Path of Exile - Increase FPS & Performance

Path of Exile is a free online-only action role-playing game and it is still getting updated. The game still appeals to a broad audience. So I have created this guide because I think there may be players with performance problems in the game. In this guide, I listed a few tweaks to fix the performance issues in POE, such as fps drop, spikes, low fps, stuttering, freezing, lagging.

If you are experiencing massive FPS drops after the latest update, method 17 will most likely fix your problem.

There are 20 ways to improve your performance in Path of Exile.

System Requirements for Running Path of Exile

	Minimum System Requirements	Recommended System Requirements
CPU	x86-compatible 2.6GHz or better	x64-compatible, quad core, 3.2GHz or better
GPU	NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 650 Ti or ATI Radeon™ HD 7850 or better	NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti or ATI Radeon™ RX560 or better
DirectX	DirectX 11	DirectX 11
RAM	4 GB RAM	8 GB RAM
Storage	20 GB available space	20 GB available space
OS	Windows 7 SP1/Windows 8	Windows 7 SP1/Windows 10

1) Best Graphics Settings for Path of Exile

You can skip this step if you don’t want to change graphics settings. These High Performance graphics settings are for PCs which close to the minimum system requirements.

If you have a good PC, you can increase the settings slightly.

Go to in-game graphics options and make sure the settings are as follows.

Options > Graphics

	High Performance	Performance
Display Mode	Fullscreen	Fullscreen
Vsync	Disabled	Enabled
Antialiasing Quality	Off	Off
Lighting	Shadows	Shadows
Shadow Quality	Low	Low
Sun Shadow Quality	Low	Low
Number of Lights	Low	Medium
Post Processing	Disabled	Enabled
Water Detail Level	Low	Low
Texture Quality	Medium	High
Texture Filtering	Trilinear Filtering	Trilinear Filtering
Dynamic Resolution	Enabled	Disabled
Target Framerate	60	-
Engine Multithreading	Enabled	Enabled

Save changes and Exit the game.

If you encounter screen tearing problem during the gameplay, you should enable the Vsync. If you have a monitor with G-SYNC or FreeSync, you can activate them instead of Vsync.

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2) Steam Launch Options

• Go to the list of games in the Steam library.
• Right-click the Path of Exile and click the Properties.
• Click the Set Launch Options in the General tab.
• Type or paste the following commands into the box in the incoming window.

--noasync -gc 2 --softwareaudio

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3) Update Your Graphics Drivers

You should keep your computer’s graphics drivers updated.

People who have an NVIDIA graphics card can download and install their new drivers here.

People who have an AMD graphics card can download and install their new drivers here.

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4) NVIDIA Control Panel Settings

• Open NVIDIA Control Panel
• Go to the Adjust image settings with preview tab.
• Click the “Use my preference emphasizing“ (If you have a mid&high end pc, Let the 3D application decide)
• Put the bar in Performance mode.
• Apply

• Click the Manage 3D settings
• Click the Program Settings
• Click the Add
• Select the PathOfExile_x64Steam from the list, then click on the “Add Selected Program” button.
• After, make the following settings
  Antialiasing – Mode: Off
  Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance
• If you have a notebook, make sure you have selected the “High-performance NVIDIA processor” on preferred graphics processor.

• Apply and close the NVIDIA Control Panel.

The effect of the “Power management mode” setting differs between GPUs. If these settings made your FPS worse, just set the “Power management mode” to “Optimal power“. After that, it will increase. You can test it.

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5) AMD Radeon Settings

• Open the AMD Radeon Settings window.
• Click on the Gaming tab.
• Then click on Global Settings.
• Go to the Anti-aliasing mode, choose Override application settings.
• Click on the Anti-aliasing level, so make sure you have selected the 2X
• Go to the Anisotropic Filtering Mode and turn it on.
• Then, click on the Anisotropic Filtering Level, so make sure you have selected the 2X.
• Click on the Texture Filtering Quality and select the Performance.
• Now, click on the Wait for Vertical Refresh and select the Always off.
• Click on the Tessellation Mode and select the Override application settings.
• Finally, click on the Maximum Tessellation Level and select the 32x or lower.

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6) Intelligent Standby List Cleaner

The “Intelligent standby list cleaner” application will monitor and clear the memory standby list when it is > 1000mb (1gb). It will help players to fix stutters in games.

• Download the Intelligent standby list cleaner
• Run the 7-zip file.
• Extract to a folder.
• Go to the that folder.
• Run the “Intelligent standby list cleaner ISLC” application.
• Check the “Start ISLC minimized and auto-Start monitoring”
• Also, check the “Launch ISLC on user logon”
• Now, click on the Start button
• Minimize

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7) Full-screen Optimizations & High DPI in Windows 10

• Go to the folder where the game is installed.
  (Steam Library > Right Click on Path of Exile > Properties > LOCAL FILES > BROWSE LOCAL FILES)
• Right-click on PathOfExile_x64Steam.exe
• Hit the Properties
• Tick “Disable full-screen optimizations” on the Compatibility tab.
• After that, click on the “Change high DPI settings” button.
• Under the “High DPI scaling override” section, tick the “Override high DPI scaling behavior“
• Use the “Scaling performed by:” drop-down menu and select the “Application”
• Click on the OK and again OK.

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8) Power Options

If the CPU cooler is not enough, you can skip this setting. Processor temperature may increase by 5-6 degrees.

• Right-click the Windows icon on the bottom left.
• Click the Power Options
• Click the Additional power settings
• Select the High performance on the Preferred plans tab.
• After, click the Change plan settings link next to High performance.
• Tap on the Change advanced power settings
• Find Processor power management in the incoming list, click the + icon on the left side.
• Set Minimum processor state and Maximum processor state to 100%
• Click on the OK

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9) Game Mode

• To turn off Windows 10 game mode, click the Start icon to bring up the Start menu. Then open the Settings.
• Click the Gaming
• On the Game Bar tab, set the “Record game clips, screenshots and broadcast using Game bar” to Off.
• On the Captures tab, set the “Record in the background while I’m playing a game” to Off.
• On the Game Mode tab, set the “Game Mode” to Off.

If you are using an older version of Windows 10, you may not see the Game Mode settings. In this case, you can configure the settings directly in the Registry.

• Press the Windows logo key and R key simultaneously on your keyboard.
• Type regedit
• Press the Enter key.
• The Registry Editor will open. In the left panel, Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\GameBar
• Right-click inside the panel and select New
• Click on the DWORD (32-bit) Value

• Rename the New Key to AllowAutoGameMode
• Right-click on the AllowAutoGameMode
• Select the Modify…
• Set the “Value data” to 0

• Click on the OK button.
• Close the Registry Editor.
• Restart your PC.

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10) Windows Performance Options

• Type performance in the search section of Windows, click to Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows from the results.
• Select the Adjust for best performance from the options in the Performance Options window that opens.
• Click OK

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11) Cleaning Temporary Files

• Simultaneously press the Windows logo and R keys.
• Type %temp%
• Press Enter key.
• Delete everything in the Temp folder that opens. You can skip undeleted.

• Again, Simultaneously press the Windows logo and R keys.
• Type temp
• Press Enter key.
• Delete everything in the folder that opens.

• Again, Simultaneously press the Windows logo and R keys.
• Type prefetch
• Press Enter key.
• Delete everything in the Prefetch folder that opens.

Finally, empty the Recycle Bin

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12) SSD

If you have a Solid-State Drive, I recommend that you install the game on the SSD or move the game files to the SSD.

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13) Optimize Your Discord

If you are using Discord, disable the Hardware Acceleration and in-game overlay.

• Open Discord
• Go to the User Settings
• Then, go to the Appearance tab.
• Uncheck the Hardware Acceleration.

• Go to the Overlay on App Settings tab.
• Make sure unchecked the “Enable in-game overlay”

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14) Optimize Your Google Chrome

If you’re using Google Chrome, you’ll need to make this setting.

• Go to settings page in Chrome
• Click the Advanced
• Go to the System tab
• Finally, uncheck the “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed”

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15) Background Processes

You should close all unnecessary Apps, such as Chrome, Spotify, OneDrive. Also, if the Discord is idle, you should quit Discord.

Also, you can use the CCleaner to go through your startup and scheduled tasks and disable everything that you consider unnecessary.

And also, you should disable your Firewall/Antivirus while playing the Path of Exile, such as Eset, Avast, BitDefender, AVG, Acronis Active Protection, etc. Or add your Path of Exile directory in the exceptions list in your antivirus software.

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16) Increase The Priority

You need to adjust this setting every time you enter the game.

• Launch the game.
• Simultaneously press the ALT and TAB keys to minimize the game.
• Open the Task Manager
• Click on Details Tab
• In the list, find the PathOfExile_x64Steam.exe
• Right-click on PathOfExile_x64Steam.exe application and Set priority to High.

If you facing a stuttering issue in the game after doing this, don’t do the High priority setting. Set it to Normal.

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17) CPU Limiter – Fix Freezing & Stuttering

If the CPU usage is around 100% while playing Path of Exile and you experience freezing/stuttering issues, you can limit your CPU. Also, if you apply this setting, you can skip the previous method.

• Download and install the Process Lasso
• Run the Process Lasso application.
• Launch the Path of Exile.
• Go to the Process Lasso app and find the PathOfExile_x64Steam.exe in “All processes” list.
• Right-click on the PathOfExile_x64Steam.exe and select the CPU Limiter

• Set the “When CPU use is” to 98
• Set the “Reduce by this many CPU cores” to 1
• Below the “Reduce by this many CPU cores”, set the “For a period of” to 1
• Click on the Add Rule button.
• Finally click OK button and play the game.

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18) Reduce Ping and Fix Lag

• Go to the ExitLag page
• Click on the “FREE 3 DAYS TRIAL” button.
• Create an account.
• Verify the Email
• Download and install the ExitLag.
• Launch the ExitLag.
• Search the Path of Exile in the ExitLag app.
• Select the Path of Exile
• Select a game region
• Click on the APPLY ROUTES button.
• Play the game.

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19) Networking Mode

• Launch Path of Exile
• Go to the Options
• Set Networking Mode to Auto on UI tab.
• Save your changes

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20) Config

By making changes to the game's config file, you can completely disable some sounds and thereby significantly improve the performance in PoE.

• Navigate to C:\Users\%UserName%\Documents\My Games\Path of Exile

C:\Users\%UserName%\Documents\My Games\Path of Exile

• Open the production_Config.ini file
• Find the [SOUND] line in the file
• Change the following values under the [SOUND] line to false:
  ambient_sound_volume2
  chat_alert_sound_volume
  music_volume2
  mute_in_background
  reverb_enabled2
  sound_effects_volume2
• Save the changes.

Enjoy!