Getting Better Gaming Performance on Windows 11? Here’s What Worked for Me
Honestly, the first thing I tried was turning on Game Mode. It sounds obvious, but I kept hitting dead ends trying to find it easily. For some reason, Microsoft hid it pretty well in the settings, which was frustrating. Anyway, it’s that classic shortcut: press Windows + I to open Settings — faster than shouting “Where’s the performance setting?” in frustration.
Once in Settings, look for Gaming in the sidebar. If it’s not right there, it might be tucked away further down or under other menus — yeah, Windows stuff can be a bit confusing that way. Inside Gaming, you’ll find Game Mode. Flipping that toggle to “On” is straightforward, but don’t expect it to instantly boost your FPS. Sometimes, a restart or at least a log out/login cycle was needed for me for the setting to take effect. This feature essentially prioritizes game processes over background stuff, and surprisingly, it can actually make a difference if your CPU or GPU gets bogged down doing background tasks.
Making Sure Your Games Use the Right GPU
This was a game-changer (no pun intended). If you’re on a laptop or a system with both integrated graphics and a dedicated GPU, Windows doesn’t always pick the best one — or at least, it doesn’t do it reliably without some help. In my case, I’d launch a game and notice a big drop in frame rate because Windows defaulted to the low-power iGPU, even during demanding scenes.
Start by opening Graphics settings. Just hit Windows and search for “Graphics settings,” which sometimes feels buried behind layers of menus. Once you get in, you can set a specific GPU preference for each app — and that’s where things get messy. You need to find or add your game executable (like C:\Program Files\MyGame\game.exe) and then set its preferred GPU.
Now, depending on your GPU brand, you might see options like “Options” or directly a drop-down for ‘Preferred GPU’. Set it to High performance (which’s usually the discrete GPU) or Power saving (the integrated GPU). This step is critical on laptops, because I’ve seen Windows default to the iGPU even during intense gaming sessions, which drags down performance. After doing this, I hit Save. Sometimes, a reboot or re-logging helped it complete — took me some trial and error, honestly, as the interface isn’t always super clear.
Just a heads up: if you have NVIDIA or AMD drivers installed, you might also want to go into their control panels and set the preferred GPU there. On my older ASUS, the option was buried in the Advanced section of the graphics driver control panel. It’s worth double-checking those, especially if Windows settings don’t seem to be enough.
Turning Off “Record What Happened” for Better Gaming
This one surprised me. I always assumed recording or Xbox Game Bar stuff wouldn’t impact gaming — but it does. That “Record what happened” feature, for streamers and clip-enthusiasts, can actually eat CPU and RAM if you’re not into recording your gameplay daily. If you’re mostly focused on smooth gameplay and minimal background processes, turning it off was what finally helped.
Open Settings again with Windows + I, go to Gaming, then to Captures. You’ll see the toggle for “Record what happened”. Flip it off. There’s also the option to disable background recording altogether. Sometimes, I had to go further and tweak the Registry as well. To do that, open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameDVR — then set RecordGameClips to 0.
Weirdly, I found that even if the toggle is off, Windows sometimes keeps recording in the background — so that registry tweak or disabling via task manager was necessary. In Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), you can kill processes like GameBar or GameDVR, but unless you disable autostart in Settings or task scheduler, they often come back. Disabling unnecessary background recording freed up resources and cut some input lag, which made games run smoother for me.
Final thoughts — the combo you want
In my experience, the main points are: enable Game Mode, set your games to use the high-performance GPU via Graphics Settings or driver control panels, and turn off recording features that you don’t need. It’s not some magic fix — I still had to tinker, and sometimes restart a couple times to see the full effect. But after this, my framerates were noticeably better and lag was reduced during intense sessions.
Always make sure your graphics drivers are fully up-to-date — that’s a simple but often-overlooked step that can make or break these tweaks. Also, keep an eye on background processes in Task Manager that might be sneaking in, especially those related to gaming overlays or recording tools.
Hope this helped — honestly, it took me way too long to figure out the right combination of settings. Anyway, if you’re struggling with gaming performance on Windows 11, give this a go. It might just save you a weekend of troubleshooting.