PC Optimization for Gaming

• A collection of Tweaks.bat focused on optimizing overall responsiveness by improving framerate, frametimes, input and device communication latencies.
• Other potential benefits and improvements include; reducing or eliminating stutters and hitching.

Note

• Serves mainly as a document to track my own configuration changes.
• Not intended as a comprehensive user guide with technical explanations or a FAQ.
• Not a system overclocking guide.
• Currently tested and working on;
  • INTEL i9 12900K
  • AMD 9070 XT
  • WINDOWS 11 Pro [Version 25H2 Build 26200.8894]

Warning

• Tweaks are experimental.
• Tailored for Intel CPU, AMD GPU and Windows 11 OS.
• Expect increased temperatures, power consumption and usage of CPU and GPU.
• Use the scripts provided as a reference to test and tailor settings to your own environment.

Caution

• Use at your own risk.

Software & Tools

• Display Driver Unistaller (DDU)
• Driver Store Explorer
• HWiNFO
• Interrupt Affinity Policy Tool
• LatencyMon
• Measure Sleep
• ParkControl
• Power Settings Explorer
• RawAccel
• Timer Bench
• USB Device Viewer
• USB Tree Viewer

Note

• Providing a list of various tools and software used for performance and gaming in general.
• Many of theses are not covered or explained in this document but sharing useful tools for you to look into.

BIOS - General Settings

Disable:

• Active State Power Management (ASPM) Disable
• Aggressive Link Power Management (ALPM) Disable
• Hyper-V Disable
• Intel Virtualization Technology Disable
• VT-d Disable
• Hyper-Threading [Dependant on Game/System] Enable or Disable
• Spread Spectrum [When Overclocking] Disable
• CPU C-States Disable
• CPU Power Throttling Disable
• CPU Thermal Protection Disable
• Fast Boot Disable
• Intel SpeedStep Disable
• Intel TurboBoost Disable
• TPM Disable
• Integrated devices [Audio, Video, Bluetooth, WiFi] Disable
• Unused USB ports Disable

Enable:

• Above 4G Decoding [Resizable Bar] Enable
• AHCI [SATA Controller Mode] Enable
• XMP [Profiles for RAM] Enable
• High Performance Power Mode [Intel Defaults] Enable
• BCLK size [Set to 100.00 Mhz] Enable
• High Precision Event Timer (HPET) Enable
• AVX Offset - Set to Enable and 0 offset.
• Load Line Calibration (LLC) [Set a static voltage for CPU vcore and use LLC] Enable
• Secure Boot Enable

BIOS - Enable Resizable BAR

• Enabling Resizable BAR in the BIOS is required otherwise the GPU Driver level settings will not have any effect.

• In BIOS:

  • Ensure Above 4G Decoding [Resizable Bar] is set to Enable

Note

• Enabling Resizable BAR in the BIOS depends on your hardware compatibility, motherboard manufacturer and BIOS version.
• You can verify Resizable BAR is enabled by opening the official GPU software for AMD or NVIDIA and find Resizable BAR shown as enabled.
• Some research suggests that setting rBAR size higher such as 4GB, 8GB, 12GB, 16GB [relative to your available VRAM] can be taken advantage of by some games as long as VRAM never hits/exceeds max.

AMD Graphics Card / Adrenaline Software

• To be updated.

Windows Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling

• Open Control Panel
• Select System
• Select Display
• Select Graphics
• Select Change Default Graphics Settings
• Set Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling to On

Windows Game Mode

• OpenControl Panel
• Select Gaming
• Select Game Mode
• Set Game Mode to On

Windows Audio

• Disable Audio/Signal Enhancements
• Disable Spatial Sound
• Enable Exclusive Mode
• Open Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound > Communications > Set to Do Nothing
• Set Audio Output to Headphones mode in games whenever possible
• Set Default Format to 24-bit 48000Hz (Studio Quality)
• Increase and keep Windows OS volume set to 100%
  • Use your DAC/AMP, physical volume slider or in-game settings to control volume levels instead

USB Ports & Devices

• Not all USB ports on your motherbboard are created equal.
• USB port performance can vary significantly.
• USB port connections can be tied "Direct to CPU", routed through the shared motherboard chipset, or powered by slower third-party controllers.
• CPU-direct ports offer the highest bandwidth and lowest latency. They are primarily an AMD Ryzen feature (Not Intel).
• Newer or "feature rich aka top-end and expensive" motherboards may not have this consideration.
• Use a tool like USB LATENCY ANALYZER (https://tools.mariusheier.com/cpudirect.html) to research and verify.
• Count chips between your device and CPU. More chips = more latency.
• 0 CHIPS device --- [CPU]
• 1 CHIP device -[CHIPSET]- [CPU]
• 2 CHIPS device -[HUB]-[CHIPSET]- [CPU]
• Note: the optimization scripts I provided include commands for disabling "USB Selective Suspend" in Windows.

Message Signal Intterupts (MSI)

• Use the Interrupt Affinity Policy Tool application to define and force Message Signal Intterupts
• Assign cpu cores to separate devices where interrupts are sent to
• Assign priority level

Device	Priority	Core Assignment
GPU	High	P-Cores 4,5,6,7
Network Controller	High	P-Cores 0,1,2,3
USB Host Controllers	High	P-Cores 1,2,3
NVME Drives	High	E-cores 8-15
NVME Controllers	High	E-cores 8-15

• I am currently testing [as of August 2026] to let the OS handle all MSIs at high priority.

Device	Priority	Core Assignment
GPU	High	Spread Messages Across All Processors
Network Controller	High	Spread Messages Across All Processors
USB Host Controllers	High	Spread Messages Across All Processors
NVME Drives	High	Spread Messages Across All Processors
NVME Controllers	High	Spread Messages Across All Processors

Note

• Example table shows a configuartion that seperates intterupts individually on usable threads for all MSI enabled devices and sets them all as high priority.
• Serves as an example of how you might split MSI Intterupts across cores. May not be optimal for your hardware/configuration.
• Recommended to not set intterupts on Core 0. Typically the default interrupt thread(s) for entire system. Bottleneck in many cases where OS, applications and games can default to significant usage of this core/thread(s).
• In rare cases, some device drivers do need to be assigned to Core 0 and changing these vaulues including MSI Limit can cause the device to fail. You might see your device hardware flagged (!) in Windows Device Manager.

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Plundered with ❤️ by NEKR1D