If you experience low FPS after a Windows update, check graphics drivers, adjust visual effects, manage background processes, and verify game-specific settings. 1. Update or roll back your GPU driver via Device Manager or the manufacturer’s website. 2. Adjust Windows visual effects for best performance by disabling animations and transparency. 3. Use Task Manager to identify and end resource-heavy background processes like Windows Search or telemetry services, and set power plan to High Performance. 4. Check for game compatibility issues, reinstall or verify game files, ensure the game is patched, and confirm display mode settings are optimal. These steps typically resolve performance drops caused by Windows updates.

If you've recently updated Windows and suddenly noticed your games or apps are running slower — like your frame rates dropped out of nowhere — you're not alone. Windows updates can sometimes mess with drivers, system settings, or even background processes that affect performance. The good news is, there are several things you can do to get your FPS back up.

Check for Graphics Driver Issues

One of the most common reasons for low FPS after a Windows update is outdated or incompatible graphics drivers. Sometimes, an update might roll back your driver or install a version that doesn't play well with your GPU.

Here's what you can try:

• Go to Device Manager, expand Display adapters, right-click your GPU, and choose Update driver.
• Alternatively, go directly to your GPU manufacturer’s website (NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel) and download the latest driver manually.
• If you had a working driver before the update, you can also roll it back by going to the same menu and selecting Properties > Driver > Roll Back Driver (if available).

This step often fixes sudden performance drops because drivers are crucial for how your system talks to the GPU.

Adjust Windows Visual Effects for Performance

Windows sometimes enables more visual effects after an update, especially if it's a major one like a feature upgrade. These effects can take up resources that could otherwise be used for gaming or rendering.

To tweak this:

• Open System Properties (you can search for it in the Start menu).
• Under the Advanced tab, click Settings under Performance.
• Choose Adjust for best performance, or manually uncheck animations and transparency effects that you don’t need.

You might not notice a huge difference in games, but some apps and games can benefit from a leaner visual setup, especially on lower-end systems.

Stop Background Processes from Hogging Resources

After a Windows update, background tasks like indexing or telemetry services may kick in, eating up CPU, RAM, or disk usage. That can definitely impact FPS, particularly in less powerful machines.

What to do:

• Press Ctrl Shift Esc to open Task Manager.
• Check the CPU, Memory, Disk, and Background processes tabs to spot any unusual activity.
• If something like Windows Search, Windows Update, or Cloud Experience Host is using a lot of resources, right-click and End task (but avoid killing critical system processes unless you know what they do).

Also, make sure to set high-performance mode:

• Go to Control Panel > Power Options and select High performance (or adjust the current plan to maximize performance).

Watch Out for Game-Specific Settings or Conflicts

Sometimes the issue isn’t system-wide — just certain games suffer from low FPS after a Windows update. This can happen due to compatibility issues or changes in how DirectX or Vulkan works post-update.

Try these:

• Launch the game through its launcher or Steam, and check if there’s a compatibility warning.
• Reinstall or verify the game files via Steam or Epic Launcher.
• Make sure the game has the latest patch — developers often release hotfixes after major OS updates.

Also, check if your game is running in the correct display mode (fullscreen vs. borderless) — sometimes updates reset those preferences, leading to unexpected performance hits.

Basically, when you’re hit with low FPS after a Windows update, start with drivers, then look at background processes and visual settings. Most of the time, it’s not a deep-rooted problem — just something that got shifted around during the update. Fixing one or two of these areas usually gets things back to normal.

The above is the detailed content of Why am I getting low FPS after a Windows update, and how to fix it?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!