Fps drops in games what to do

How to Solve FPS Drops in All Games (2022 Updated) [Clone Disk]

“FPS drops” is one of the common game issues that can greatly affect the gaming experience. If FPS drops in all games installed on your computer, you can refer to this article from MiniTool Partition Wizard. Here, 9 effective methods to fix low FPS are displayed with detailed instructions.

FPS, also known as Frames Per Second and frame rate, is an important factor for a good gaming experience. Many popular computer video games require a high FPS to work properly, so a lot of game lovers are dedicated to increasing the FPS on the computer to get smoother gameplay.

If FPS drops in games, you will experience game stuttering issues where the action in the game happens much later after you did it using a controller or mouse, which is fatal in a shooting game. And the game stuttering with FPS drops is noticeable in multiplayer games.

Commonly, the frame drops problem can occur in one of your installed games. But in some cases, you might also experience massive FPS drops in all games, just like the following reports from a game lover:

I recently started playing more games on my PC again after about a 4-5 month break. Before taking a break, I was able to play all games with comfortable settings at a very high FPS. After coming back I have started experiencing extreme FPS issues without a single change to the system. I went from 60+ FPS in all scenarios to only maxing at 40 FPS under no load. – from https://www.reddit.com/

FPS drops in all games could be caused by multiple factors, including outdated graphics card drivers, malware & virus attacks, hard drive issues, and so on. You may ask: how to fix FPS drops in games? Here’re several methods, and you can work your way down the list until you resolve the massive FPS drops issue effectively.

9 Effective Methods to Solve FPS Drops in All Games

Method 1. Meet the System Requirements of Your Games

Commonly, game developers will give the system requirements of the game once the game was released to play, both the minimum and recommended requirements. The former refers to the minimum hardware and software specs that you need to make the game playable on your computer. The latter allows you to play the game on relatively high settings and maintain good gaming experiences.

To run the game with high FPS and achieve better performance, you should try to satisfy the recommended requirements of your installed games. To do that, you need to:

Step 1: Check the recommended requirements from the official website of the game.

Step 2: Check your computer specifications involved in the game requirements, including operating system, GPU, CPU, RAM, storage space, and so on. You can press Windows + R,

input msinfo32, click the OK button, and view all your needed information in the System Information window.

Step 3: Compare the requirements with your computer specs, and update some computer components if needed.

After that, you can check if the game stuttering with massive FPS drops problem is fixed.

Method 2: Turn Off Fullscreen Optimizations

The fullscreen optimizations feature is built in Windows 10 and is enabled by default. It helps to optimize the performance of games and apps when they are running in fullscreen mode. However, it has been proven that this feature could lead to FPS drops during gameplay as well.

To solve the massive FPS drops in games, you can try turning off fullscreen optimization for all your instances. Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Navigate to the installation path of your game, right-click the executable file, and choose Properties.

Step 2: Switch to the Compatibility tab and check the Disable fullscreen optimizations option.

Step 3: Click Apply and OK to save the changed settings.

Then, repeat the above steps to disable the fullscreen optimizations feature for all your games and check if low FPS disappears in games.

Method 3: Scan for Malware and Virus

Besides, malware and virus might also affect your gameplay and cause FPS drops in all games. You can perform a deep scan of your system using your antimalware or antivirus to fix the problem. If you don’t have any security software installed on your computer, you can also make use of Windows Defender, a built-in Windows security solution.

Step 1: Press Windows + I to open the Settings app.

Step 2: Navigate to Update & Security > Windows Security and click Virus & threat protection in the right pane.

Step 3: When you get the Windows Security window, click Scan options. Then, choose the Windows Defender Offline scan and click the Scan now button.

This scan method will help find and remove malicious software from your computer and require a restart of your computer. The scanning process will take about 15 minutes and you need to wait patiently. After that, check if the game stuttering with low FPS has been resolved.

Method 4: Disable Intel Turbo Boost Technology

Some users have fixed frame drops in all games by disabling the Intel Turbo Boost technology. Turbo Boost refers to Intel’s overclocking feature that is built in its processor, and it allows the processor to run faster than its base clock speed when demanding tasks are running.

You can modify your power options to disable this feature. Just follow the steps below.

Step 1: Press Windows + S, input control panel, and click the search result to open it.

Step 2: Navigate to Hardware and Sound > Power Options and click Change plan settings next to your selected power plan.

Step 3: Click Change advanced power settings to open the Power Options dialog.

Step 4: Expand Processor power management > Maximum processor state and set the values of both On battery and Plugged in as 99% to disable Turbo Boost technology.

Step 5: Click Apply and OK to save changes.

Method 5: Check for System File Corruption

If certain system files that are required by PC games are missing or corrupted, you might also experience FPS drops in all games. To solve the problem in this case, you can use the System File Checker to find and replace the corrupted system files with a cached copy.

Step 1: Invoke Run window, input cmd, and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 2: Input the command sfc /scannow and press Enter.

Step 3: Wait patiently until the process is 100% completed and restart your computer.

Now, check if your games can run with high FPS.

Method 6: Update Your Graphics Card Drivers

As it turns out, high FPS drops in all games may have something to do with the graphics card drivers. The FPS is determined by the graphics card’s processing power and the monitor’s refresh rate. If there is not proper software support, even the top-notch GPU may fail on your computer and cause low FPS.

Some users resolved the problem by updating the graphics card driver to the latest version. If you haven’t updated your driver for a long time, you can refer to this guide to update your graphics card driver: How to Update Device Drivers Windows 10 (2 Ways).

Method 7: Cooldown Your CPU and GPU

Computer overheating, especially CPU and GPU overheating, is another possible culprit of high FPS drops. When your computer is over normal temperature, the main PC components can keep working but will be much slower than usual, which is to protect themselves under the intense heat and avoid malfunctions.

There is no doubt that you will encounter FPS drops in all games if CPU and GPU are underperforming due to high temperature. In this case, you can take some measures to fix and avoid CPU and GPU overheating. Here’re some suggestions:

Method 8: Check for Your Hard Drive

If high FPS drops in all games without any signs on your computer, it is possible that there are some logical problems with your hard drive. You can use the CHKDSK command to detect and fix the possible file system error.

Just open Command Prompt as an administrator, input the chkdsk /f E: command, and press Enter. After the process is completed, replace the E: with the drive letter of another partition and execute the utility again until you’ve checked and fixed logical errors for all the partitions on the disk.

Now, you can check if the FPS drops problem has been resolved.

Method 9: Upgrade to SSD

If you are using a hard drive disk, upgrading to an SSD could be a quite effective method to improve gaming performance and solve the low FPS problem. Compared with buying a gaming laptop and building a gaming PC, upgrading the original hard drive to a faster SSD is much more cost-effective for ordinary game players.

You just need to invest in a good gaming SSD, transfer the data to the new disk with a powerful disk manager, and then replace the original HDD with the new SSD. Here, MiniTool Partition Wizard is recommended for you. This professional utility can help you upgrade to SSD without reinstalling the operating system. Here’s a quick guide for you:

This post shows features of clean install, clone HDD, and migrate Windows to SSD, which can help you choose the most proper way to create new Windows.

Step 1: Install MiniTool Partition Wizard on your computer and register with your license. Connect your new SSD to the device and launch the program.

Step 2: Select the original disk and choose Copy Disk from the left pane.

Step 3: Select the new SSD as the destination disk and click Next. Then, choose copy options and configure the new disk as your needs. Click the Next button to continue.

Step 4: Read the note on how to boot from the destination disk and click Finish. When you get back to the main interface, click Apply to start the cloning process. A system restart will be required.

After transferring all your data, you can replace your HDD with the new SSD without any worries and boot from it. Now, you should be able to enjoy your games with better performance.

This post will walk you through how to clone hard drive to smaller SSD with ease in Windows 10/8/7. Get the MiniTool Programs for a try now.

Bottom Line

The frame rate might drop to a low level due to various factors. If FPS drops in all games on your computer, you might be able to fix the problem with the above methods. Hopefully, you can enjoy your PC games with a high and stable FPS again.

FPS Drops in All Games FAQ

There are multiple reasons for FPS drop during gameplay, including:

Frametime spikes/Stutters/FPS drops in all games.

Acaelus

New Member

Deleted member 193596

Guest

well then.. i would just rebuild my pc from scratch to be honest.
trying many little tweaks and possible solutions is more painful.

flashing the bios again, reseat CPU, RAM, all PSU cables, blank windows installation, no xmp or overclocks and try it again.

n0to420

New Member

Momar97

New Member

Here is an example of what I’m experiencing: This is a 5 minute play session of CSGO. As I said, the frame rate only drops about 1-5 frames yet the stutter is very noticeable. Notice how the frame rate drops are in sync with the frame-time spikes. (You might have to zoom in to see the small dips in frames)
View attachment 159371
HERES ACTUAL GAME FOOTAGE:

—— This footage does not capture the actual stutters as I see them, maybe this is something related to my issue?

This issue was happening to me before I upgraded my PC 2 weeks ago, and for some bizarre reason is still occurring. I swapped every single component CPU, GPU, MOBO, SSD, PSU). The only part I did not change is my Wifi Adapter but I wanted to make sure so I removed it from PC, played games in offline mode, and stutters still occur so cant be the issue.

I just wanna say that I’m happy and sad on the same time, cuz I thought i’m the only one who’s having this issue even though I looked a lot around the internet. My issue is kinda the same any game I play whenver the fps goes up or down I get this micro spike stutter. For example, if my fps is 144 and it changes to 143 or 145 like one percent different I will get the micro stutter for no reasone. Also, I litearlly tried to do everything, but nothing worked or fixed the issue.

This is my specs:
Intel Core i7-10700
Gigabyte B460 AORUS PRO AC
Nvidia RTX 2070 Super
XPG GAMMIX S11 Pro 1TB SSD
TEAMGROUP-UD4-3000 2x8GB RAM

Fix Game Stuttering with FPS drops in Windows 11/10

Microsoft has pushed hard for Gaming on Windows 11/10 PCs. Every update has got something for gamers, but it’s not without hiccups and issues around gaming. One of the major problems reported by users is Game Stuttering with FPS drops for games they play. The problem is partly with drivers, partly with updates that roll out to Windows 11/10. In this guide, we are talking about tips to fix Game Stuttering with FPS drops in Windows 11/10.

What is Game Stuttering with FPS Drops

It’s a rendering issue where content on your screen changes all of a sudden. This can happen for many reasons, but, if the GPU takes longer to render a frame than expected, it might even skip the frame or result in lag. This is easily noticeable during multiplayer games. You would see actions happening much later after you did it using a controller or mouse. Many a time, if a driver takes very long to prepare a frame for the GPU, which means you will see everything delayed.

FPS or Frames per Second is a result of stuttering. So for example, 60 FPS means 60 frames per second. It is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images called frames to appear on a display. If you have a fast-moving figure, which happens in the games, a higher FPS offers a better experience.

Read: Gaming Lag, Low FPS, in video games, and how to fix them.

Fix Game Stuttering with FPS drops

The good thing is that Microsoft, Graphics card OEMs including NVIDIA have officially recognized these issues. There had been major discussion around forums for this. Let’s take a look at the possible solutions.

1] Change NVIDIA control panel settings

This applies to any OEM which offers a control panel to improve the gaming experience. NVIDIA had been at the top of the discussions. Some Windows Update reset the settings, and lower the down FPS rates which are set as default. So look at the control panels from your OEMS, and change things accordingly. They probably come with Gaming Settings which you can select, and enjoy better FPS rates.

You can also assign dedicated GPU control to those games for better performance.

2] Update all NVIDIA drivers from NVIDIA official site

This is probably the best shot you have got without doing a lot of troubleshooting. Depending on which graphics card you have, visit the OEMS website, and download the latest driver they have. Install it, and if you are lucky enough it will fix your FPS drops and Stuttering.

3] Enable Vsync in the NVIDIA Control Panel

To make sure your PC changes the frames as the graphics card sends out new output, you need to enable Vsync. It limit’s your GPU to output frames as high as the refresh rate of your monitor. This makes sure that it reduces screen tearing but can introduce input lag.

Launch NVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D settings > Global Settings > Vertical sync > On.

4] Use Maximum Performance

To make sure Games get maximum GPU cycles, it’s best to change the power management mode to prefer maximum performance. Open Control Panel > Manage 3D settings > Select a program to customize > Power management mode > Prefer maximum performance.

5] Use NVIDIA GPU instead of CPU

If your settings have somehow changed to use NVIDIA CPU instead of NVIDIA GPU, change it. In the control panel, configure surround PhysX.

6] Change Other Windows Settings

Keeping in mind the Intel Turbo Boost option, whenever you are gaming, always choose to use the battery plan which offers maximum performance, especially when you have a gaming laptop. Check out our detailed guide on Ultimate Performance Power Plan for Windows 11/10.

6 Ways To Fix Laptop FPS Drop When Plugged In

Sudden FPS drop usually means a bottleneck of the system when some event interrupts another hardware demanding task for example game, which is surpassing the capability of the system.

Common bottlenecks can be seen when other demanding tasks suddenly occur on the screen which is difficult for your CPU to handle.

Considering your laptop is capable of pulling out 60 – 120 FPS while running on battery because of hardware capability, however, FPS drops immediately as you connect the power adapter.

Why does my laptop FPS drop?

A sudden framerate drop while the external power adapter is plugged in, normally occurs during thermal throttling of the CPU at max clocking speed and voltage. Altering the power source makes the laptop switch from the power-saving mode to performance mode.

Additionally, poor cooling solutions and clogged laptop fans by dust are common reasons for FPS dropping.

Why does laptop fps drop when plugged in?

Usually, FPS drops in laptops when they are running on better power and unplugged. Sudden laptop fps drop when plugged in is one of the weirdest behaviors your laptop might pull out making you scratch your head. These types of FPS drops can be identified mostly during gaming on your laptop.

A plugged-in power adapter helps a laptop to achieve a good frame rate during gaming by providing sufficient power to each of the running hardware components.

But as soon as you disconnect the power adapter laptop’s power plan automatically tries to balance its performance with the energy consumption of hardware.

As we are trying to fix laptop FPS drop when plugged in, these are some of the possible reasons I have noticed after brainstorming for at least six months that can cause laptop fps drop while the external power source is connected.

How whisper mode can reduce the FPS?

The whisper mode works smartly restricting the frame rate of a particular game, while asynchronously configuring the graphics settings for optimal power efficiency. It doesn’t matter whether your laptop is plugged in or not.

For example, suppose you have a GPU that can run a game well above 60 fps. But after enabling Whisper Mode, it will try to lower the fan noise by lowering its RPM. Thus ending up sacrificing a significant framerate for games to 60 fps or below (depending on hardware’s capability).

The main purpose of Whisper technology is to run your laptop quieter and cooler while gaming. But, in order to do so, it sacrifices the FPS.

Remember that since the laptop is plugged in, the hardware are getting sufficient energy to deliver ideal performance, though Whisper mode is restricting it for the shake of noise reduction.

Does a laptop run faster when plugged in?

The answer can be Yes and No. A laptop performs better when it’s getting a sufficient power supply which is the case when the power adapter is plugged in.

But when your laptop is on the battery, if you alter the power mode from Battery Saver to Balanced or Performance, it would use more battery to provide enough power to the hardware, and thus laptop performance increases but of course, the difference between plugged in and unplugged can be spotted.

While on AC power, you don’t have to rely on the battery, and the laptop can reach its maximum performance if pushed or so.

So definitely laptop fps drop when plugged in, is not an ideal scenario for a laptop with a sufficient power supply.

Now let’s go through some of the possible solutions we can try and fix the plugged-in laptop’s FPS drop issue.

How to fix laptop FPS drop when plugged in

Before you go try out the solutions;

#1. Disable the whisper more or customize the frame rate

If whisper mode is the cause of FPS dropping then you can fix it either by disabling the whisper mode or adjusting the custom FPS which will allow fans to increase speed restriction and thus you will get better FPS.

Disabling whisper mode should bring back the normal FPS to your laptop and the difference can be experienced during the gameplay. This option is only valid if you are using Nvidia GPU above 1060. Although, you might experience heating issues and noise while gaming (typically modern games that demand high system resources).

The whisper mode enable/disable option is available on Nvidia GeForce experience >> Settings >> whisper mode.

If you don’t want to deactivate the whisper mode to keep your machine running quietly then alter the FPS setting inside the NVIDIA control panel, it will also solve your problem of FPS dropping.

For that, open the NVIDIA control panel from the taskbar or you can search for it and follow the guideline below to solve the laptop FPS drop when plugged in.

Check the steps visually:

#2. Remove laptop battery and run on AC

When you connect the power adapter laptop better will start charging if not fully charged. For any reason, if your battery has an issue, the power supply might get interrupted and end up reducing the FPS.

So checking battery condition is worthy just to make sure it’s not causing any problem. You can remove the battery before playing a game and connect the AC adapter and see how it goes (it will rule out the charging problem).

#3. Test your charger (Alter or try it on another laptop of the same model)

We all look to tweak our laptop settings to fix the FPS drop issue while your charger can be a threat to such an FPS dropping problem. The charger delivers two main things while connected, amps & voltage.

Typically the voltage delivery remains the same for the charger however over time, provided amps will decreases depending on age and use of the charger cable, resulting in delivering less than what your laptop needs.

This reduction in power makes your computer run slower while plugged in because the battery is just getting charged and not providing electricity for your PC. But as soon as you disconnect the charger the better takeover the power supply and will deliver the required electricity based on your power management settings.

The solution for this would be to try another charger and if that fixes the issue then buy a new charger. If your laptop is within warranty range, change it. Make sure to go for the right charger that matches the required power supply for your model and that should bring you back to the normal FPS.

#4. Update GPU driver and BIOS

Using the latest BIOS and drivers (especially video card drivers) is important. Updating the BIOS and graphics driver may resolve the laptop fps drop issue when plugged in.

To update the GPU driver use a relative application (GeForce experience or Radeon™ Software) depending on your video card.

And you can update the BIOS from driver manager >> Firmware >> System firmware >> Update driver.

Now double-check if you are getting the usual frame rate on multiple applications when the external power adapter is plugged in. If the issue remains proceed to the next stage.

#5. Try altering the power management setting

This does not work most of the time however make sure you check the power mode when plugged in and try altering between high performance and balance mode.

It’s better to run your laptop in balance mode when the power adapter is plugged in.

Keeping it in high-performance mode only makes sense when you are performing a hardware-demanding task while the power adapter is unplugged.

#6. Make sure laptop cooling is working fine

It is possible that due to poor cooling solutions laptop FPS may drop and be easily detectable while performing demanding tasks on the laptop. Indigent cooling is one of the common issues that can lead to a laptop fps drop when plugged in.

Your laptop fans or heat sinks might be clogged with dust so try to keep them clean for smoother airflow. Cleaning dust in your laptop 3-4 times a year is definitely helpful.

If you are comfortable accessing the internal hardware, try to apply thermal paste on both laptop CPU and GPU. Overheating of CPU and GPU can cause FPS to drop and when the laptop is plugged in with an external power adapter it tends to overheat more because of continuous electricity flow.

Thermal pasting is a very high heat conductive paste that will provide better heat conditions by filling all microscopic imperfections on the heatsink and CPU/GPU. This improves the performance of the heatsink.

Check this video to apply thermal paste yourself or take your laptop to a trusted repair store.

#7. Random tips that also worked for many people

These steps are not explainable why they might work but according to some people, these tricks resolved their FPS drop issue while plugged in.

You can always try and see whether it helps you or not. However, these tricks have not worked for me and I can’t assure you either.

// (Please try at your own risk)

Wrapping up:

FPS drop is one of the most frustrating things when you have a capable PC and laptop FPS drop when plugged in is even more annoying.

I hope you find a way to solve the issue on this page. We will keep this page updated as long as we find a new solution for this issue.

Frametime spikes/Stutters/FPS drops in all games.

Voodoochild1974

New Member

«if you have a ryzen 1000/2000 chip then expect frame time consistency problems particularly in DX11 titles»

. No! I know this isn’t quite right because as you can tell in the video I just linked, its a very peculiar kind of random huge freezing not something like having bad FPS.

I know its not the Ryzen 2600 because someone with the exact same CPU as me, linked a video of himself in the exact same area of Sekiro, where his game is solid line frame time, and mine has random big spikes. It cant be that! So what do you suggest I do then. How would I go about diagnosing what causes this and how to fix it!! IT EVEN HAPPENS IF I LIMIT MY GAMES TO 30FPS
Videos in question:

MY ryzen2600 frametimes (constant random spikes to 30-60ms)

His ryzen2600 frametime (Completely solid 16.6ms entire time, same scene:

Too many variables for smaller frametime jumps. Streaming data, every bit of tech you have (even some chips are different in the same products) and that is hard to track down. Those bigger ones which are like 100+ remind me of my issue. I did everything, even swapped a few parts and then someone said «pull the USB 3 cable out of your motherboard» I thought no way will that fix it, but it did.

My guess is that my front panel was not grounded. I swapped my case, and all is fine.

If you have tried everything, try that.

Domski

New Member

sigh this thread is so pointless so many people thinking they have a problem when its just down to there system being just plain slow
too many Randoms in this thread posting about there ‘problems’ looking for a singular solution to make there slow computers faster or a solution which they can’t have which is that whatever problem they think they have is just how the game runs no experience is ever flawless not even on 5000 dollar rigs thats just not how computers work

there is people in this thread with systems that are just plain old
people with systems just plain mis configured
people mistaking poor game optimization for a problem
people not understanding how the underlaying architecture of there system works (guy with the zen+ NO SHIT Sherlock everybody knows those chips have problems with certain workloads

No everybody go home this thread has devolved into a complete shitshow because of thread jacking and just plain ignorance
if you think you have genuine problem start a new thread don’t crap all over this one with your random bs non problem problem

if you have a ryzen 1000/2000 chip then expect frame time consistency problems particularly in DX11 titles
the solution is overclock the snot out of your system or upgrade it to a more recent platform
its just how those cpus are for reasons I will not explain in this thread

While you are correct to some extent, there is also space for real unknown issues.

I have the newest Ryzen with the newest Software and I get stutters of the weirdest sort. And don’t tell me I don’t understand tge architecture when I study computer science. Next I’m going to change my RAM (which memtest says is fine) and then my PSU and after that the issue is probably unfixable because I have tried everything anybody could ever try.

Momar97

New Member

Vayra86

Holy crap! Is this TPU topic in some sort of social media channel or top search result??

If you need analysis of your stutter issue, hijacking this topic wont help you.

What this topic is now is more or less the bottom barrel hobby PC support group. You will only find people with the same problems so you dont have to feel alone.

If you want real help, create a proper topic with detailed descr of the problem and fill in your system specs.

zebra_hun

Attachments

Yuiiski

I’ve had the same problem since November last year. I replaced the gpu for a 3070 and stutters began, so obviously would think it was the new gpu causing them, I then replaced it with a RX 6800 and issue continued so was left confused. I then progressed to replace EVERY single part one by one doing process of elimination however I literally replaced everything and it still continued. So after this I decided to build another brand new pc with a 5600x 3060ti and the exact same issues of frame time spikes and stutters continued. So I thought maybe I was being an idiot and was doing something wrong so I bought a pre built pc of high spec yet again. same issue again! Doesn’t matter what game, online or offline they’d all have frame time spikes of different severities but it would always be there.

Seeing as I’ve gone through 4 pcs and 100+hrs troubleshooting over the months it’s safe to say it’s not hardware related, it’s not peripheral related because I done clean installs of windows using all different peripherals so it just leaves the electricity as the common denominator. I did test 1 of the pcs having issues in a different house and the issues were still there so my current thought process is that my electricity is corrupting a part or parts to the point where they wouldn’t work on a different supply of electricity anyways.

I’m carrying out the next step this week which is another new pc, a new monitor, new cables, new keyboard and mouse and taking it to a different house straight away paired with a power conditioning surge protector to test and not even attempting at mine. If it works fine I’ll then be taking it home to use and however like I said it’ll be also paired with the power conditioner etc in the hopes this cleans up the electricity before it hits my pc not even giving it the chance to ruin it. If it does continue to run smooth at mine I’ll reconnect my original peripherals one by one just to be sure for the 0.01% chance they somehow contributed to the issue.

This issue just doesn’t make sense and anyone I speak to is baffled. The same week before any of these issues when I initially upgraded and had stutters I also had a power outage. so issues have been happening since that week and now hopefully close to getting to the bottom of it, however after everything I have done. it has to be electrical transients or voltage spikes ruining the sensitive components. The electrical suppliers have also fitted a voltage regulator in my house and I’ll get results next week.

Hi, did you ever fix your issue? Your issue sounds 100% identical to mine, I have been trying to fix it since 2017 and have gone through four different PC’s with the exact same issue. I am so desperate at this point.