Tips to optimize videogame performance

There a lots of video game enthusiasts out there and most of them want the very best performance possible. Here are some tips on how to squeeze just a little more frames. Please note that there are lots of small things you can do, but these are the major ones.

Follow up:

1) Overclock your GPU
Now, this might not get you from high to very high in Crysis, but it will sure get you a better frame rate. Fortunately today, in order to overclock, we don't need to screw around in the BIOS anymore. Find drivers that are capable to overclocking your card, such as RivaTuner for Nvidia. Remember, make sure you have good cooling!

2) Dont install the game on a Windows drive
Games are getting much more HDD reliant these days with huge textures and large amounts of on screen objects. Most people however have the old IDE and SATA 1 connectors, which often enough don't go fast enough. In order to the get the fastest load times and less lag spikes, make sure the drive you install the game to isn't constantly used by any other program such as Windows itself.

3) RAM RAM RAM!!!
This is probably one of the most important parts of computer performance. Make sure you have lots of RAM. The more RAM you have, the less information the computer has to transfer from the HDD. Your game will ultimately load much faster and wont have those nasty lag spikes from time to time. I would recommend to simply get more RAM, but that's often not possible. So, the best thing to do, is to close down all possible applications.

4) Background Screen Resolution

This is very rare and applies mostly to older games. However, I come across this problem from time to time and find that games change the resolution of the game, but not the screen. This means that the background is running a different resolution which takes away performance. On a powerful computer, you might not need to do this, but if your running minimal requirements, it would be a good idea to change the Windows resolution to the same resolution as the game. Turning off the Vista theme is a good idea.

5) Try make sure you have recommended system requirements (Applies to most games)

I see this all the time. Someone picks a game of the shelf and reads the back were it states the requirements. So many people exclaim "My computer can run this", by pointing their finger at the minimal requirements. Not a good idea. If the game your buying isn't at least a few elements in the recommended section, your not going to have a good time playing it, take my word. Most minimal requirements mean that your going to be able to run it and play it at low frame rates or simply terrible visuals. Dont be an idiot.