Fix: Low FPS and Stutters While Gaming on Windows 11

If you’ve recently upgraded to Windows 11 and you’re starting to notice performance drops in the FPS (Frames per Second) department when playing your favorite games, don’t worry, you’re not the only one. In most cases, the frame drop is not constant – Chances are you’re experiencing an abrupt drop in FPS every minute or so – While it’s nothing game-breaking is certainly annoying to the point where you need to get it fixed.

How to fix Low FPS while Gaming

Things will undoubtedly get better over time as Microsoft makes this new OS stable, but until then, there are some things you can do in order to improve your FPS count while playing your favorite games on Windows 11.

After we’ve investigated for various underlying instances that might cause frame drops on Windows 11, we’ve discovered several recurring culprits that a lot of affected users are pointing their fingers at. Here’s a list of scenarios that might cause this problem on Windows 11:

  • Game DVR Interference – As it turns out, the Game DVR feature uses a lot of system resources on Windows 11. If you’re using a system with not a lot of system resources, you’ll probably see the FPS count improving noticeably after you do a few registry tweaks in order to disable the DVR interference.
  • Outdated / Incorrectly Migrated Audio, Network or USB Connections drivers – If you recently migrated from an older Windows version to Windows 11, there’s a big chance most of your utility drivers we’re carried over even though they have a new equivalent for Windows 11. In this case, you can force the installation of the new drivers’ version using Device Manager.
  • Outdated / Corrupted Graphics Drivers – If your PC meets the minimum requirements, the next possible culprit you should investigate is the GPU driver + the physics driver. It’s not uncommon to experience frame drop issues if you’re using an outdated or corrupted driver. In this case, you’ll need to use the dedicated updating utility according to your GPU manufacturer (Nvidia Experience or AMD Adrenalin)
  • Mouse Pooling late is 1000Hz or higher – As it turns out, Windows 11 is currently experiencing a weird issue where it struggles to keep up with the framerate regardless of how strong the PC configuration is if the Mouse Pooling rate (response rate) is 1000Hz or higher. Until Microsoft decides to fix it, the only viable fix is to lower the mouse pooling rate to 500Hz.

Now that you are familiar with every scenario that might be triggering this error code, here are a couple of fixes that other affected users have successfully used to improve the frame count when playing games on Windows 11:

1. Disable Game DVR

As of now, Game DVR is probably the most common culprit that is known to cause frame-dropping issues on Windows 11.

Note: After being originally available only for the Xbox App, Game DVR made its way as a native component to Windows and it has now returned for Windows 11. This feature is meant to assist with an automatic video recording of PC Gameplay in the background and save it as per your selection. In case Game DVR records content that you don’t call upon, it will simply discard it and continue recording in the background.

The point is Game DVR is quite resource-demanding. So if you’re using a low-to-mid-tier PC and you don’t care about gameplay recording at all, disabling Game DVR will improve your FPS count noticeably.

This happens because your system will be free to re-allocate the resources that were previously used for game recording to actually rendering the game, which will improve the FPS count.

As of now, the most reliable way of disabling Game DVR and ensure that no background process is running in the background is to use the Registry Editor.

Follow the instructions below to disable Game DVR from an elevated Registry Editor prompt:

  1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box. Next, type ‘regedit’ inside the text prompt, then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open up the Registry Editor.
    Opening the Registry Editor
  2. When you’re prompted by the User Account Control, click Yes to grant admin access.
    Note: As a precautionary measure, you can take the time to back up your Windows Registry so you’ll be protected in case you make a mistake while disabling Game DVR.
  3. Once you’re inside an elevated Registry Editor window, use the left pane to navigate to the following location:
    Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore

    Note: You can either navigate to this location manually or you can paste the location directly into the navigation bar and press Enter to get there instantly.

  4. Once you’re inside the correct location, ensure that the GameConfigStore registry key is selected from the menu on the left, then move over to the right-hand pane and double-click on the GameDVR_Enabled key.
  5. Inside the Edit screen of GameDVR_Enabled, set the Base to Hexadecimal, then set the value data to 0 in order to enable the main component of Game DVR and click Ok to save the changes.
    Disabling Game DVR
  6. Next, inside the same GameConfigStore registry key, double-click on GameDVR_FSEBehaviourMode and set the Base to Hexadecimal and the Value data to 2 before clicking Ok to save the changes.
  7. Now that you’re finished with the modifications inside the GameConfigStore, use the same Registry Editor interface to navigate to the following location:
    Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\ApplicationManagement\AllowGameDVR

    Note: You can either do it manually or you can paste the path directly into the navigation bar at the top and hit Enter.

  8. Once you’re inside the correct location, ensure that the AllowGameDVR key is selected from the menu on the left, then move over to the left-hand menu and double-click on the value DWORD from the menu on the right.
  9. Next, set the base of value to Hexadecimal, then change the Value Data to and click Ok to save the changes.
    Disabling Game DVR from Application Management
  10. Once you’ve enforced all of these modifications from your Registry Editor, you can safely close the utility and reboot your computer.
  11. After your PC boots back up, launch the game that was experiencing FPS drops and screen stuttering and see if the issue has been improved.

If the FPS count is still low on your Windows 11 computer, move down to the next potential fix below.

2. Update Audio, Network and USB Connections drivers via Device Manager

If disabling Game DVR didn’t make a difference in your case, the next thing you should do is to ensure that every utility driver is updated to the latest version available. Windows Update is normally in charge of updating these drivers automatically, but until a public Windows 11 build is released, you’re better off handling the updates yourself.

According to a lot of users that we’re previously experiencing frame stuttering, updating the Audio, Network adapter and USB Connections drivers using Device Manager should help stabilize your system.

Follow the guide below for step by step instructions on how to do this:

  1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box. Next, type ‘devmgmt.msc’ inside the text box and press Enter to open up Device Manager. When you see the User Account Control (UAC) prompt, click Yes to grant administrative privileges to the Device Manager utility.
    Open Device Manager on Windows 11
  2. Once you’re inside the Device Manager utility, start by expanding the Audio inputs and outputs drop-down menu. Next, right-click on the audio device that is currently active and click on Update driver from the context menu that just appeared.
    Updating the audio driver using Device Manager
  3. At the next screen, click on Search automatically for drivers and wait until the initial driver scan is complete.
    Searching for updated drivers

    Note: If Device Manager doesn’t find an updated driver conventionally, you can also click on Search for updated drivers on Windows Update to see if a new version is available.

  4. Once the audio driver is updated, repeat step 2 and step 3 with the main active driver for the Network Adapter. 
  5. After the Network Adapter driver is also updated, go ahead and update the driver of every device under USB Connector Managers using the same steps presented above.
  6. Finally, after every relevant driver is updated, restart your computer in order to allow the new driver equivalents to be installed, then launch the game that was previously experiencing FPS drops and see fi the issue has been improved.

In case the same problem is still occurring, move down to the next potential fix below.

3. Update the GPU + Physics driver

If the two methods above didn’t help you and you’ve double-checked to make sure that your PC meets the minimum requirements to run the game using the recommended specifications on Windows 11, the next thing you should do is turn your attention to your GPU drivers.

It’s not uncommon to see Windows 11 experience unexpected FPS drops if you are still using graphics and physics drivers that were migrated over from an older Windows version.

If you find yourself in this scenario, you should be able to get the issue resolved by uninstalling your current GPU drivers + the physics module before replacing them with the newest equivalents available.

Important: The instructions for doing this will be different depending on your graphics card manufacturer. To accommodate both scenarios, we’ve created two separate guides for AMD and Nvidia users – Follow the sub-guide that’s applicable to your GPU manufacturer.

Follow the instructions below to update your GPU driver depending on which type of GPU you’re using:

Note: The instructions below will only apply as long as your Windows 11 PC has a dedicated GPU.

3.1. Update the Graphics Card Driver + Physics Module on Nvidia

  1. Open up a Run dialog box by pressing the Windows key + R key at the same time. Inside the text box, type ‘appwiz.cpl’ and hit Enter to open the Programs and Features menu. At the User Account Control (UAC), accept the enhanced privileges by clicking on Yes.
    Opening up the Programs and Features screen
  2. Next, order the programs inside the Programs and Features menu by clicking on the Publisher tab.
  3. As soon as the programs are ordered based on their publisher, go ahead and find the entires associated with NVIDIA corporate (they should all be grouped together).
  4. Next, right-click on every entry published by NVIDIA Corporation and choose Uninstall from the context menu that just appeared.
    Uninstalling every Nvidia driver + physics module
  5. Inside the uninstallation screen, follow the on-screen prompts to complete the uninstallation process, then repeat this process with every item signed by Nvidia.
  6. As soon as every relevant Nvidia driver is uninstalled, reboot your computer and open your browser after it boots back up.
  7. Next, visit the official download page of Nvidia Experience and hit the Download Now button to get the latest version of Nvidia Experience. Inside the dedicated menu, click on Download once again to allow the installer to download locally.
    Downloading the latest version of Nvidia Experience

    Note: GeForce Experience will automatically detect, recommend and install the latest compatible driver + physics module for your Nvidia GPU model.

  8. After the download is complete, double-click on the installer and follow the on-screen instructions to install the latest version of GeForce Experience on your computer.
  9. Once the installation is complete, open the Nvidia experience and sign in with an account when asked to do so.
    Sign in With Nvidia Experience

    Note: You can sign in via your Google account or Facebook if you’re in a hurry.

  10. Inside Nvidia Experience, access the Driver tab and click on Check for Updates. If a new driver version is found, click on Download, then follow the on-screen instructions to install the new driver version + the physics module.
    Downloading the new driver version via Nvidia Experience
  11. After the new driver version is installed, reboot your computer and see if the FPS problem is fixed on Windows 11 once the next startup is complete.

3.2. Update the Graphics Card Driver + Physics Module on AMD

  1. Open your default browser, access the download page of the AMD Cleanup Utility, and click on the AMD Cleanup Utility hyperlink to get the latest version available.
    Downloading the AMD Cleanup utility
  2. After the download is complete, double-click on the executable that you just downloaded and hit Yes at the User Account Control to grant admin access to the AMD Cleanup Utility. Next, at the prompt, click Ok to initiate the driver cleanup.
    Uninstalling the Cleanup Utility

    Note: This AMD_developed tool is designed to remove any installed AMD drivers, driver signatures, and registry entries of previous iterations. This will be instrumental in those situations where you’re dealing with corrupted AMD driver files that refuse to uninstall.

  3. Wait until the operation to complete. It will take several minutes depending on how fast your storage solution is and you might experience some screen flickering – Don’t worry as this is completely normal.
  4. After you get the success message, hit Finish to close the utility, then restart your PC by clicking Yes and wait for the next startup to complete.
    Rebooting after the AMD driver installation
  5. As soon as your computer boots back up, open your browser and visit the Auto-Detect and Install Radeon Graphics Drivers for Windows. Next, initiate the download by clicking on Download Now.
    Downloading the Auto Detect Radeon Graphics Drivers
  6. After the executable is downloaded, double-click on it to open it and then follow the instructions to install the Radeon Adrenalin tool on your computer.
    Downloading the AMD Adrenalin software
  7. After the download is finished, you should see the AMD Adrenalid utility automatically launching and attempting to detect the ideal AMD graphics product compatible with your GPU and your operating system.
    Waiting for the compatible AMD driver to be downloaded

    Note: Wait patiently until this operation is complete as it might take several minutes depending on your internet connection.

  8. After the driver is successfully downloaded locally, ensure that you install both the Recommended and Optional drivers by clicking Install to ensure that the physics module is also updated.
    Installing the recommended drivers from AMD
  9. Finally, you’ll need to accept the EULA’s terms and conditions, then wait until the process is complete.
  10. After all the relevant AMD drivers have been updated, restart your computer and see if the FPS issue is resolved once the next startup is complete.

4. Lowering Mouse Pooling rate

As it turns out, a major source of issues with the FPS while gaming on Windows 11 is an instance in which the mouse pooling/response rate is set to 1000Hz or higher. There’s no official explanation on why this happens yet from Microsoft, but affected users have found that lowering the pooling rate to 500Hz eliminates the issue completely.

Now, when it comes to changing the pooling rate of your mouse, the exact steps are really dependent on the type of mouse that you’re using. The vast majority of gaming mouses have a dedicated utility that will allow you to do this.

You’ll often find the Pooling Rate labeled as Report Rate inside the companion app – Just look for a value of 1000HZ and change it to 500HZ to make the issue go away.

Changing the pooling Rate

Note: Keep in mind that some high-end gaming mouses like Zowie EC2-B come with a dedicated button that will allow you to change the report rate dynamically by pressing the button while you’re actively using the mouse.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kamil Anwar


Kamil is a certified MCITP, CCNA (W), CCNA (S) and a former British Computer Society Member with over 9 years of experience Configuring, Deploying and Managing Switches, Firewalls and Domain Controllers also an old-school still active on FreeNode.