will be much more responsive, the number of errors will be less, and the performance will be higher!
Windows 10 optimization // to speed up your computer - (also relevant for Windows 7, 8)
❿ What PC power supply scheme is involved, is the economy mode enabled?
This item is more about laptops. The fact is that in Windows there is a power section where operating modes are set. Among the modes there are several options: economical, optimal (or balanced), and high-performance.
By default, most often, either optimal or economical is enabled. The latter, in general, can have a very significant effect on the performance of a laptop (and, moreover, not only in games).
To open the settings and select a power plan, go to Windows at: .
High performance // Power supply
If you have a laptop with Windows 10, please also note that you can add performance using the battery icon in the tray.
Also, with regard to laptops, some manufacturers equip their devices with special software. Among this software there are modules responsible for powering the laptop: for example, some LENOVO devices have power saving modes.
By the way, in some cases, due to power settings, Turbo Boost may be disabled. (as a result, the processor works far beyond its capabilities). You can learn how to check this point and enable Turbo Boost from my previous article, the link to which is given below.
To help!
Because of which poor performance Intel processor on a laptop. How it can be accelerated (about Turbo Boost) -
I-❶ Do you have 2 hard drives? Is one of them going off?
If the game works, works, and then after a certain time it hangs 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 data was needed from it and the game wanted to get it, it turned on again, and it took this time to turn it on (at the same time, if you listen, you can hear how the disk starts 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 the power plan" for the active scheme (example below)!
Expand the section "HDD" and put "0" tab "turn off hard drive after" . This means that the hard drive will never turn off (which is required). Save your settings and try to return to the game. Will this characteristic lag disappear?
never turn off hard drive // Windows 10
I-❷ Do you have 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 have a significant impact on performance, for example, they may have a computer scan for viruses scheduled in their schedule, and you sat down to play at that time. Often, in this case, the game starts to slow down.
I'll be brief here:
This is where I end the article.
Zand additions on the topic - I will be grateful.
Good day.
All fans of games (and not fans, I think too) were faced with the fact that the running game began to slow down: the picture changed jerkily on the screen, twitched, sometimes it seems that the computer freezes (for half a second or a second). This can happen for various reasons, and it is not always so easy to establish the "culprit" of such lags ( lag - translated from English: lag, delay).
As part of this article, I want to focus on the most common reasons why games start to jerk and slow down. And so, let's start to figure it out in order ...
1. Required system characteristics of the game
The first thing I want to immediately pay 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 minimum system requirements is usually always indicated on the package with the game (see example in Fig. 1).
Rice. 1. Minimum system requirements "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, finding out such information is not long and not difficult 🙂
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 don’t open America, but replacing an old video card with a new one can significantly increase PC performance and remove brakes and freezes in games. A rather 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 that you look at the tests before buying. The question was partially raised about them in this article:).
2. Drivers for the video card (choosing the “necessary” ones and fine-tuning them)
Probably, I will not exaggerate much, saying that the work of the video card is of great importance for performance in games. And the operation of the video card depends heavily on the installed drivers.
The fact is that different versions of drivers can behave completely differently: sometimes the older version works better than the newer one (sometimes, vice versa). In my opinion, the best way is to test it experimentally by downloading several versions from the manufacturer's official website.
Regarding driver updates, I already had several articles, I recommend reading:
- best programs for auto-updating drivers:
- driver update Nvidia graphics cards AMD Radeon:
- quick driver search:
Equally important are not only the drivers themselves, but also their configuration. The fact is that from the graphics settings you can achieve a significant increase in the speed of the video card. Since the topic of “fine” tuning of a video card is quite extensive so as not to be repeated, below I will provide links to a couple of my articles, which describe in detail how to do this.
3. What is the processor loaded with? (delete unnecessary applications)
Often the brakes in games appear not due to the low performance of the PC, but due to the fact that the computer 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 (combination of buttons Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
Before launching games, it is highly advisable to close all programs that you will not need during the game: browsers, video editors, etc. Thus, all PC resources will be used by the game - as a result, fewer lags and a more comfortable game process.
By the way, one more important point: The processor may be loaded with non-specific programs that can be closed. In any case, with brakes in games - I recommend that you take a closer look at the processor load, and if it is sometimes "incomprehensible" in 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 the system as a whole will work faster). But I want to warn you right away that the performance of this operation will increase quite a bit (at least in most cases).
I have a whole section on my blog dedicated to optimizing and tweaking Windows:
Programs for cleaning PC from "garbage":
5. Checking and configuring the hard drive
Often, brakes in games also appear due to the operation of the hard drive. The behavior is usually the following:
- the game is running normally, but at a certain moment it "freezes" (as if paused) 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 normally without lags ...
This happens due to the fact that when idle (for example, when the game does not load anything from the disk), the hard drive stops, and then when the game starts accessing data from the disk, it takes time to start. Actually, because of this, such a characteristic “failure” most often occurs.
In Windows 7, 8, 10, to change the power settings, you need to go to the control panel at:
Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options
Then, in the advanced options, pay attention to how long the idle time of the hard drive will be stopped. Try changing this value to a longer time (say, from 10 minutes to 2-3 hours).
6. Antivirus, firewall…
The reasons for the brakes in games can also be programs to protect your information (for example, an antivirus or a firewall). For example, an antivirus can start checking files on a computer’s hard drive during a game, which immediately “eats” a fairly large percentage of PC resources…
In my opinion, the easiest way to find out if this is true is to disable (or better yet, remove) the antivirus from the computer (temporarily!) And then try the game without it. If the brakes disappear - then the cause is found!
If nothing helps
1st tip: if you haven’t cleaned your computer from 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 case - 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 someone, but try installing the same game, but a different version (for example, I myself encountered the fact that the Russian version of the game slowed down, and the English version worked quite normally. Apparently, it was at a publisher that hasn't optimized their "translation").
3rd tip: It is possible that the game itself is not optimized. For example, this was observed with Civilization V - the first versions of the game slowed down even on relatively powerful PCs. In this case, there is nothing left but to wait until the manufacturers optimize the game.
4th tip: some games behave differently in different versions of Windows (for example, they can work fine in Windows XP, but slow down in Windows 8). This is usually due to the fact that 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!
