How SmoothFPS Works
We diagnose what's causing your FPS problem, then point you at the fix that matches your specific hardware and symptoms.
Our 3-step process
Identify your symptoms
You tell us what you're seeing. Stuttering, low FPS, frame drops, and other performance problems each look similar on paper but come from different places. The first step is figuring out which one you're dealing with.
Narrow down the cause
We ask about when the problem shows up, what you were doing, and what you've already tried. Those answers narrow the cause down to one of six places: CPU, GPU, drivers, storage, thermals, or software.
Apply fixes in order
You get a short list of fixes to try, ordered by how often each one solves this specific cause and how easy it is to apply. Every fix shows its difficulty level and how many users reported it worked for them.
What's in the toolkit
The diagnostic flowchart
A short sequence of yes/no questions about your symptoms. Each answer rules out causes that don't match, so by the end you have a specific category to focus on, whether that's thermal throttling, a CPU bottleneck, or a driver regression.
HWiNFO log analysis
Upload the CSV log from HWiNFO and the analyzer reads through the sensor data, looking for thermal throttling, CPU or GPU bottlenecks, and the frame-time outliers that correlate with stutter. It catches things that are hard to spot when you're scrolling through a spreadsheet manually.
Community-rated fixes
Every fix carries a vote count from users who've tried it. The ones that worked for more people rise to the top of the list, so you can see at a glance which fixes are worth your time.
Guide library
Every fix has a longer guide attached that explains why it works, not only the click steps. If you want to understand the underlying problem, the guides go into the mechanism. If you only want the fix, skip straight to the steps.
Why Trust SmoothFPS?
- No affiliate links or sponsored content. Every tool or upgrade we recommend is chosen for what works, not for a commission.
- Free to run, and we say what is paid. Every analysis gives you the verdict, the health score, the findings and the CPU-vs-GPU split at no cost. What you pay for is the attribution behind it — the named throttle cause, the stutter-by-stutter investigation and the sensor correlations — either for one report or with Pro.
- We don't sell your data. See our Privacy Policy for the specifics of what's collected and how it's used.
- Open methodology. Every fix on the site is sourced from publicly documented information, including official vendor docs, driver release notes, and long-running technical communities.
Start with the diagnostic
Answer a few questions about your symptoms and the tool points you at the fix that matches your exact setup.
Start free diagnosis