31
UPGRADEYOURDRIVE
SSDstorageusedtobe
expensive,butnowadays
affordableSATASSDsare
commonplace.EvensmallerM.2drives
(around120GB)arequitecheap,with
modelsfromreputablemanufacturers
costingaslittleas£25.Usingoneofthese
asa mainOSdriveguaranteesfasterboot
times,andthere’snoneedtogetridofyour
olddrives;theycanbecomebulkstorage
forfilesthatdon’tneedtoberapidly
accessed.Note:Windows 10 takesupat
least20GB,sobuyinga reallytinyM.2drive32
MOREMEMORY
If yoursystemisrunning
slow,upgradingtheRAMcan
oftenprovidethatextrabitof
oomphit needs.It’salsooneoftheeasiest
componentstoupgrade,especiallyif
yoursystemhasunusedDIMMslots.For
modernsystems,8GBofmemoryshould
beconsideredtheabsoluteminimum
amount,with16GBworkingperfectlywell
formosttasks.If youusevideo-editingor
renderingsoftwareontheregular,though,
upgradingto32GBoreven64GBmightbe
a goodcall.33
MOVEBEYOND
INTEGRATEDGRAPHICS
Rockinga newbudgetsystem
withintegratedgraphicsisno
badthing;modernAPUsaregreat,and
withIntel’s10th-genIrisPluschipsheaded
todesktop(eventually),integrated
graphicsareina prettygoodplaceright
now.However,if you’restillrockingan
olderdual-coreAPU,it mightbetimefor
anupgrade.Thatcouldjustmeanjumping
uptoa newerprocessor(suchasAMD’s
excellentRyzen5 3400G),orit might
meangettinga GPU.Snapupa Radeon
RX 550 forunder 100 quid,oraima little
higherandsnagsomethinglikeanRX 570
orNvidia’strustyGTX 1050 Ti– neither
shouldbreakthebank,butwillsmash
ntegratedgraphicsonolderAPUs.OPTIMISE
WINDOWS
FOR
GAMING
24
DISABLE HARDWARE ACCELERATION
ON MOUSE
If you’re a serious gamer, you’ve probably
done this already. Hardware acceleration
for computer mice smooths out the overall
pointer experience by making your cursor move further if
you move the physical mouse faster, but this can be ruinous
in first-person shooters, where snap movements to aim at a
target can overshoot their mark. Hop into the Control Panel
and select Hardware and Sound, then find your mouse
settings. Under Pointer Options, you can deselect Enhance
pointer precision – this is what Windows 10 calls in-OS
hardware acceleration. You can tweak baseline mouse
sensitivity here, too, although we recommend doing that
viathephysicalDPIcontrolsona gamingmouse.
adingtoanNVMEM.2driveis
, butSATASSDsarestillgood.25
BLOCKAUTO-UPDATES
INGAMELAUNCHERS
Thisis a must-have,particularlyif you’reona
meteredInternetconnection.Steamis easy
enough; select Downloads under Steam
Settings,andtogglethesettingstoyourheart’scontent.In
particular,weadviseuncheckingAllowdownloadsduring
gameplayif youplayonlinegames.OriginandEpicdon’thave
quitethesamearrayofchoices,butdostillallowforblocking
auto-updates;Epicevenallowsyoutotweakupdatechoices
ona per-gamebasis.26
REVERT GAME VERSION
This is a somewhat niche tip, but it can be
a lifesaver if an update tanks one of your
games. Steam has a beta feature – not
available in every game, but it’s easy to
check – that allows you to roll back your game version to
aprevious update. Right-click the game in your library,
select Properties, and navigate to the Betas tab. From here,
youcan opt in to older versions of the game in the drop-Steam has plenty of
interesting beta tools that
are worth checking out.© MICROSOFT||| AApApririilll 202020202020, y g re y y
isn’t a greatplan.g call.
R
h
o
s
inUpgra
ideal,REACH FOR YOUR WALLET
“Head to the manufacturer’s website
and locate the most recent drivers”