Thread: [UPDATED] Boost Your PC's Performance and GAMING to the MAX! [Windows]

This is the ULTIMATE guide to boost your PC's performance without buying any new hardware. This guide has been written by ME for PS3ISO and I've tested everything in it personally and on several computers.

I take no responsibility if you f*ck up something. I made every step detailed and with picture guides to facilitate it

!!CAUTION!!
You need be the PC's ADMINISTRATOR to complete this guide fully.

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NEW!! 1) Boost your PC startup speed!

Spoiler:

Part 1: Increase Processors used in Boot!
You can set the number of Processors and memory for booting in msconfig.

Type msconfig in the 'Search for programs and files' bar at the bottom of the start menu. Go to the 'Boot' tab. Click advanced options.
Under 'Number of Processors', tick the box, and in the drop-down menu, choose the maximum number you have (I got an Dual Core so it's 2 for me, newer PCs got 4 -obviously, you can only select it if you have a dual-core/quad-core).

Make sure 'Maximum Memory' is unticked so Windows uses the maximum there is without limitations.

Here's a picture guide:


Part 2: Reduce Boot Timeout!
If you only have one single Windows 7 installation on your PC, you can easily speed up the boot time by changing the boot timeout to 0 or a low value like 1. Here’s how.

By default, the Windows 7 boot manager is starting the “default” operating system after 30 seconds without keyboard input. If you change this value to 0, it will automatically start the default system without giving you a choice to select an entry. This is useful if you have only 1 OS, but even if you have multiple OS’s (multi-boot) you can take advantage of this. Simply change the default boot entry to your most commonly used OS and change the boot timeout to 1, so that you can still change the selection by simply hitting a key on boot up continuously.

1. Open an elevated command prompt (Type cmd in the 'Search for programs and files' bar at the bottom of the start menu, right-click and choose run as Administrator)

2. Enter bcdedit /timeout 0 (replace 0 with the number of seconds that you want the boot selection screen to appear before the default entry is used)


Restart your computer when done!

NEW!! Part 3: Enable NOGUI Boot!
Speed Up Boot Time via MsConfig.exe – Enable NOGUI Boot

As in Part 1, click on Start and enter msconfig.exe into search field, and go to the tab “Boot”.

Now Check the option “No GUI Boot”



Remember when you change the timeout to 3 seconds and you dual-boot Windows 7, then you will only have 3 seconds to pick another OS. The timer will stop when you hit a key, so 3 seconds is still a “safe” setting. That’s why you shouldn’t hack this value and change it to “0″.

How will NOGUI speed up my boot time?

NOGUI stands for No Graphical User Interface and that basically means that there will be NO boot screen animation. The Windows Animation will simply not appear.

So, to speed up your Windows 7 boot time, you can simply deactivate the GUI and your boot time will decrease by 5-6 seconds.
It’s not a lot, but if you apply some other tweaks it will all add up and you can perfectly optimize your boot time.

Restart your computer when done!

Source:

Code:

http://windows7themes.net/how-to-speed-up-windows-7-boot.html

2) Increase your PC speed by adding Virtual Memory! (NON SSD!)

Spoiler:

DO NOT USE THIS PART IF YOU HAVE AN SSD HARD DISK!!

Here is a way to increase the Virtual memory or Page file on your Windows 7 Computer :

-Go to Control Panel>System
-Click on Advanced System Setting on the left tab
-In the Performance Tab click on Settings
-Again click on Advanced > click on Change in the Virtual Memory section

Here's a picture guide:


Now we're going to increase your virtual memory to increase your PC speed especially on heavy tasks. You should now have this window open:


Untick "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives"

Underneath there's a list of all the drives you got, C, D... I have only 1 partition so I only got C. You can split your vmem over several drives if you wish to divide the space. Remember to check the empty drive space in each drive before you set anything. NOTE: It is best NOT leave VMEM on your boot drive (C) altogether, if other harddisks are present. So preferably choose D/E/F or whatever else. (thanks to figgerace for that tip!)

Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.

Check the Recommended value at the bottom. That should be your starting point for your virtual memory.

If you have enough disk space, and you like to be generous (like me) you should set it your virtual mem in increments of gigabytes (x1024mb). I suggest you use 2gb over the recommended value for the maximum. You can set more if you're generous but remember it's your disk space you're taking away.

Use a calculator to multiply 4x1024=4096MB! Dont just set round values (1000).

For example, you have Recommend: 4096MB
Set Initial: 4096MB
Maximum: 6138MB
Click SET

The Maximum size shouldn't be over 3 times the amount of RAM installed on your computer.

Restart your computer when done!

3) Get Auslogics Boostspeed! (UPDATED! v5.3)

Spoiler:

I've been using this program for over 5years now and it's proven to be the BEST Windows-booster there is.

Here's the latest version (pre-activated, virus-free, just install and run!). My own upload. UPDATED!!

Code:

http://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/0VGUI7KT/AusLogics_BoostSpeed_5.3.0.5_Incl_crack-iOTA.rar_links

===Copy the Crack File aushelper.dll to the Auslogics install directory (C:\Program Files\Auslogics\Auslogics BoostSpeed or C:\Program Files (x86)\Auslogics\Auslogics BoostSpeed for 64 systems)===

This is Auslogics Homepage (the "Advanced Tools" tab)


There's a list of all tasks/sub-programs you can run here. I'll make a guide to the most important ones. There's also 4 tabs on top. Make sure you click around to check out what the program has to offer (dont mess up things!).

Let's do this!

Part1: Optimize your PC's Services

Spoiler:

First go to the "System Advisor" tab on top.


You'll have a scan running for all the unnecessary services that can be disabled. There's a description for each. Disable almost everything except indexing service and any other you might use.

Then go back to the "Advanced Tools" tab. Under System Tweaks, choose "Optimize Services". On new windows choose "Home Computer with Networking" and confirm.

Part2: Manage startup programs

Spoiler:

Under Software Control choose Startup Programs. This shows a list of all running programs/services that start when your PC boots. The more, the slower. It's usually safe to disable non-windows programs, even Office and such. You can re-enable them if you turned off smthn you needed. You can always restart and test! Use common sense and experimentation

Part3: Defragment & Optimize your Hard Disks

Spoiler:

DO NOT DEFRAG YOU SSD DRIVE!
Under Disk Maintenance choose Defragment. It'll open up a new window showing all your Hard Disks (including external HDD and Flash USB if connected and SD/memory cards).


Click on Analyze to see if your HDD needs to be defragmented (red boxes).
You can run either a normal defragmentation or a defragmentation+optimization (moves windows boot-up sectors for faster startup). Use the option you want depending on your need.

PS: It takes TIME and RESOURCES to defragment your HDD. I recommend you do it when your PC is idle or you have some free time. Dont use many programs while running it cuz it'll slow down your PC!

Under Disk Maintenance choose "Repair disk" to scan for errors on your HDD. If your PC seems to freeze it's normal. Wait till it finishes.

Part4: Repair & Defragment your Registry

Spoiler:

Under Registry Maintenance select Repair. Tick the following boxes:


Run it and then solve the problems! :D

Go back Registry Maintenance select Defragment.
Click analyze, wait for the result, schedule a defrag when you boot up your PC next time (dont freak out when it does it lol).

Reboot when done!

Part5: Clean Up your PC from Junk

Spoiler:

Under Disk Maintenance choose Cleanup.
Tick those boxes:

Run and solve the problems to clean up junk!

-Type cmd in the 'Disk Cleanup' bar at the bottom of the start menu, right-click and choose run as Administrator). It'll run a scan and you can choose to delete junk files.

Follow this guide to remove Shadow Copy and old restore points:

Part6:


Part7: Removed Unwanted Programs

Spoiler:

Under Software Control you have Installed Software. Open it to check all the programs you have installed, sorted by name, size, time of installation, last used...You can also Ctrl+F to find them fast. Remove old/unused/uneeded programs to free up space!

After you've done all this:
Now you only have to do a routine check-up every two weeks or so. You can use the "System Scan" tab to perform most actions for you. Remember to defragment+optimize once a month at least!

A small tip: Under Settings (top bar) > Advanced > Check all the boxes.

4) Increase your PC Shutdown Speed!

Spoiler:

1. Open the registry editor (enter regedit into search field)
2. Go to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contr ol”
3. Lower the value (12000 is the default value = 12 seconds) to a value of your choice (I recommend 5000 for a starter).



NEXT!!

1. Open the registry editor (enter regedit into search field)
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management
3. Look for ClearPageFileAtShutdown, set it 0

5)Use GameBooster (v3.0) to Optimize your PC's gaming Performance!

Spoiler:

“GameBooster” is used to turn off all those unnecessary when you want that extra performance when you game or use graphics-intensive programs (photophop/3D...). You can temporarily stop all services (that are not required) while you play. Best of all, you can even edit the services list with just a couple clicks and add more services to get even more performance.

Download it here (my up, tested, scanned, PREMIUM):

Code:

http://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/1NZXHRTU/IObit_Gamebooster_v.3_Premium.rar_links

Install, Run, Press the Configure (small button under the big START BOOST button) and you can edit the services you which to close (there's a description for each).





When you're ready to GAME, simply press the START BOOST and you're good to go! When you're done you can revert to normal mode
Enjoy!

6)Speed Up Windows 7 Using ReadyBoost

Spoiler:

So, what you can do is to get more RAM. However, we don’t want to buy anything new, because we’re on a low budget. Although, I am sure that you own an USB-stick , right?

Can ReadyBoost really help me to boost my performance?

Is the performance boost notable? Well, it might be a bit early to comment on that, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that this is a good choice for low-end systems and systems with less RAM. On systems with more RAM than 1GB it will be only notable if you run some resource-hungry programs or programs that run a lot of small, random I/Os.

You might want to read this Q&A about readyboost first

Code:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tomarcher/archive/2006/06/02/615199.aspx

Since Windows Vista there is a little feature, that most people do NOT use effectively. To be honest with you, I haven’t used it myself and I might run into errors while I try to show it to you. The feature is called ReadyBoost and can give you up to 6% more performance. This depends on the amount of RAM you have. Low-End system with less RAM will see a great performance increase and many applications will load faster. Since Windows 7 there is no longer a memory limit of 4GB and you can use several devices for ReadyBoost.

1. Plugin your USB-stick
2. Move all your files on that stick into a folder on your hard drive to make room.
3. Open My Computer, do a right-click on your drive (usb, SD, whatever) and select properties.
4. Open the tab ReadyBoost and pick Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost. Click on Apply.
5. Repeat the steps 1-4 for all other devices (unlimited)



Ok, so we added a ReadyBoost device. Let’s see what it looks like:


On the drive you can find a cache file now that should be pretty big. I still had some other files on the stick, because this is my MP3-player.


Check if ReadyBoost is working

What’s next? Right, did it really improve my performance or is a USB-stick (not even USB2.0) insufficient? First of all, I did a check to see if the ReadyBoost drive is working.

1. Goto “Start” – Enter “Performance” into the search field
2. Click on “Performance Monitor”
3. Add “ReadyBoost Cache”

[IMG][/IMG]

What type of drives should I choose for this? USB Flash? SD Card?

Spoiler:

According to Tom Archer (link), your card is supposed to have the following requirements:
2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writes.

Next, I downloaded a tool called “Crystal Disk Mark”, which is pretty cool to speed test your sd cards, flash drives and any other disk. In the meantime, I added my USB2.0 Card Reader, one 2GB CF Card and one 2GB SD Card (lucky me), because I was pretty sure that my MP3-Player wouldn’t perform very well.


Download Crystal Disk Mark (free)

Code:

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html

Unfortunately, the results were very close to the requirements, but still below:
Benchmark of my 2GB CF Card


Next, I tested my SD Card. I supposed it would be a lot slower – how wrong I was!
Benchmark of my 2GB SD Card


Last but not least, I tested my 1TB HDD to compare the three drives:
Benchmark of my 1TB HDD (Seagate 31000)


Conclusion? The SD card is performing really well and is my best choice for a ReadyBoost drive. Considering that I only have 2GB of RAM (dual channel), I think that this can increase my browsing speed. I usually have a lot of open tabs in firefox and as you might know firefox is eating a lot of resources, therefore I’m pretty happy about this setup now.

Q: Aren’t Hard Disks faster than flash? My HDD has 80MB/sec throughput.
A: Hard drives are great for large sequential I/O. For those situations, ReadyBoost gets out of the way. We concentrate on improving the performance of small, random I/Os, like paging to and from disk.

Source:

Code:

http://windows7themes.net/speed-up-windows-7.html#ready%20boost

NEW!! 7)Optimize your graphics/gaming performace!

First, find out what GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) you have!

Spoiler:

In start menu search box, type 'dxdiag' and open it. Alternatively, press windows button+R to launch the 'RUN' command and type in 'dxdiag' you'll see a window like this:


In the bottom there's the DirectX version you currently have (here it's DirectX10)

Go to the top bar, find 'DISPLAY' (it's the second tab) and you'll find all the info you need about your GPU!

7-1) Get DirectX 11 For Windows 7!

Spoiler:

Gamers take note: Windows 7 includes a new version of DirectX, the software behind the eye-popping 3-D visuals and immersive sound effects found in many of today's PC games.

DirectX 11 includes numerous improvements. It's designed to be more efficient, leverage the power of today's multi-core processors, and provide support for sophisticated shading and texturing techniques such as tessellation. The result: smoother 3-D animation, and graphics more lifelike and nuanced than ever before.

Get latest version here:

Code:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=35

7-2) NVIDIA GPU

UPDATE YOUR DISPLAY DRIVER! Simple and obvious, but many miss it!

For NVIDIA Drivers:

Code:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Get NVIDIA AGEIA PHYSX

Spoiler:

What's this?
From Wiki:

Video games supporting hardware acceleration by PhysX can be accelerated by either a PhysX PPU or a CUDA-enabled GeForce GPU (if it has at least 32 CUDA cores), thus offloading physics calculations from the CPU, allowing it to perform other tasks instead. This typically results in a smoother gaming experience and additional visual effects.

Middleware physics engines allow game developers to avoid writing their own code to handle the complex physics interactions possible in modern games. PhysX has provided physical simulation for more than 300 games.

Short version: Makes your gaming faster/smoother with better graphics and faster gameplay. WIN-WIN!

Is my card supported?
NVIDIA PhysX acceleration is supported on all GeForce 8-series, 9-series, 100-series, 200-series, 300-series, 400-series, 500-series, and 600-series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory. For a full list see here:

Code:

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/physx/supported-gpus

Sounds interesting, which games support this?
Here's a list of the most famous games which are improved using Physx. It also has an impact on everyday GPU-usage.

Code:

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/physx/pc-games

FAQ (READ IT FIRST!)

Spoiler:

What is a physics processor?

The original AGEIA physics processing unit (PPU) is purpose-built to meet the unique requirements of physics algorithms. These represent an environment that's much different than a general purpose CPU.

NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPUs accerlate NVIDIA PhysX to deliver even more physics processing power.

What is physics for gaming?

In gaming, physics is all about how objects in your game move and react to the environment around them. In many of today's games, objects just don't seem to act the way you'd want or expect them to in real life. Currently, most of the action is limited to pre-scripted or 'canned' animations triggered by in-game events like a gun shot striking a wall. Even the most powerful weapons can leave little more than a smudge on the thinnest of walls; and every opponent you take out falls in the same pre-determined fashion. Players are left with a game that looks fine, but is missing the sense of realism necessary to make the experience truly immersive.

What is the AGEIA PhysX Processor?

The AGEIA PhysX Processor is the first dedicated hardware accelerator for PC games that enables dynamic motion and interaction for a totally new gaming experience. It's available from leading system and add-in card makers today.

NVIDIA acquired AGEIA Technologies in early 2008 and continues to evolve the entire PhysX platform from both a software and hardware perspective.

What is the AGEIA PhysX Accelerator?

The AGEIA PhysX Accelerator is an add-in card based on the PhysX processor. It enables enhanced physics in games that have been designed to support hardware-accelerated PhysX.

Which graphics cards can accelerate NVIDIA PhysX?

All GeForce 8 series graphics cards and above with at least 256MB of local onboard graphics memory and at least 32 cores will be able to accelerate NVIDIA PhysX. If you intend to use an NVIDIA supported graphics card as a dedicated Physx card, the other graphics cards in the system must also use an NVIDIA GPU.

Will running PhysX on a GPU slow down gaming performance?

Running physics on the GPU is typically significantly faster than running physics on the CPU, so overall game performance is improved and frame rates can be much faster. However, adding physics can also impact performance in much the same way that anti-aliasing impacts performance. Gamers always enable AA modes if they can because AA makes the game look better. Gamers will similarly enable physics on their GPUs so long as frame rates remain playable. With AA enabled, running physics on a GPU will generally be much faster than running physics on a CPU when AA is enabled. PhysX running on a dedicated GPU allows offloading the PhysX processing from the GPU used for standard graphics rendering, resulting in an optimal usage of processing capabilities in a system.

Can I run NVIDIA PhysX on my motherboard GPU?

NVIDIA PhysX API uses the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) to process the physics environment calculations in games and applications which support NVIDIA's Physx. Physics calculations can be very complex and therefore as a system requirement, a GPU must feature 256MB of dedicated local video memory, support NVIDIA's CUDA technology and also have 32 cores or higher. If an NVIDIA motherboard GPU or a NVIDIA graphics card does not meet these requirements, you will not be able to use the GPU to process NVIDIA Physx calculations.

Does PhysX scale across the GPU and CPU? If yes, does that mean having a faster CPU enhances PhysX performance or visual quality?

PhysX uses both the CPU and GPU, but generally the most computationally intensive operations are done on the GPU. A CPU upgrade could result in some performance improvement, as would a GPU upgrade, but the relative improvement is very dependent on the initial balance of the system. An optimized PC with the right mix of CPU to GPU horsepower will be the best balanced solution.

Intel and AMD say it’s better to run physics on the CPU. What is NVIDIA’s position?

PhysX runs faster and will deliver more realism by running on the GPU. Running PhysX on a mid-to-high-end GeForce GPU will enable 10-20 times more effects and visual fidelity than physics running on a high-end CPU. Portions of PhysX processing actually run on both the CPU and GPU, leveraging the best of both architectures to deliver the best experience to the user. More importantly, PhysX can scale with the GPU hardware inside your PC. Intel and AMD solutions, which utilize the Havok API, are fixed function only and cannot scale.

How does PhysX support heterogeneous computing?

PhysX shows how heterogeneous computing delivers the best user experience. While the game is running, the PhysX system executes portions of the physical simulation on the CPU and other portions on the parallel processors of the GPU. This ensures all the components of a balanced PC are used efficiently to deliver the best experience.

I WANT! WHERE DO I GET IT?
Simple, go here and download it:

Code:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.12.0213-driver.html

Install, restart and all should be better!

7-3) ATI GPU

UPDATE YOUR DISPLAY DRIVER! Simple and obvious, but many miss it!

For ATI Drivers:

Code:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Spoiler:

Coming Soon!

8)Optimize your External HDD/Flash Drives! (NON SSD!)

Spoiler:

You can make faster file transfers on your HDD/USB/FlashDrives/others by enabling “Write caching”.

When you enable this option, the devices will provide the highest possible performance and that you intend to remove from the system infrequently. If you choose this option and the device is disconnected from the system before all of the data is written to it (such as if you remove a USB flash drive), you could lose data.
If the power supplied to the device fails for any reason (be it disconnect without removing from system first) any data still in the cache (that the computer system believes is safely stored) could be lost.

So, how do you do this?

Go to Start –> Control Panel. In the search box, type Device Manager. Open Device Manager. Expand Disk drives –> Right click the drive name and click on Properties. Click Policies page and uncheck Write-caching policy. Repeat this for ALL your Hard Disks, Flash, and others.

Here's a picture-tutorial I made:


ALWAYS REMOVE YOUR HDD/FLASHDRIVE SAFELY FROM THE SYSTEM TRAY ICON!! YOU CAN LOSE DATA, CORRUPT YOUR HARD DISK!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

9)Optimize SSD Drives

Spoiler:

Those are still experimental tweaks, as SSD technology is still new!! Do those tweaks on your own responsibility!!

Solid State Drives DO NOT require defragmentation. You can damage your hard drive and shorten the life span!

SSD write performance greatly depends on free data blocks! This is important to remember – the more data you put on a SSD the slower it will get. In fact, most manufacturers recommend to only use 70-80% of the disk space available on a SSD.

DO NOT DEFRAG YOU SSD DRIVE! In fact, if you continuously defragment a SSD drive you can decrease its lifespan. Here’s how you disable disk defragmentation in Windows 7:

Disable Disk Defragmenter Service

1. Click on Start
2. Enter services.msc into the search field and hit enter
3. Find Disk Defragmenter and right-click on it, then click on Properties
4. From the Startup dropdown menu select Disabled
5. Click on Apply
6. Done, defragmentation is now disabled

Here's a picture tutorial:


Enable TRIM in Windows 7 for SSD Drives!

#What is TRIM?

In computing, a TRIM command allows an operating system to inform a solid-state drive which blocks of data are no longer considered in use and can be wiped internally. Source: Wiki

So, if you delete a file and it is no longer being used, TRIM tells your SDD to get get rid of the data blocks. Otherwise, if TRIM is not enabled you’d have a lot of garbage data blocks which can eventually slow down your SSD and therefore your overall performance. If you want to speed up Windows 7, you really should have TRIM commands enabled. Sounds like something you are interested in? Read on.

Enable or Disable TRIM

1. Open up an elevated command prompt (run cmd with right-click => Run as Admin)

2. Enter fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0 to enable TRIM in Windows 7.

If you want to disable it simply change the 0 to a 1.


3. By default, I believe that Windows 7 is using TRIM commands. So, often you don’t have to change this setting and enable TRIM manually. You can check if TRIM is running on your PC by entering fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify.

What to read more on SSD optimization? Check out this website:

Code:

http://ssdtechnologyforum.com/,

Source:

Code:

http://windows7themes.net/disable-disk-defragmentation-windows-7-ssd.html

NEW!! 10) Update all your drivers!

Spoiler:

Update your drivers: Don't just install the latest graphics drivers (as I provided above), also make sure you grab the latest drivers for all of your other devices. Flaky audio drivers in particular are a known cause of gaming problems. Check the manufacturer's website for each and every one of your PC components. Even your router and DVD drive could do with some firmware updates. Too much of a hassle? Dont worry I got you covered :D

SIMPLY Download Driver Genius 11 (precracked, Premium, clean, my upload) here

Code:

http://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/4BI5I8TC/Driver.Genius.Pro.v11.0.0.1128_A4_.rar_links

After install, simply make a backup, then it'll make a FULL scan of your PC drivers, find the latest updates, and it'll download them for you and you can then simply install them and be ready to go!

Ofc, dont forget to restart your PC when you're done!

MORE TO COME SOON!

Thanks everyone for the great responses I'll update it soon with as much info I can gather. But this is the big core of it, I wanted to make as complete as I could first time so you can benefit the most from it

@Monarcas: I tested it on Win7.