Play smart, not harder with these gaming performance tips and tricks!
From lag to legend? It’s possible if you unlock the secrets on how to supercharge your smartphone’s gaming capabilities. Here, we presented 10 things that could unlock the hidden gaming performance inside your phone.
Disclaimer: The following tips can only do so much on a smartphone. Its overall performance still relies on its default specs. No tweaks can magically turn a weak CPU into a flagship chipset.
1. Use the Native Game Mode
Many phones today have a built-in game mode or game booster. This feature often frees up the RAM and limits background processes to allocate more resources to the game.
Some game boosters have extra options for visual rendering, touch response, and controls. They are handy in certain game genres, including FPS and MOBA. You may even get the cool swipe from the side to quickly access controls and launch apps in a smaller window.
2. Connect to Faster Internet
If online gaming is your thing, make sure that your device is connected to a fast and stable internet connection. Mobile data is fine, but the preferred choice is 5G over 4G.
At home, if your internet router supports Wi-Fi 5, connect to that SSID. However, Wi-Fi 5 works seamlessly if you’re within the same room where the router is because this frequency is weak against thick walls.
Wi-Fi 6e or later is much better than Wi-Fi 2.4 or 5.
3. Adjust the Refresh Rate
Ever wondered why you couldn’t experience smooth gaming? It’s possible that the refresh rate is locked or in a dynamic state. Under Settings > Display, you can adjust the refresh rate and force it to a specific value (e.g. 90Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz) on select apps.
Combine the change with your game booster, you can now manually set the FPS for a specific game. Keep in mind that the game’s own support for specific FPS will take precedence.
If the game only supports 120FPS, your phone may not override it to 144FPS unless it has a special function like that.
4. Turn on DND
Notifications are annoying on a typical day. Imagine getting bombarded while gaming? If you don’t want to turn off notifications on every app, just enable Do Not Disturb. It’s easily accessible by pressing the volume rockers and tapping the crescent moon.
By default, DND will still allow calls but at least no more distractions from SMS and other apps.
5. Tweak In-game Settings
Tweaking in-game graphics is a huge help, especially for low-end smartphones. To improve gaming performance, adjust the following:
- Anti-aliasing: Off
- Anisotropic filtering: Off
- Ambient occlusion: Off
- Ray tracing: Off
- Field of view: Off
- Draw distance: Low
- Shadows: Off
- Bloom: Off
- Character inking: Off
- Textures: Mid or low
- Visual or special effects: Mid or low
Sometimes, the word “graphics” is the totality of textures and other visual assets. You should go for the lowest available if your device is having issues, and then work your way up to find the sweet spot. Reducing the frame rate will also improve playability.
You can go for the recommended settings to let the game decide for you. But it’s better to manually tweak things so you can learn which works well on your smartphone.
High-end smartphones won’t have issues with high settings but expect the battery to be drained quickly. Powerful chipsets tend to consume a lot of power when you crank those settings during gaming.
6. Enable Performance Mode
Some smartphones have a dedicated Performance Mode under the Battery Settings. This mode unleashes the maximum performance of the CPU and GPU in exchange for higher temperatures and greater power drain.
In my experience with the POCO X6 Pro 5G, turning on this mode really leads to a smoother gaming performance. But the heat and battery drain can be too much over extended periods.
That said, this mode is better paired with bypass charging if supported. If not, consider this for burst gaming – a few hours of online high-octane experience or co-op gameplays.
7. Battery Saving Modes
This section is possibly the weirdest thing here. First, turn off Battery Saving Mode because it forces the CPU and GPU to clock down. It’s counterintuitive as it drags the clock speed lower while a game tries to pull it up.
Second, play games under Ultra Power Saving Mode. Crazy, right? It’s difficult to prove but I’ve tried this before on the POCO X6 Pro 5G.
Under Ultra Power Saving Mode, the smartphone acts like a basic phone with only apps available on the home screen. SMS, calls, Wi-Fi, and mobile data can retain their functions so long they’re turned on prior to entering this mode. However, non-essential features and services are “hibernated.”
The only thing your device will prioritize is the six apps on the home screen. Assign a game in one of them and play it. The logic here is the device will use all available resources for that game only – no notifications, no running extra services, no syncing, just unadulterated attention.
Again, it’s difficult to prove and may or may not work on your device. But you can always test it out and see if it works.
8. Manage Thermals
Ever heard of the word “throttling?” It happens when the temperature is too hot for the CPU. It’s a temperature safeguard to prevent nasty things from happening.
When gaming, you need to manage the temperature and there are many third-party apps you can get to help you monitor it. The acceptable temperature range during heavy use is between 38℃ and 44℃.
How to lower the heat? Air flow and lots of it. A simple electrical fan pointed at you while playing will do wonders. You can also buy an attachable cooling fan for your smartphone.
Extreme heat can drag down gaming performance, be it flagship or not.
9. Disable Auto-sync
This may not mean much for some mid-rangers and flagships but may help lower-end devices. Auto-sync found under Settings > Accounts can consume processing power as inputted email and social media accounts constantly check for updates.
Turning this off will stop those accounts from checking and even extend the overall battery life of your smartphone. Just make sure to turn it back on if you really use this feature.
10. Play with Gaming Accessories
For maximum gaming performance and experience, why not play games with accessories? Three most impactful are gaming gloves, cooling fan, and attachable controllers. Some phones, like the Infinix GT 20 Pro, were launched with a gaming kit.
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