How To Lower CPU Usage For Better Performance While Gaming

Playing a game that heavily relies on your CPU? For the best possible performance, you’ll want to ensure that other things aren’t eating up the processing power in the background. Luckily, there are ways to reduce CPU usage so that you can enjoy smoother gaming sessions, regardless of your processor.

Whether your PC is packing a trusty old Core i3 chip or a no-expense-spared i9-14900K, managing its performance effectively can make a big difference on your in-game experience. This is especially true if you have a decent GPU and are not enjoying the frame rates you would expect from your setup.

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Lowering CPU usage while gaming

There are several things you can do to minimize CPU usage while you’re gaming — the first of which should be to ensure that other processes aren’t hogging system resources in the background. To this end, we’ll go through the best ways to detect potential CPU hogs.

How to remove CPU-intensive tasks on Windows 11

The Task Manager should always be your first port of call when diagnosing performance problems with your PC.

1. Right-click on the Windows taskbar or press Ctrl + Alt + Deletethen select Task Manager.
2. Under the Processes tab, click the CPU column to sort all processes by CPU usage. Look for processes that are using excessive amounts of CPU power.
3. To quit the process, first try closing the application as you normally would. This will ensure you don’t lose any data. If the process is stuck or frozen and won’t close normally, you can kill it in Task Manager by selecting it and then clicking End task at the top.

   

Many of the items you see in Task Manager are processes that Windows relies on to function properly, and quitting them can cause your system to crash or become unstable. Only quit processes that you are familiar with.

Managing start-up applications on Windows 11

In Task Manager, you may notice apps are running even though you didn’t open them manually. This is likely because they’re set to run automatically at startup. To manage startup apps, follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the taskbar or press Win + Ithen select Settings.
2. Navigate to Apps> Startup.
3. Disable apps you don’t want to run automatically when your system boots up by clicking the toggle to Off.
4. After you have turned off all the startup tabs you don’t want, Restart your PC.

Make sure your hardware and software is up-to-date

Many performance issues can be attributed to bugs on Windows, hardware drivers, or the game itself. If the above fixes aren’t effective, let’s ensure everything is up-to-date to rule out bad software and hardware.

While it may seem unnecessary to update your GPU drivers, it can also effectively lower your CPU usage while gaming. With developers constantly working on patches for their games, and hardware manufacturers pushing firmware updates to your CPU and GPU, if any of these devices have outdated drivers, it could cause performance issues or be a bottleneck for your CPU.

To update the driver and software for your GPU, you’ll need to turn to AMD Adrenaline (if you have an AMD GPU) or Nvidia Control Panel (if you have an Nvidia GPU).

Updating Windows drivers

1. Search for the Windows Settings app or use Win + I.
2. Navigate to Windows Update.
3. Click the Check for Updates button.
4. After the PC has checked for updates, Download and install everything that appears on the list.

You may need to restart your PC before certain updates take effect. ​​​​

Updating AMD Adrenaline drivers

1. Right-click on your Windows desktop, then select AMD Software: Adrenaline Edition.
2. If you want to automatically download all major updates, then click Download under the Driver & Software window on the home screen menu.
3. If you want to manually download specific updates, then click the Settings icon in the top-right corner. Then select Check for Updates and download and install any available releases that you want to update.

   

Updating Nvidia drivers

Nvidia Control Panel drivers:

1. Right-click on your Windows desktop, then select Nvidia Control Panel.
2. Click Help in the Control Panel’s title bar, then select Updates. Now you just have to download and install any available releases.

Nvidia Geforce Experience drivers:

1. Search for and open the Geforce Experience app.
2. Click on the Drivers tab at the top of the screen.
3. Click on the Check for Updates button. Once the scan is complete, Download all the latest updates.
4. After the update has been downloaded, click on Express Installation.

Updating a game through its game launcher

You’ll want to be playing the latest version of a game, especially if it was downloaded a while ago. The process for updating PC games typically depends on the launcher your game uses, but they’re all pretty similar. The Steam platform will be used for this example.

1. Click on Steam and wait for the launcher to open/update.
2. Click on the Manage Downloads tab.
3. Look for the game you want to update. Click on Download Now.
4. After the update is installed, you can open and Play the game.

How to use Cortex Game Booster

You may not want to download third-party apps to boost your gaming performance on Windows, but Razer Cortex is a godsend for many gamers. Its Game Booster feature is designed to optimize your system performance, so you don’t have to worry about managing your resources manually.

1. Download the Cortex installer from the Razer website. Once it opens, click on Install.
2. Click on Get Started to close the launcher.
3. Launch Razor Cortex and click on the Game Booster tab.
4. Before launching your game, click the Boost Now button in Razer Cortex to optimize your PC for gaming.

After boosting your system with Cortex, you will activate the Enable CPU Core feature, which focuses CPU resources on gaming, and the Disable CPU Sleep Mode feature, which utilizes all CPU cores to ensure you get the best possible performance in compatible titles.

Enjoy smoother gaming by freeing up your CPU

Many PC games rely on your GPU more than your CPU. Nevertheless, you’re likely to notice a significant hit to game performance if background processes are bogging down your CPU. If you’re not seeing the kind of performance you might expect from your hardware, using Task Manager to monitor CPU usage, getting ahead of startup apps, and using Razer Cortex can help free up CPU bandwidth for optimal gaming.