Computer, laptop FPS drops when playing games?

Most gamers today own a computer configuration or a gaming laptop with a pretty good configuration, not to mention high-end hardware components. But sometimes we still encounter the phenomenon of computers or laptops lagging when playing games, FPS in the game is significantly reduced. At this time, most of you are worried about not knowing how to fix the situation of the computer dropping FPS? And this is also the question that Hanoicomputer's support department receives a lot from customers. Next, we will find out the cause and how to fix the situation of FPS dropping when playing games!

Reasons why computers and laptops drop FPS when playing games

To find a solution, we also need to know the cause of the computer's FPS drop when playing games. Most of the FPS drop phenomenon is mostly encountered in online games, Esports such as League of Legends, CS-GO or Dota2. The above games are all based on real time, FPS drop or lag when facing opponents often leads to unfortunate failures. According to the experience of technicians, the causes of your computer's FPS drop when playing games often come from the following reasons:

1. New game update
2. Due to error, hardware driver conflict
3. Hard drive failure
4. Windows update new features and applications.

How to fix laptop and computer FPS drop

Check all elements on computer, laptop

Any game when released is also announced by the manufacturer with minimum and recommended configuration. To ensure the best gaming experience, make sure your computer or laptop meets the hardware requirements of CPU, RAM, graphics card. In addition, with online games, your Internet connection speed also needs to be guaranteed.

Turn on game mode: Game mode

When Windows 7 was officially discontinued, Windows 10 became the most popular operating system today. And of course it is also the most optimized for all users. If you are using Windows 10 Creator version, you can start the game mode with the Game mode feature in the settings.

To do this: Right-click on the Start button (or press the Windows + X key combination) => select Settings

Select the Gaming box => Select the Game Mode tab => in the Use Gamemode box , switch to ON as shown below.

Turn off Full Screen game mode optimization

This is a function that Windows has to prevent other programs from affecting the fullscreen mode in the game you are playing (for example, an update notification suddenly pops up while playing the game, causing you to fly to the desktop). However, this is also the reason for the FPS drop when reaching a few segments in the game, you turn off this feature.

Find the executable file (*.exe) of the game you are playing that needs to be fixed (Game icon on Desktop) => right click on it => select Properties

Select the Compatibility tab => select X in the Disable fullscreen optimizations box => OK

Update Driver 

Computer Driver is a software that helps the Operating System control and use the computer's hardware. For example, if your computer has a video card but you do not install the Driver for the computer, the operating system will not be able to use this video card. And if the driver is faulty or incorrect, the video card you have is almost useless. Therefore, we need to update the latest driver of the video card to help the card operate stably and best.

Set up power efficiency for laptop

For laptops, we can use them while charging or using direct power. If the laptop's FPS drops when playing games while using battery, you can apply this method immediately. Because when the battery is almost out, the laptop will switch to battery saving mode. The power from the battery to the components is also reduced to increase usage time. Therefore, to make the components operate at full capacity, we will have to switch them to High performance status.

To switch to High performance mode, go to Settings > System > Power > Click on Additional power settings and we will be taken to the Power Options section. Here you check the High performance option to put the laptop into the highest performance state.

Note that in this mode, battery life will be affected.

Samuel Daniel

Update 16 January 2025