How to enable Ultimate Performance to optimize performance on Windows 10/11

We've all experienced times when we wish our computers could run faster. These feelings often appear while the PC is performing a heavy task such as editing a video file or performing complex calculations in an Excel worksheet.

However, before planning to buy a new PC, you should try Windows 10's Ultimate Performance mode. You may not know it, but there is a mode or power plan on your workstation or PC designed to increase the power of the system. Let's see how to activate this Ultimate Performance mode through the following article!

What is Ultimate Performance?

Ultimate Performance is a feature designed to power high-power systems (e.g. workstations and servers) by optimizing High Performance power planning. -Performance power plan). It aims to reduce or completely eliminate any micro-latency, combined with granular power management techniques. In reality, micro-latency is just a small delay that occurs at the moment your operating system realizes that a certain hardware system needs more power and when that hardware reaches its required power. bridge.

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Ultimate Performance will conduct tests on hardware systems to evaluate whether they need to be 'pumped' with more energy or not, and mobilize that hardware to create enough power. Additionally, when you enable Ultimate Performance, all power saving features are disabled to optimize system performance improvements. That's why if the device operates on battery power, it will not be provided with this option by default because Ultimate Performance can simply consume more power and drain your battery very badly. fast.

Many people think that this feature will be a great tool to support computer gaming systems, this is true but not completely.

Ultimate Performance will improve speed for systems where the hardware constantly changes from inactive to active state (for example, when you run light tasks, some places in the system are not activated to save energy). But when you are running a game (heavy task), all the hardware in the system must work together to handle the game's requirements. The reason why Ultimate Performance can support gaming computer systems is true, but not entirely because in reality, this feature can only help increase a few frames per second when you play games. Stop.

However, if you are running video editing or 3D design software, and are taking on heavier tasks than usual, you may see a more noticeable improvement in system performance after activating Ultimate Performance.

One thing you need to pay attention to is that enabling this feature will increase the amount of power your system consumes, so if you plan to use Ultimate Performance on your laptop, Make sure the device is plugged into a power source and not on battery power.

How to activate Ultimate Performance on Windows 10

First, press the Windows + I key combination to open the Settings app and then click on the System category .

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On the System page, click the Power & Sleep tab on the left. On the right, click the link that says " Additional Power Settings" in the Related Settings section .

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In the pop-up window that follows, click on Show Additional Plans and then click on the Ultimate Performance option .

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If you are using a laptop, the Ultimate Performance option may not appear in this section.

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How to enable Ultimate Performance on Windows 11

Of course, Windows 11 also has Ultimate Performance mode like Windows 10. However, the way to turn on this super performance mode on Windows 11 will be a little different from Windows 10.

You do the following steps:

Step 1 : Run Command Prompt or PowerShell in Administrator mode .

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Step 2 : Copy and paste the command below into the Command Prompt or PowerShell window and press Enter:

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

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Step 3 : If you see a message like this, the installation process was successful.

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Step 4 : Open the Windows Start Menu , then enter Choose a power plan and select to open the power mode customization tool.

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Step 5 : In the Power Options window , click to select Ultimate Performance mode . If you do not see this mode, click Show additional plans.

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Step 6 : Click to select Ultimate Performance mode .

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So you have installed super performance mode for your Windows 11 computer.

What to do if you don't see Ultimate Performance?

On some systems (mostly laptops, but possibly some desktops as well), you won't find the Ultimate Performance option in your settings app. If so, you can add this option with quick commands in Command Prompt or PowerShell. This command is used similarly for both shells, so use whichever you prefer.

To run this command, You will have to open Command Prompt or PowerShell with administrator rights.

For Command Prompt, click Start, type ' cmd ' in the search box, right-click the Command Prompt result and select Run As Administrator .

For PowerShell, press Windows + X and select the Windows PowerShell (Admin) option .

At the Command Prompt, type (or copy and paste) the following command and then press Enter:

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

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If you have the Power Options window open, you may have to close it and reopen it to see Ultimate Performance appear.

If you don't want to see Ultimate Performance anymore, you can delete it from the settings app. First, if you are using Ultimate Performance, switch to another option. If you try to delete it while it's in use, you'll risk getting an error.

Next, click the link that says " Change Plan Settings " on the right and then click Delete This Plan.

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In short, Ultimate Performance is only really useful in some specific cases, but overall the difference is completely noticeable.

How does Ultimate Performance work?

Ultimate Performance does the job by preventing PC hardware from falling into an inactive state. In other power plans, computers temporarily turn off any unnecessary hardware when they are idle.

Ultimate Performance prevents any hardware from going to sleep mode. To that end, this power plan sets some default options for the hardware to keep things running at maximum capacity:

1. Hard drive inactivity setting is set to 0 minutes. This means the hard drive will never go into an idle state.
2. Java timer frequency set to Maximum Performance
3. Power Saving mode in Wireless Adapter Settings is set to Maximum Performance.
4. The computer will never go into hibernation.
5. Processor power management is set to 100%.
6. The computer's screen will turn off after 15 minutes.
7. When playing video, Windows focuses on maximum image quality.

Is Ultimate Performance right for you?

It might sound great to get all these performance gains without paying a dime, but in reality, the Ultimate Performance power plan isn't right for everyone.

For example, if you use your computer to do everyday tasks, such as browsing the web, editing PowerPoint presentations, responding to emails, or watching videos, the recommended Balanced power plan will work well. Using Ultimate Performance for these tasks will give you no obvious benefit; which only wastes energy.

However, there may be times when ensuring a balance between capacity and energy consumption is not your goal. You want to get maximum power and performance from your system.

For example, you use your PC to render a 3D modeling project. You might also enjoy video editing, which requires a lot of processing power to create and display. Or you need to perform read/write tasks that can complete faster if given a lot of processing power. That's when you should consider switching to Ultimate Performance.

Also keep in mind that since this power scheme works by reducing micro-latency, it can directly affect the hardware and obviously consume more power. Power saving features are disabled so this package is not enabled in battery-powered systems. So, if you want to try this power plan on a laptop, make sure the device is always plugged in.

Furthermore, don't think that this power plan will boost your gaming sessions, as you may not notice a significant increase in performance. That's because most games often ignore power plans to improve performance.

Marvin Fry

Update 25 June 2024