Increasing your PC Performance for Gaming

Gaming on a computer (PC Gaming) is a great choice in 2014 as it is a very large platform with a massive variety of games from the past 20 years. The problem with PC gaming at the moment is how fast it’s growing. A majority of the computers in the world aren’t built to handle a wide range of games, especially resource-heavy modern games. Because of this, you may find yourself unable to run games at the desired settings or how they were designed to be played. However, there are several things you can do to improve performance which will allow you to get the best experience possible out of your current hardware and software, all of which are free and easy to do.

System cleaning
A system that is clogged up with old files, folders and programs is going to run slower than it should. This is because these old items are taking up your computers resources, leaving less power for your system to run games. This can be alleviated by removing your computers unnecessary burdens. You can do this manually (not recommended) or with a program. The most commonly recommended program is CCleaner. This easy to use program scans your computer for any leftover deleted program files and unused registry entries and completely removes them while also freeing up hard drive space for storage.

Disabling unnecessary start up items
When we start our computer, it loads several programs in the background in case they need to be launched later. This process may be convenient for some programs, but it can also hog system resources which leads to reduced gaming performance.
By disabling the hidden start up programs the processor (CPU) is able to work harder on processing your game. The steps for disabling startup items are easy to follow and can be done by anyone:

(Windows XP)
Hit Start, Click Run, type “msconfig”, in the configuration window click the startup tab at the top, disable unnecessary programs and click ok.
(Windows Vista/7)
Start, type “msconfig” in the search box, in the configuration window click the startup tab at the top, disable unnecessary programs and click ok.

Overclocking
System overclocking is the process of altering certain values that determine how hard your computer hardware works. It can be performed on your processor (CPU) and your Video/Graphics card (GPU). Since there are so many different types of processors
and video cards, there is no single method to overclock. You can find the relevant information based on your hardware through Google. Please note: you can damage your hardware by overclocking. Overclocking is not recommended for beginners to computing and hardware.

Freeing system RAM
Random Access Memory (RAM) is where your programs and files that are currently open are stored. They are stored on RAM because it is much faster to fetch them from RAM than if they needed to be fetched from the hard drive, since the hard drive has a much slower transfer rate than RAM. By freeing system RAM, your processor has less information to sort and is able to find the game data much faster. To do this, simply close anything you are not using including items in the system tray (the system tray is the icons next to your clock in the bottom left corner).

These steps should be followed before every gaming session. Some users will see a significant performance increase, while others may see a negligible amount. It really depends on your software and hardware configuration. Happy Gaming!

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