Did you finally purchase the game that you were planning to play for a long time? Well, if that’s the case, you must be dying to dive straight into it, right? In such cases, finding that the game doesn’t start or run properly can be quite annoying. But things can become pretty easy if you know how to optimize video games for PC.
But yes, you need to understand one thing clearly. That is, PC setups aren’t like consoles. When developers work with a game made for consoles, they don’t need to consider tens of different hardware combinations. Instead, they strictly focus on one set of hardware. So, it’s pretty natural to find video games unoptimized for PC.
However, even if video games for PC don’t come with full optimization, you can make a lot of tweaks. That’s the beauty of PC gaming. Before you ask, no, it’s not just about tweaking the hardware. You can make do with your existing setup and get a full-fledged gaming experience. Stick around to learn all there’s to it.
Monitor the Video Games on PC
First and foremost, you need to ensure that the video games aren’t running well on your PC. The easiest method to do this is to monitor the FPS, CPU utilization, and GPU utilization. Sometimes, you will notice that CPU and GPU utilization is low, and you’re not even getting 60 FPS. This is basically a classic case of unoptimized titles.
Now, you don’t have to monitor the metrics for a long time. Keep the video games running for about an hour and see if the numbers seem ok. If you notice that the CPU and GPU utilization is maxed out, your hardware is likely unsuitable for the game. Of course, it’s possible that you have high-end components, yet you’re getting bad frames. In such cases, the game is too unoptimized to work with.
This initial check clears a lot of things. It will save you from wasting hours trying to optimize video games for PC that can’t be optimized.
Wondering what to use to monitor these metrics while running a game? As for a third-party solution, I recommend MSI Afterburner. It’s very useful to see how games perform on your computer. But you don’t need to rely on a third-party tool if you don’t want to.
Instead, you can use Adrenaline software if you have an AMD GPU. Alternatively, for monitoring video games for PC with Nvidia GPU, use GeForce Experience.
Utilizes Advanced Scaling Technologies Such as FSR and DLSS
Most of the modern video games for PC come with AMD FSR and Nvidia DLSS support. It doesn’t even matter if the video games are running well on your PC; you should use them. They can enhance the experience by a lot without putting a heavy toll on your computer.
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To be exact, technologies such as AMD FSR and Nvidia DLSS render the game at a relatively low resolution. Later, they scale it to a higher resolution. Yes, it can definitely degrade the visual fidelity. But if you set it to the right level, you won’t really notice the visual loss. You can learn more from the video attached above.
Now, what does this have to do with optimizing video games for PC? Well, it comes into play when you see that your hardware is holding you back from getting a smoother experience. By taking advantage of such scaling technologies, you’re pretty sure to see an instant performance boost.
Turn Raytracing Off and Check the Resolution to Optimize Video Games for PC
There’s no denying that ray tracing makes the game look visually appealing. But this visual upgrade puts a lot of load on your hardware. As a matter of fact, any sort of tweaks you make to the lighting settings will make you notice a dip in frames.
Instead of turning raytracing, tweak the other settings of the games to make them visually appealing. For example, consider playing the scaling tech mentioned earlier.
That said, if you have a capable GPU, such as an RTX 4090, you should get a good performance even with the raytracing turned on. If you don’t, see whether other unnecessary settings are tuned all up.
Also, it’s important to check whether your CPU is bottlenecking the GPU. You can check this by monitoring the game, which was already mentioned earlier. Also, do check whether you have cranked the resolution all the way up. While I believe 1080p is still good for gaming, you can surely go all the way to 2K if your hardware is capable.
Consider the Volumetric Adjustments While Trying to Optimize Games for PC
Many gamers ignore the volumetric settings. But volumetric clouds, fog, and lighting make games demand more resources. And this eventually makes them run slow and sluggish on your PC.
You can keep the volumetric fog and clouds option on. But to optimize games on PC, it’s better to turn the volumetric lighting off. It will give you a big performance overhead and let you enjoy better frames while playing games.
