Tune your PC to maximum gaming performance. Win 7 / 8 / XP ( tuning BF4 as bonus )

[leovanham]

Long time since i posted, so better make a quality post. :)

 

This topic will cover as much i know from hardware and software in a nutshell, it will give you insight into tuning your PC to the maximum as i did for many years.

It will use some software that is freely available, so no extra costs. And beyond the obvious about hardware upgrades, this post does not need you to upgrade as far as i know.

 

 

 

Tune your PC to maximum gaming performance:

 

The performance of a PC depends on these factors: CPU+GPU+RAM+HD, see it like a chain, if one of these is under-performing, it bottlenecks the others.

 

Hardware:

one of the most important things people often overlook is overheating. Dust all your fans inside your pc to make sure there is no dust is on the fans,CPU, GPU you name it,  overheating=very bad.

Warning: make sure you have your PC turn off and unplugged the power-cord. Make sure you are not static, discharge by touching a metal object to discharge.

Make sure you have good airflow, remember heat air always rises. Check how you hardware sucks in cool air and blows out hot air on the outside of your case but don't touch anything inside when your PC is running.

 

Check the hardware temps inside Windows with this commonly known tool: Speedfan http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

 

As you can see, the indicators show if one of your hardware components are overheating, fine, or cooling.

 

A fire-icon means it is running hot, but that does not mean that it is running too hot. A good indication is that a GPU often runs the hottest, while gaming it can go up to 80-Celsius. A CPU on the other hand is usually around 40 while idle but can go upto 80 as well in full use. This depends on what type of cooling you have. HD0 is the harddrive, this is often just below 40. If your Harddrive goes very hot you can experience crashes and data loss.

 

Overclocking

For staying on-topic, overclocking in itself is another ball-game, it would take me a post on this topic alone to cover everything. If you are not very technical stay out of this, because it can cause instabilities, crashes and even damage your hardware if you don't know what you are doing. If you still need a rule of thumb advice ( stay with 10-15% overclock ) 

 

 

Hardware driver delays. 

Most often people don't realize that a single driver can degrade your overall performance. To test which driver is hogging, install this tool: LatencyMon : http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

 

 

 

To start it, you should press the green arrow on the top-left to start the program.

 

What this does is it checks your system if it's running as it should and it checks all drivers how well they perform. There is an indication on the 4th and 5th bar which driver performs the slowest.

 

If you go to the Drivers-tab you can see the driver with the highest execution time, in a normal case this is the GPU-driver. If there is a driver that is a real high delay, you should re-install that driver and test it again.

(note: NDS is the network driver)

Note of advice: Before updating or reinstalling a driver, make a backup or create a restore point.

Often the second highest execution driver is also the cause, although you don't see the delay. I tested this many times to make sure.

 

Special tweak: Unparking CPU-Cores Win 7/ Win8

No this is not an Hardware adjustment or a setting in BIOS, this is purely in Windows itself.

 

When i first encountered it, it blew my mind, here is why:  By default Windows 7 and Windows 8 unpark unused CPU-cores, it puts them on standby, even while gaming. When a core is needed, it goes from standby to active, this delay is causing minor hiccups in all applications. Many people with a SLI or CROSSFIRE setups have noted that this often fixes their hiccups.  It blew my mind when i first knew this,

because many years in IT and tweaking it was unknown to me Windows does this. On laptops i can see why because of battery, but it also does it on desktops by default. It is totally true.

I have tested this and it works, it does in no way damage or reduce the lifetime. The only difference is the delay that is now gone.

 

Here is the fix: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Windows-7-amp-Core-Parking-a-better-way-to-Turn-It-OFF-m1861804.aspx

You can use this manually method which i recommend, or you can use a tool that is called unparking utility.

 

 

Windows Resource Monitor

 

 

This tool is a good tool. It does not require you to install anything, it's there when you need it.

 

In the main tab you can see what your PC is doing in real-time.  I often use this to see why my PC is not running fast as it should.  

 

Here you have an overview of what each process is doing, how much CPU it is using, how much RAM, and how much it uploads or downloads.

 

This way i can see when my Antivirus is scanning, or what program is using my Hard-Drive when i'm about to run a game.  If you are gaming and you experience massive slowdown, check this tool first to

see what is happening and most often than not, you can fix it right away.

 

 

** Extra BF4 Tuning

This is a extra bonus section for those that like me play BF4.  I will make it a compact as i can.

 

NVIDIA 331.28 driver need as it includes massive fixes for the game and overall performance increase.

 

AMD Mantle update  14.1 driver  New mantle update for AMD 7000+ and above GPU's to use mantle which replaces DIrectX 11 for upto 40 % increase in FPS. Not required but it can help.

 

 

 

Direct X update.   Make sure you have the latest version of Direct X and download it from the Microsoft website.

 

Punk Buster update. Download it form the PunkBuster website: http://www.punkbuster.com/

 

Visual C++ Runtime update:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2019667  download the one that suites your system

 

 

 

Tuning BF4 Settings:

 

In the Nividia driver settings and AMD change almost everything to  Use application setting.

 

If you have a CPU bottleneck: change these to low / disable them, they are the most CPU intensive.

 

- AA                      low

- AA deferred        medium

- Effects                low

- Post processing  low

 

User.cfg file tweaks.  This file contains settings that BF4 checks before launching a game.  It is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Battlefield 4 .  Create one if it does not exist.

make it read-only after saving.

 

RenderDevice.Dx11Enable 1

RenderDevice.Dx11Dot1Enable 0

RenderDevice.Dx11Dot1RuntimeEnable 0

RenderDevice.TripleBufferingEnable 0

WorldRender.TransparencyShadowmapsEnable 0

WorldRender.MotionBlurEnable 0

WorldRender.MotionBlurForceOn 0

WorldRender.MotionBlurFixedShutterTime 0

WorldRender.MotionBlurMax 0

WorldRender.MotionBlurQuality 0

WorldRender.MotionBlurMaxSampleCount 0

WorldRender.SpotLightShadowmapEnable 0

WorldRender.SpotLightShadowmapResolution 1024

WorldRender.LightTileCsPathEnable 1

WorldRender.DxDeferredCsPathEnable 0

PostProcess.DynamicAOEnable 1

 

And as a extra tip: Run the BF4.exe as Admin to make sure that BF4 has all the access to wherever it may see fit.

 

 

Good Luck!

 

 

 

 

[+LogicalApex MVC]

 

And as a extra tip: Run the BF4.exe as Admin to make sure that BF4 has all the access to wherever it may see fit.

 

Why would this improve performance? I haven't played BF4, but I expect most games today should be UAC aware and not require you to run them in privileged mode for normal operation.

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

Hardware:

one of the most important things people often overlook is overheating. Dust all your fans inside your pc to make sure there is no dust is on the fans,CPU, GPU you name it,  overheating=very bad.

Warning: make sure you have your PC turn off and unplugged the power-cord. Make sure you are not static, discharge by touching a metal object to discharge.

Make sure you have good airflow, remember heat air always rises. Check how you hardware sucks in cool air and blows out hot air on the outside of your case but don't touch anything inside when your PC is running.

I almost never unplug the power-cord when installing things (note: only on power supplies with off switches -- you would never do this on a power supply that doesn't contain an off switch!) despite it generally being recommended. Why? Because the cord grounds the power supply, case, and the board. If you pull the cord, you leave a floating ground which is not good if for some reason the PSU is malfunctioning and holding substantial charge. You touch it, it could suddenly discharge completely into your body because you are the point of lowest resistance. One other thing to note is that if you do have built up static electricity on your body, leaving the cord in could limit damage by giving the board and components a path to ground.

[Nagisan]

Special tweak: Unparking CPU-Cores Win 7/ Win8

No this is not an Hardware adjustment or a setting in BIOS, this is purely in Windows itself.

 

When i first encountered it, it blew my mind, here is why:  By default Windows 7 and Windows 8 unpark unused CPU-cores, it puts them on standby, even while gaming. When a core is needed, it goes from standby to active, this delay is causing minor hiccups in all applications. Many people with a SLI or CROSSFIRE setups have noted that this often fixes their hiccups.  It blew my mind when i first knew this,

because many years in IT and tweaking it was unknown to me Windows does this. On laptops i can see why because of battery, but it also does it on desktops by default. It is totally true.

I have tested this and it works, it does in no way damage or reduce the lifetime. The only difference is the delay that is now gone.

 

Here is the fix: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Windows-7-amp-Core-Parking-a-better-way-to-Turn-It-OFF-m1861804.aspx

You can use this manually method which i recommend, or you can use a tool that is called unparking utility.

Any way to check if you do or don't need to do this? I've heard this a few times but have been confused whether it's a feature that only works in newer CPUs, or in certain hardware/software configurations or what. I do not run SLI or Crossfire, but I don't feel like messing around with the setting if it's not something I need to worry about in my hardware/software configuration.

[spaceelf]

Among other things, those user.cfg tweaks seem a pretty poor recommendation.  The BF4 devs said DX11.1 reduces CPU usage.

 

And the game doesn't need admin access at all, so why bother?

 

...this guide kinda seems like a load of crap.

[leovanham]

Among other things, those user.cfg tweaks seem a pretty poor recommendation.  The BF4 devs said DX11.1 reduces CPU usage.

 

And the game doesn't need admin access at all, so why bother?

 

...this guide kinda seems like a load of crap.

 

The user.cfg tweaks are settings that overall increase your fps count or degrade, that depends how you set them.

 

It's always a trade-off of course, but you get speed by reducing some eye candy.

 

The DX11.1 setting turned off does indeed increase FPS on some GPU's. Like how it was on mine (GTX 560 ti )  Try it out yourself and then give a informative opinion on the matter. Or see the BF4 forums yourself, that the tweaks indeed matter in FPS count.

[imachip]

Any way to check if you do or don't need to do this? I've heard this a few times but have been confused whether it's a feature that only works in newer CPUs, or in certain hardware/software configurations or what. I do not run SLI or Crossfire, but I don't feel like messing around with the setting if it's not something I need to worry about in my hardware/software configuration.

 

If your power management plan is set to 'High performance', then do so and you don't have to worry about this option and it may be only specific to Windows 7.  Personally I doubt it'll make any difference anyway.

 

Usually I cringe at anything that says 'Tune your PC to Maximum Gaming Performance' and I don't see this is any different.  It's more a guide if you're having issues e.g. Locking up could be heat related, slowdowns could be caused by another process but these are usually quite obvious problems that you'll resolve when they occur rather than look for a guide to 'maximize performance'.

 

You'd do better overclocking, or upgrading your hardware as that to me is the only way to increase overall gaming performance.

[xendrome]

If your power management plan is set to 'High performance', then do so and you don't have to worry about this option and it may be only specific to Windows 7.  Personally I doubt it'll make any difference anyway.

Core Parking and Core Throttling or S-states are not the same thing, but either way it won't make a performance difference you would notice.

[leovanham]

Any way to check if you do or don't need to do this? I've heard this a few times but have been confused whether it's a feature that only works in newer CPUs, or in certain hardware/software configurations or what. I do not run SLI or Crossfire, but I don't feel like messing around with the setting if it's not something I need to worry about in my hardware/software configuration.

 

I don't know a way to see directly if your cores are unparked. You can always just try by chaning the registry setting and than when you notice nothing, change it back, would be no problem.

 

Also, Microsoft themselves released a patch about unparking cores: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2646060/EN-US

 

So i would't say it's a ugly hack.

 

Cheers.

[leovanham]

I almost never unplug the power-cord when installing things (note: only on power supplies with off switches -- you would never do this on a power supply that doesn't contain an off switch!) despite it generally being recommended. Why? Because the cord grounds the power supply, case, and the board. If you pull the cord, you leave a floating ground which is not good if for some reason the PSU is malfunctioning and holding substantial charge. You touch it, it could suddenly discharge completely into your body because you are the point of lowest resistance. One other thing to note is that if you do have built up static electricity on your body, leaving the cord in could limit damage by giving the board and components a path to ground.

 

Good advice, you would not believe how many people also do this like myself. So i will certainly do it from now on. Safety first. 

[BoDEAN]

Thanks for sharing your write up

[leovanham]

I would like to add a note on the BF4 run as admin manner. It solves some slowdowns, networking, lagging problems. And is usually done all around games. BUT BEWARE: In BF4 Your browser also runs in Administrator mode, so don't browse other websites within the same browser-window when you start BF4 as Admin.

[tackytactics13]

this was very helpful thanks! :)