Is Games Running Slow on PC? Fix it!

Why are my games running slow on PC?

“Why my games are running in slow motion?” this inevitable problem for all players, especially some big video games or some highly relevant games. You may have a lagging picture, freezing, game crash…and honestly, there are plenty of reasons to make your games run slower than before. What’s more, your PC will be slower and slower. Here we list some possible factors:

1. Low CPU performance
Some games have high CPU performance requirements, this may cause overheating if the low-performance CPU has been overloaded for a long time, it will go wrong. In this situation, you’d better change a nice CPU.

2. Poor graphic card
This often causes lags during playing high-definition 3D games. You can set low quality in the game, but this is a little cruel for most players, so why don’t you substitute an old graphic card for a new one?

3. Insufficient heat dissipation
CPU heat dissipation is not good, which won’t directly affect the game itself, however, it will affect other hardware, which will cause the temperature of the internal hardware, like the motherboard or graphics card to increase. Once the hardware temperature is too high, the computer will take automatic protection measures--blue screen and black screen. What’s worse, too high a temperature may burn out the hardware and slow down the running program.

4. DX(DirectX) version too low
DirectX is an application programming interface (API) that allows games or multimedia programs on the Windows platform to achieve higher execution efficiency and enhance 3D graphics and sound effects. There are many versions of DirectX, and the error code or prompt for each version is different. If the DX version is too low, it will cause the game or software to report an error, fail to start and fail to run.

5. Save games on the system partition
Some users store their games on C drive, but OS is also on it, OS will keep reading and writing data, thus, the available space will gradually decrease.

6. Inadequate RAM
An inadequate RAM can’t provide sufficient memory to deal with the procedure you need, therefore, your PC and your games get slower. You can add more memory to solve this case.

How do you fix games running slow on PC?

Certainly, other reasons also bring about the annoyance of games running slow, the point is how to fix it? For different types of reasons, we proffer you some practical methods in the next two sections. You can select the most suitable way according to your situation.

▌Section 1: Set PC or games

1. Close unnecessary programs

Check CPU and see what processes and programs can be closed by the task manager.

Step 1. Press “CTRL”, ” ALT”, “DEL” simultaneously.

Step 2. Choose “Task Manager”.

Step 3. In the small window, click “More details”.

Step 4. Choose “Processes”, and “CPU” to check it.

Step 5. Look through the top five or ten lines for programs.

Step 6. Click “End Task” to stop those programs that aren’t used.

2. Enter safe mode

Step 1. Click “Start”, choose “Update & Security”.

Step 2. Click “Recovery” on the left menu.

Step 3. Find “Advanced startup”, click “Restart now”, and find “Troubleshoot”, then click “Advanced options”.

Step 4. Restart your computer press “F4” to enter safe mode.

3. Reduce Game Settings

If you don’t mind, this method is also workable.

Step 1. Launch a game, open its set menu.

Step 2. Find “Video” or “Graphic”, change “Ultra” or “High” to “Medium” or ”Low”.

Step 3. Go back to the game, check game performance.

4. Delete temporary files

Step 1. In “This PC”, right-click your C partition, choose “Properties”.

Step 2. Click “General”, and “Disk Cleanup”.

Step 3. In the “Files to delete”, find “Temporary Files”, tick it and click “OK”.

▌Section 2: Fix it with easy operations

Using Windows and the built-in settings of the game to improve the slow running of the game does not solve the fundamental problem. Thus, some players may want something once and for all via improving disk or partition, once you finish all operations, the performance of your games and your PC will be better than before.

Here, we recommend you a professional convenient third-party software--AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard--which is your best personal hard drive manager. It has various functions with easy steps to help you improve the performance of your programs and computer. Let’s fix your slow games through this right-hand tool.

Note: The Standard Edition only supports MBR data disks clone, if you wish to clone MBR system disk, MBR to GPT, GPT to MBR, GPT to GPT, please upgrade to the Professional Edition.

1. Disk Clone

SSD is so attractive for game players, for it can speed up reading and writing, which offers the perfect game experience. However, some may worry about complicated operations. Please follow these steps to set your SSD up.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, and click "Clone" in the main interface, and select "Clone Disk".

Step 2. Choose the hard disk that you need to clone as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Select another drive as the destination disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to "Sector to Sector clone", and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of the SSD. 

Step 5. After returning to the main interface, check the pending operation and click "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the operation.

2. App Mover

If your games are stored in a C drive, you can transfer them from a C drive to a D drive. By upgrading to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, you can transfer all programs without reinstalling or missing any files.

Step 1. Install the application,  find “App Mover” in “Free up”.

Step 2. In the new window, select the partition with the game you need to transfer.

Step 3. In the popup, those transferable programs on C drive will be listed. You can choose one or multiple games which you want to transfer.

Step 4. While you finish the selection, please choose the destination drive, like D drive. Then choose “Move”, don’t click “Cancel” during this process.

Step 5. Click “Finish”, then try your game to check if it’s going well or not.

Warnings: Please make sure your destination drive has enough space for your games. If it doesn’t, you will see a pop note: D drive has insufficient space, can’t move applications. Please release more space or extend your D drive and try again. You also can choose an external drive or USB flash drive as the target path of your game. But what you should know is that the drive letter may be changed automatically when it is reconnected. In this case, the moved apps are unable to run.

Choose your method to save your games! Hope you can enjoy your games after you fix the game running slow on PC with the above ways.