There are many different ways to improve the performance of your PC to make it run faster, and most of them don’t require spending anything. The best results usually come from upgrading the components, like a better processor or faster memory, but there are a range of software tweaks, settings adjustments, and free downloads that can help your PC run faster without spending a thing.
How to make your PC run faster
Upgrade it
Before we get to the small but significant tweaks you can make to your PC to make it run faster, let’s address the elephant in the room: Upgrades. The most effective way to make your PC run faster is to upgrade it. That can be expensive, and you’ll need to have someone do it for you, or learn how to replace particular components, but upgrades are very effective at improving a system’s capabilities.
A faster processor, more or faster memory, SSDs with greater storage capacity (like the Predator GM9), or a new graphics card, can all make a big difference to how your PC works. The specific upgrades that would be best for your system depend on what you have and what you’re trying to achieve, so be sure to maximize your budget by focusing on the components that can help you achieve the kind of speed boost you’re looking for.
CPU upgrades will improve general system performance across the board. Applications should load faster, you can multi-task more readily, and games and demanding apps will run faster and with fewer hitches and stutters.
Graphics card upgrades are primarily beneficial for gaming, but can also benefit 3D rendering applications, or if you’re performing any 3D design work, or running local AI workloads. The GPUs with the grandest video memory can even run large language models locally on your machine.
Memory upgrades can make your PC feel much faster if you’re a heavy multi-tasker. More memory lets you open more browser tabs at once, run more demanding applications, and do more things simultaneously without your system slowing down. Running faster memory can also boost the speed of other components, like your CPU, by removing bottlenecks.
Storage upgrades will give you additional capacity, letting you install more games and applications at once, or store more videos, images, and audio files without having to delete anything. You can also upgrade to faster storage, which can reduce system boot times and application load times, as well as improve AI responsiveness if you’re giving it access to particular data sets.
Enable XMP/EXPO
Enabling your memory’s XMP or EXPO profile in the BIOS can boost its speed significantly by applying a factory overclock. This improves the bandwidth and reduces latency, which can affect games, and professional applications, as well as general performance. You’ll find XMP/EXPO settings in the BIOS. If you’re new to memory overclocking, click here to learn more about what XMP and EXPO are and how they work.
Enable Resizeable BAR/SAM
Toggle On Resizeable BAR (or Smart Access Memory on AMD systems) in the BIOS or your graphics card driver suite to give your CPU full access to the GPU’s VRAM for added graphics performance.
Update the drivers
Download the latest drivers for your graphics card and motherboard from the manufacturer’s website. They can boost performance, improve system stability, and unlock new features that can give your system entirely new capabilities.
Update the operating system
Operating system updates can improve performance to help your PC run faster, but they also add new features to the operating system, improve compatibility with new hardware, and fix bugs that could be slowing your PC down. Run your O/S’ update tool to download the latest version.
Close down background applications
If you want to boost performance in a particular application, make sure to close down anything you aren’t actively using when it’s running. That includes browser tabs, note taking apps, VPNs, AI chatbots, messaging apps, and anything else that you don’t need running at the same time.
Reduce startup applications
If you want to make those closed applications stay closed, or only open when you need them, open up the list of Startup applications and disable the ones you don’t need. Pay particular attention to any that have a high impact on the boot process, and you should see the operating system start up quicker than normal.
Clean your PC
If your PC is overheating, its performance can degrade dramatically. Cleaning out any dust and debris, clearing out dust filters, tidying up cables, and making sure all the fans are spinning properly without interference, can make a big difference to how your PC performs. It can also make it far quieter, too.
Clear out storage
If your SSD(s) are getting full, you may find storage performance diminishes as the controller can’t move data around as it wants to in quite the same way. It’s a good idea to maintain at least 20% free space on your SSD to enjoy peak performance. If you have less than that, uninstalling a few apps and games, or deleting a few files, can make a real difference.
Enable Game Mode
Windows has a built-in Game Mode which can help prioritize games to give them the most system resources for improved performance. It’s not dramatic, but it can help and is worth enabling if you primarily use your PC for games.
To enable it, navigate to Settings > Gaming > Game Mode, and make sure it’s toggled On.
Overclock it
Overclocking lets you push your various hardware components beyond their factory settings for enhanced performance. It depends on the components you have and the limits of their power and cooling, but most systems can overclock the CPU, graphics card, and memory, for added performance.
Overclocking is a complicated and time-consuming task, however, so you’ll want to do some in-depth research before beginning.
Factory reset
If it’s been years since you bought your PC or you don’t mind starting from scratch, a factory reset will make it feel almost as good as new. It will remove all of your data, though, so be sure to back that up before proceeding.
Unlock Next-Level Speed with Predator GM9 PCIe 5.0 SSD
If you’re looking for one of the most impactful upgrades for overall system responsiveness, storage is the place to start. The Predator GM9 PCIe 5.0 SSD is designed to push modern PCs beyond the limits of Gen4 performance, delivering PCIe Gen5 x4 bandwidth and NVMe 2.0 efficiency for dramatically faster data access. With next-generation sequential read speeds reaching up to 11,000 MB/s-class performance, it reduces load times across games, creative tools, and large project files, making everything feel more immediate and fluid.
Beyond raw speed, it also helps eliminate common bottlenecks in demanding workflows such as 4K/8K video editing, large-scale file transfers, and AI-assisted applications that rely heavily on fast data throughput. Improved thermal and power efficiency ensures sustained performance under heavy workloads, keeping your system stable even during long sessions. Whether you’re upgrading an aging setup or building a high-performance machine, the Predator GM9 PCIe 5.0 SSD delivers a simple yet powerful way to make your PC feel instantly faster and more responsive.
