In Windows PC, you can play browser games in Edge or play high-definition games with game apps. While playing games, you may frequently face problems like draining battery, game stuck up due to high CPU/memory usage or crashing due to incompatibility. Fortunately, Windows 11 comes with plenty of optimization features for making your PC as a play station. If you are stuck with not able to play games properly, here are some of the optimization features you should tweak in Windows 11.
Gaming Features in Windows 11
Game optimization features are available in Windows Settings and Edge settings page. In addition, you can also update the graphics card to latest driver so that it supports the games you are playing.
1. Enable Game Mode
Windows 11 offers an in-built feature called game mode. This will help to stabilize high-definition games by stopping background Windows Update and notifications.
- Go to Windows Settings app and navigate to “Gaming” section from the sidebar.
- Click on “Game Mode” link and enable “Game Mode” option.
2. Set High Performance Graphics for Game Apps
Net, you can set high performance for game apps that you
- When you are on the “Game Mode” settings page, click on the “Graphics” option showing below “Related settings” section.
- It will show a list of apps installed on your PC. If you are not finding the app, click on “Browse” button and add your gaming app to the list.
- Once you find the app in the list, select the app and click “Option” button.
- It will show a Graphics preference pop-up and select “High performance” option.
- Click “Save” button to apply your changes and restart your computer.
- Henceforth enjoy high performance graphics whenever you play the selected game.
3. Use Efficiency Mode in Edge
Efficiency mode in Edge browser allows you to reduce the CPU/RAM consumption of Edge while playing games.
- Click on the three horizontal dots icon showing on the top right corner of Edge browser. Alternatively, press Alt + F keys to open the menu and select “Settings” option.
- When you are in Edge settings page, go to “System and performance” section.
- Select “Always” from the dropdown against “Turn on efficiency mode when” option.
- After that, turn on “Improve your PC gaming experience with efficiency mode” option.
4. Disable Hardware Acceleration
Hardware acceleration helps to improve the CPU usage by distributing tasks when you play high-definition games on the browsers. Though this should help to improve the performance, most of the times it will slow down the system due to incompatible hardware. So, you can disable hardware acceleration in Edge and check if that helps you to play the browser games efficiently. When you are in the Edge system settings page, simply turn off “Use hardware acceleration when available” option.
5. Close Apps Running in Background
Next solution is to find high resource consuming apps and close them while playing games. Since games also consume higher memory and CPU, it makes sense to close all other resource consuming apps. It is easy to close the apps running in the frontend. However, there are also apps always running in the background and you should disable them for allocating that resources for your game.
- Go to Windows Settings app and go to “Apps” section.
- Click on “Apps & features” and scroll down to “App list” section.
- Click the three dots icon showing at the end of an app and select “Advanced options”.
- On the next screen, select “Never” for “Background apps permissions”.
You can do this only for the apps that you suspect consuming high resources in the background. Also, you will not see the advanced options or the background apps permissions section for all the apps. These settings will be shown only for the applicable apps thus making your task easier.
6. Turn Off Visual Effects
Visual effects like animation and transparency will use the graphics card and can affect the performance of your games.
- On Windows Settings app, go to “Accessibility” section and click on “Visual effects” option.
- Turn off “Transparency effects” and “Animation effects” options.
7. Set Power Plan for Performance
By default, Windows will use the the balanced power mode for battery. This will help to use the battery power for longer time while reducing the performance of apps like games. However, you can change the power mode for performance thus allowing the game apps to play efficiently. Remember, this will drain your battery faster though it allows best performance for your games.
- On Windows Settings app, go to “System” section from the left sidebar.
- Click on “Power & battery” option and select “Best performance” option for “Power mode”.
8. Setup HDR
High Dynamic Range (HDR) games offer optimized colors and brightness compared to other content which uses Standard Dynamic Range (SDR). However, you need the supported monitor for playing HDR games. You can check the compatibility and enable HDR in the Windows Settings app.
- When you are in Windows Settings app, go to “System” section.
- Click on the “Display” option and then select “HDR”.
- Check under “Display capabilities” section to find whether your monitor supports HDR and enable it.
9. Update Graphics Driver
The last option is to update the graphics card driver to the latest version. This will help to avoid the graphics on the screen moving slowly while playing your games.
- Right-click on the Start menu and select “Device Manager” option from the list.
- Expand “Display adapters” and select the graphics card used on your computer.
- Right-click on the graphics card and select “Update driver” option.
- On the next screen, select “Search automatically for drivers” to install the latest driver version.
Final Words
As you can see, there are plenty of settings in Windows 11 to optimize the PC for better gaming experience. You can make use of these settings to play high-definition games without stuck or slowness in-between. However, remember some of the settings like power mode will have negative impact on the battery usage. If none of these settings help to improve the gaming performance, then you may need to consider upgrading graphics card and RAM. Otherwise, you can consider purchasing dedicated gaming PCs available in the market.
