Everything you can do to increase performance?

When googling "how to increase FPS" you will find thousands of persons claiming that you should download this software, or change that option. 99% is crap, but what are the things you can actually do to improve performance/FPS?

Of course a good laptop is the most important, and you need to install the proper drivers. But besides that, are there any things you can do that actually help? I found a guide ( TweakGuides.com - The TweakGuides Tweaking Companion) that looks pretty promising. Are there any guides here on NBR? Or are guides not needed, and should I just install the proper drivers and that's it?

Thanks!

 

Hmm, I completely looked over the guide section...

 

Overclocking is the obvious choice, as long as you do it properly the risks are very minimal and performance gains substantial.

Like you say, up-to-date drivers and games patches will help massively.

Make sure the game files are not fragmented by running a defragmenter. Keeping the Windows install in a clean, orderly state with not too many junk files.

Also ensuring as few background processes are running as possible. If you don't need the program for gaming, close it while playing games so precious CPU resources aren't being taken up by unessential programs. I use Game Booster for this purpose. Cuts the number of running services almost in half!

 

the best way to max FPS is to go with dual video cards (but that comes with its own headaches)

If that's not possible, then tweaking game settings to get a fluid frame rate is the way to go...Lowering resolution and graphical details until you have a very playable game...and you have to be realistic: With an average vid card, you can't expect to run Ultra @ 1080p and not see a slideshow