When playing video games, lag sucks and everyone hates it as I do!
How to resolve the unnecessary lag that’s the question I’ve been trying to figure out.
Therefore, after carefully studying the parameters of gaming lag, I’ve come up with every possible solution you can find on the Internet today.
I searched trusted forums, watched videos, read blogs, and now will be sharing with you all the methods that worked for me.
In this blog post you’ll learn:
- How to fix Gaming Lag on your PC Windows 10 up to 80%
Note: Don’t skip any point! I’m sharing some tips that will not only make your game Lag-free but will keep your Windows PC lag-free for a lifetime.
I bet, after following all these tips on window 10 you will not encounter any Lag; Unless you have an outdated PC that doesn’t have a minimum requirement of the game.
Let’s begin!
What is the reason for lag?
In short, when you play online or offline games, lag usually occurs due to 2 main reasons. First is a slow internet connection which causes high ping and another reason is old hardware which causes lag. Although you may have a good PC configuration sometimes still face lag!
In this case, you can improve your game performance by changing the settings in the game or by optimizing the hardware and reducing background tasks.
In this post, I am only focusing on how to fix the gaming lag on Windows 10.
You can read the reasons for the lag on Windows PC in detail here because you need to know the root cause before fixing the problem!
Setting Up Pc For Lag-free Gaming In Windows 10
Make Sure No App Is Running Behind
The main reason for your window slow-down is due to unwanted applications and services running in the background.
While playing, your game may not get the full hardware resources, so it is important to kill all unnecessary background running apps.
How will you benefit from it?
- After killing all the unused apps running in the background your game gets more resources that your PC may have shared with unnecessary apps and services.
To Check which program is running in the background on window 10, press the combination of Ctrl +Shift + Esc together and the task manager will pop up. (see pic)
Another way is to click on (show hidden icons) and stop heavy unnecessary applications. Remember, it will only show you some of the programs which are running in the background, but you can directly cut all extra memory consuming programs like in the image below.
Keep Your Graphics Card Drivers Up-to-date
A driver in Windows PC is a software that helps the operating system or you can say your Windows OS and other attached devices communicate with each other.
It is recommended that you update your graphic card drivers regularly to get the best performance and experience from your PC. Your Windows PC driver needs to be up-to-date to run your game!
How can you do this?
There are 2 ways to keep your graphics cards up-to-date:
- Manually (Not so accurate and takes time):
- Long press win+r.
- Enter “devmgmt.msc” (like in the screenshot below) and press enter.
- Under “Display adapters”, double click on your graphics card.
- Go to the “Driver” tab.
- Click “Update Driver…”.
- Click “Search automatically for updated driver software”.
- This will update your driver, then you can directly download drivers from card website.
After successful completion of this task, the new updated driver will be downloaded and installed on your PC.
This Method is a hit and miss method.
Or,
Try using this method instead:
Most of the time using automatic updates it didn’t update the drive properly.
Here what you can do,
- Using Software Called Easy Drivers: Super Easy and 100% working and keep you up-to-date
I Use Easy Driver software.
Why?
Few time ago I was facing driver issues(MTP Driver issue not able to connect my mobile storage with PC). I tried every method but nothing worked. Then I found Easy driver and it worked and solved my driver issue within a few minutes.
- You can download it from here.
- Install it and open it.
- There you will see a list of all up-to-date drivers and drivers that need to be updated.
- Now you’re smart, you know what to do next.
- Just hit update and wait for it to install all updated drivers.
Setting Up Graphics Drivers Properly
For beginners, it is best to download the Nvidia control panel here and for AMD here.
Optimize Nvidia Control Panel For GAMING & Performance
Here’s how to optimize the Nvidia control panel to the best setting:
Depending on which graphics card you have installed on your machine, to allow you to completely optimize your graphics card at the driver level to ensure that you guys are getting your best visuals and performance within the games.
Optimize AMD Radeon Settings For GAMING & Performance
Watch here and follow along with this latest AMD Radeon Settings for optimizing gaming performance!
Clear Internet & Temp Files: This will fix 80% lag guranteed
Step1: Go to My Computer and right-click on Local Disk Drive(C:). Click on Properties.
Step2: New window will pop up and here you’ve to click on disk Cleanup. It’ll start calculating all files.
Step3: Once the calculation is complete new window will popup where you can see files with size. You don’t have to select or unselect anything. Only click clean up system files and hit the ok button. In the screenshot below you can see I’ve selected downloaded program files, you can select this folder.
Step4: It’ll again start the calculation. just wait after that you’ll see the final window where you only have to click on ok.
After the above steps, you don’t need to follow below mention tricks to fix your PC lag. Make sure to read the full article because I’ve shared very useful tips as well. This will guarantee 80% lag fix, even if you’re using pirated window.
Clear Cache Memory
Here’s a personal experience of mine with my gaming laptop! After a few months of usage, my laptop slowed down and started showing lag when playing games and doing normal day-to-day tasks.
I cleaned all my temporary files and surprisingly my laptop started working fine and lag-free again.
This trick will help to increase gaming performance and reduce game lag by keeping more temporary storage for game files.
To Clear cache follow along:
Step1: press the window + R
Step2: type Run and open run App
Step3: Once done, type %temp% and hit enter
Step4: It will open a temporary file folder on your PC and delete all files. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to delete all files. It will show errors like in the screenshot below, simply skip or cancel the rest of these files as these files are currently in use.
Step5: Open the Run App and this time search for temp and delete all temporary files.
Delete Prefetch files:
Prefetch are also temporary files, you can study more about prefetch files here if you want to!
Step1: press window button
Step2: type Run and open run App
Step3: Once open, type prefetch and hit enter
Step5: It will open the prefetch file folder on your pc and delete all files. This time also you might not be able to delete all files. It will show you a pop-up which you’ve seen while deleting temporary files. Simply skip or cancel the rest of these files.
Perform Virus And Malware Scans
Malware on your system can slow down your entire PC.
Here I do not give in depth information about what malware does and how it affects your PC. We will discuss the best and free way to scan for viruses and malware on your PC.
- Press the Windows Start button on your keyboard or Click Window start button located in the lower-left corner of your screen.
- Then click Settings.
- Then click Updates & Security.
- Next, click Windows Security. You will see this in the left side-bar.
- Then click Virus & threat protection.
- Finally, click Quick scan in the pop-up window. It might take several minutes for this process to finish.
Using Malwarebytes
If you do not want to spend money but enjoy premium products for free then you can use Malwarebytes for free. I am personally using this software. Its freemium software comes with a 14-day free trial! You can also use it after the end of the trial period.
However, it is good to have antivirus on your PC.
Why am I saying this?
Once I accidentally downloaded a virus from a website that slowed down my PC and crashed my application, and sometimes my laptop screen freezeD. Somehow I came to know about Malwarebytes and it helped me to remove all the virus files from my PC.
It works perfectly for me and I am still using it.
Best In-Game Setting For Avoid lag
Select Game Servers Closer to You
Most online FPS games have the option of choosing a server for matchmaking. Make sure you choose the server closest to you.
If the option is not available, the game will do it for you automatically.
This is an effective way to reduce ping.
Check Which Application taking Bandwidth
This is one of the other major factors that contribute to the game lag!
Before you start playing online games, make sure that any network-hogging programs on your computer are turned off. Applications such as torrents, streaming music and browsers can make a big impact in your game. Close these programs before starting your game.
Some applications run automatically when you turn on the PC. You can disable applications that you do not want to auto-start with PC startup.
To do this,
Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc together to open the task manager.
Go to the Startup menu and you can see all the applications with AutoStart enabled.
Disable applications that you do not want to start automatically.
Connect your Computer or Game Console to Your Router via Ethernet.
It is important to connect your computer or game console directly to your router via an Ethernet cable to avoid network latency or ping.
Network latency is the round trip delay between the game client and the multiplayer server aka “ping”. If you use a wireless connection for gaming, may increase ping and wireless device may cause system latency.
To avoid latency, wired devices may prove to be somewhat useful. Watch this video to get an overview of system latency. With wired devices, data takes less time to travel, whereas wireless devices take slightly longer.
Check Your Internet Speed
If you ask me what is the best speed for gaming and streaming; that’s at least 5 Mbps upload speed and a download speed of at least 50 Mbps. Streaming requires a minimum upload speed of 50mbps and a 100mbps download for lag free gaming.
Check your current internet speed, if you are still getting slow speed then consider changing internet service provider.
By now you must have got a hint of how to play games on your Windows 10 pc without lag! Make sure you follow all above critical checks before running your favourite PC game in 2021. Be it your graphic cards drivers, pc cache or a super-high speed server, invest your money wisely so that you can enjoy gaming lag-free.
My hacks will surely aid you overcome the irritating lag for sure! For more tipos and gaming hacks, stay tuned to Coming Cames upcoming blogs and make sure to send your queries to get instant support from my team.
Happy Gaming!
Read more here to know how to repair your laptop?
