[Fixed] Low FPS and Stutters While Gaming on Windows 11

If you’ve upgraded to Windows 11, you may have noticed a drop in performance when playing games. Many people experience FPS drops that happen every minute or so. These drops are not game-breaking; they are just annoying.

Windows 11’s been out for some time now, so it’s time to find out how to fix Low FPS and Stutters While Gaming on Windows 11. That’s right: if you’ve been dying to know how to fix Low FPS and Stutters While Gaming on Windows 11, then you’re in the right place.

What Is Low FPS And Stutters?

Screen stuttering is an issue caused by irregular delays in online gaming. The most notable issue is that game playback may seem slow, laggy, and have time delays for player actions. This can lead to game-play troubles because it will either have an impact on gameplay or make it feel unresponsive.

A single frame of video games using GPUs can take a long time to finish rendering. These frames are sometimes skipped or delayed, which can be noticed when playing multiplayer games and have consequences for input latency.

For example, frames may sometimes be rendered during the refresh period for your monitor instead of the blanking period, resulting in a bizarre flickering effect on your screen.

FPS is measured by the frequency at which consecutive images called frames appear on a screen. 60 FPS means 60 frames per second. A higher FPS offers a better experience when watching a video of an object that moves quickly from one place to another, such as in a video game.

In many cases, there are a number of different issues that can cause stuttering during gaming, one being the type of game it is. If you are playing a graphically intense title like Cyberpunk 2077 or Control, then your GPU may be causing the issue.

However, if you’re playing a simulation game and it needs to quickly load many assets, your RAM may be causing the issue.

What Causes Low FPS And Stutters?

We’ve observed several causes of frame drops on Windows 11, some of which are common among people who have experienced this problem. These are the scenarios that might cause this on Windows 11:

• Outdated / Corrupted Graphics Drivers – Drivers, including the graphics and physics drivers, can cause frame-drops in PC games. If you experience such issues, uninstall the driver and install one from the appropriate manufacturer (Nvidia for Nvidia GPUs or AMD for AMD cards).
• Mouse Pooling late is 1000Hz or higher – Windows 11 sometimes struggles to keep up with the framerate, no matter what PC it is on, if the Mouse Pooling is at 1000Hz or higher. The only viable fix is to lower Mouse Pooling’s rate.
• Game DVR Interference – The Game DVR feature of Windows 11 is resource heavy, resulting in a lower FPS count. Disabling the Game DVR, by using the registry, could increase your FPS count noticeably.
• Outdated / Incorrectly Migrated Audio, Network or USB Connections drivers –In most cases, your utility drivers for Windows 11 are carried over from an older version of the operating system. If you want to update to a newer version, see Device Manager for instructions.

Read: Does RAM Affect FPS in Games? How Much RAM is Needed

Fixing The Issues

If you’re experiencing low FPS and stutters on your Windows PC, there are a few things you can do to try and fix the problem.

Disable Game DVR

If you’re experiencing frame-dropping issues on Windows 11, it may be due to Game DVR. It was originally only available for the Xbox app, but has since made its way to Windows and is now available for Windows 11.

Game DVR records video of PC gameplay in the background, and saves what you select. If you don’t call upon a recording, it will discard it and keep going. Turning off game DVR is a good idea if you have a low-powered computer and don’t care about game recording.

It will improve your frame rates because the system won’t use resources to record the video. The way to disable Game DVR for now is using the Registry editor. As of now the best way is to start up an elevated Registry Editor prompt, then follow these instructions:

1. To open up a Run dialog box, press Press Windows key + R after that to open the Registry Editor, Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter after typing “regedit” into the text prompt.

2. Click “yes” to get admin access after you are prompted to User Account Control.

3. Once you’re in the Registry Editor, navigate to the following location with the help of the left pane:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore

4. Ensure the GameConfigStore Key is selected once you are in the correct location. After that double-click GameDVR_Enable Key on the right-hand pane. 

5. Set Hexadecimal as the Base once you are inside the Edit screen and set the value data to 0, to enable the main component. To save changes, Click OK.

6. Double-click on GameDVR_FSEBehaviourMode inside the GameConfigStore registry key and set the Value to 2 and base to Hexadecimal before clicking OK.

7. To locate the following location you can use the same Registry Editor interface once you are finished with the previous modifications.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\ApplicationManagement\AllowGameDVR

8.  Select the AllowGameDVR Key from the left menu once you are inside the location, Move to the left-hand menu and double-click DWORD on the right menu.

9. Again set the base value to Hexadecimal and Value Data to 0, Click OK.

10. Close the utility and reboot your computer once you are done with all these modifications.

11. Once your PC boots back up, see if the game is still suffering with the same issues.

Read: 10 Best DNS Servers For Gaming (Lower Ping)

Update drivers for audio, network, and USB connections using Device Manager

If updating your driver didn’t help, you should check to make sure all drivers are updated. If a Windows 11 build has come out, it’s best to update them manually. Just do a drive search for the driver and update it.

For most users that were experiencing frame stuttering, updating drivers for audio, network, and USB connections in Device Manager should help stabilize your system.

1. To open Run dialog box, press Windows Key + R

2. To open Device Manager type ‘devmgmt.msc’ in the text box and press enter. Click ‘Yes’ to give administrative privileges one you see the UAC Prompt.

3. Expand the Audio inputs and outputs drop-down menu once you are inside. Click on the currently active audio device and update the driver from the context menu that just appeared.

4. In order to find the right drivers, we need to click on Search automatically for drivers at the next screen and wait until the initial scan is complete.

Note: If Device Manager doesn’t find an updated driver, you can also look for it on Windows Update.

5. Repeat the 2nd and 3rd steps once the audio driver is updated, with the active driver for the network adapter.

6. Using the same steps, update the drivers of all the devices under USB Connector Managers.

7. To see if the issues have been fixed, restart your computer to allow the new driver equivalents to be installed once relevant drivers are updated.

8. Launch the game that was experiencing FPS drops.

Update the GPU + Physics driver

After double-checking your PC meets the requirements for Windows 11 and updating to the newest GPU drivers, the next step is to check the graphics card.

If you find yourself experiencing unexpected FPS drops with new software, this may come from an older graphics driver that was copied over from a previous version of Windows.

In this scenario, updating your graphics card driver can fix it by switching to the newest version available. In order to do that, you need to follow the steps for your graphics card company.

We have two different guides – one for AMD and one for Nvidia. Follow the applicable guide for your graphics card manufacturer.

1. Update Nvidia’s Physics Module and Graphics Card Driver

1. Open a Windows Run window with the shortcut Windows key and R key. Type appwiz.cpl in the text box, then press enter to open the Programs and Features window. Accept the UAC prompts by clicking Yes.

Click on Publisher Tab to order the programs in the programs and features menu.

1. Once done, find NVIDIA corporate entries which will all be grouped together.
2. Click on every entry published by NVIDIA Corporation and select uninstall in the context menu.
3. To complete the process in the uninstallation screen, follow the on-screen prompts and then repeat the same process with other NVIDIA-signed items.
4. Once done, reboot your computer.
5. Go to Nvidia Experience and download the latest version. To allow installers to download locally inside the dedicated menu, click on Download once again.
6. Double-click On the installer once the download is complete and follow the on-screen instructions.
7. Open NVIDIA Experience once installed and log in with an account.
8. Check for updates in the driver tab and download the new driver if you find any. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the new driver version.
9. Once the startup is complete, again reboot your computer and see if the issues are fixed on Windows 11.

Read: 5 Ways to Fix Ghosting in Gaming (Easy Steps)

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

1. Open your browser and go to AMD Cleanup Utility, to download the latest version click on the AMD Cleanup Utility hyperlink.
2. Click on the executable and press “Yes” to grant access to AMD Cleanup Utility. Then to initiate the driver cleanup, click Ok at the next prompt.
3. The process may take some time, you may also see some screen flickering which is completely normal.
4. You’ll then get the success message where you can click on finish to close the utility. Click ‘Yes’ to restart your PC and let the next startup complete.
5. Open your browser once your computer boots back up and go to Auto-Detect and Install Radeon, there click on download now to initiate the download.
6. To install the Radeon tool, follow the instructions after you open the executable.
7. Once downloaded, the AMD Adrenalid Utility will automatically attempt to detect the best AMD graphics that are compatible with your GPU.
8. Install Recommended and Optional drivers to make sure that the physics module is up to date.
9. Accept the EULA’s terms and conditions.
10. Restart your computer once all the AMD drivers have been updated and see if the issues have been resolved.

Lowering Mouse Pooling Rate

A major cause of FPS drops on Windows 11 is when the mouse response rate is set to 1000Hz. Microsoft has not released a statement on the matter, but affected users have found that reducing the mouse pooling rate to 500Hz eliminates the issue completely.

In regards to how you change the pooling rate of your mouse, this varies depending on the type of mouse that you’re using. Gaming mouses typically have a utility that allows you to do so.

Usually, the Pooling Rate is labeled as “Report Rate” both inside and outside the companion app. Change it to 500HZ to fix the issue.

It is important to know that for high-end gaming mouse like Zowie EC2-B, there is a button that can be used when you are actively using the mouse that can allow you to change the report rate dynamically.

Conclusion

If the methods didn’t solve your problem, we recommend using Restoro Repair Tool, which locates corrupted files and replaces them with new, working ones.