Frame generation technology has come a long way since the early days, with frame interpolation getting smoother and smoother as the generations stack up. Nvidia's most recent update to DLSS 4's Multi Frame Generation has hit a peak of 4x generation, so four of every five frames is AI generated. AMD's FSR 4 Fluid Motion Frames don't have a set "rate" the way Nvidia's frame gen tech does, but AFMF can double your game performance. Even Intel's XeSS software suite features frame generation and low latency technology.

However, not everyone is fond of having "fake" AI-generated frames. I used to be one of them. While I have personally given up and accepted the AI-generated frame rate future, you don't need to do the same. You can still get smoother and better graphics performance using a few hardware tweaks and graphics settings workarounds.

4 Update your drivers

And close out any unnecessary programs

If this seems basic, it is. But the fact remains, the latest drivers for your GPU will generally offer the best performance. While occasionally a driver update might cause issues with a particular game, this tends to be pretty rare unless you're rocking a very old GPU. Driver updates tend to focus on newer hardware and newer game titles, but this isn't always the case. You still sometimes see Cyberpunk 2077 pop up in the list of driver optimizations even though the game has been out for five years.

You also want to close out background programs when launching a game, to ensure your PC is focusing its power where you want it with minimal distractions. This doesn't mean you can't game and stream at the same time, or sit on a Discord chat, but try to keep your list of open programs in the system tray rather small.

3 Optimize your settings

No seriously, who actually plans to game in 4K?

One of the easiest ways to smooth out game performance is to lower your graphics settings. You don't want to lower them too far, because one of the benefits to PC gaming is getting better graphics, with richer textures, than the console versions. So you want to find that sweet spot between graphics quality and graphics performance.

I typically start with the highest graphics settings and work my way down. I also tend to target games with internal benchmarking tools first so I can get a feel for the general graphics performance range I can expect from my hardware, though every game is going to be a bit different. And you'll want to balance the overall graphics settings with resolution, as higher resolutions require more VRAM resources. This is part of why gaming in 1440p has become more popular over the years, since native 4K gaming is still a difficult bar to reach (I would know, I'm the monster who tries to game in 4K whenever possible).

Driver update software may also come with optimizations for game-specific settings based on your hardware, which can get you an idea of the baseline for where you should be targeting your graphics settings. However, most of these driver-based optimizations will enable DLSS, FSR, or XeSS depending on your hardware and the game in question. This might save you a bit more time than my "work down from Ultra High" method.

2 Overclocking

If you haven't done so already, that is.

You have a few options for overclocking your gaming rig, and your PC may have come with its own custom overclocking software if you bought a pre-built system. If you've got a built-in overclock tool, it's generally best to go with the one your PC manufacturer pre-loaded for you, since it may have been overclocked when it was built.

But if you built your PC by hand, most folks opt for MSI Afterburner to overclock a GPU. As with any overclock attempt, small adjustments tend to be the best route forward. Your GPU will come out of the box with decent settings, but you can always get better performance out of your hardware if you're willing to adjust your clock and memory speeds, and manually set your fan curves.

If you game on a Windows machine, you'll also want to check your power profile to make sure you're PC is set to "Best Performance." Windows updates can sometimes revert power settings back to the default, which will knock your frame-rates down.

1 Low Latency settings

They exist for a reason. Not this one, necessarily, but it can help.

Nvidia Reflex, AMD Anti-Lag, and Intel XeSS Low Latency all exist to offset input lag. But these features can also help your game feel more reactive even if the native frame-rate is lower than you might like. So you can make a game feel like its operating above 60fps when its actually getting closer to 50fps.

It's not actually going to get you better graphics performance, but it will make your gaming experience smoother. So it's more of a last-ditch effort than anything. If updating your driver, shutting down unnecessary programs, lowering your graphics settings, overclocking your GPU, and checking your power profile haven't got you enough performance, opting for an anti-lag setting can get you over that last performance gap.

The good news is that these low-latency features are heavily utilized to combat lag due to AI-generated frames, so the technologies are still being updated and perfected. It's a software solution that doesn't "upscale" an image, or generate fake frames. So you're still getting pure silicon performance out of your hardware while taking advantage of some of the newer tech without degrading your graphics quality or relying on client-side "fake frames."

There is no perfect solution.

A lot of this is pretty old-school knowledge. But you may not have tried everything, because its a lot to keep in mind. And there is no "one size fits all" solution for better graphics. It depends on your particular hardware, what games you're running, what you want them to look like, and what your personal preferences are. Most consider 60fps to be the minimum playability threshold for games, but that's also title-specific and can vary from person to person.

Games that are optimized for consoles will often be far more playable at just 30fps than PC-focused titles which will need to operate at 60fps or higher. First-person shooters and competitive PvP games generally perform better at higher frame-rates than that, while single-player titles can get away with lower frame rate thresholds.