Solution Library
Proven fixes for FPS drops, stuttering, and performance issues.
Disable Multi-Plane Overlay (MPO)
Multi-Plane Overlay (MPO) is a Windows display feature that hands compositing to your graphics hardware instead of the operating system. When it works you never notice it. When it misbehaves you get flickering, black screens that last a fraction of a second, stuttering that no in-game setting fixes, and overlays like Discord, GeForce Experience or Xbox Game Bar tearing or blanking. It affects NVIDIA and AMD alike, and it is worst on the setups people buy for smoothness: variable refresh rate (G-Sync or FreeSync), high refresh panels, and multi-monitor desktops. This page shows you how to disable MPO, how to check whether it was actually your problem, and how to put it back if it was not. You will also see it written as multiplane overlay or multi plane overlay — same feature, same fix. WHAT MPO ACTUALLY DOES Windows draws your screen by combining separate layers — the desktop, a video, a game window, an overlay. Since Windows 8.1, the Desktop Window Manager can hand those layers to fixed-function hardware in your GPU as separate "planes" rather than blending them itself. That saves power and can cut latency, which is why Microsoft enables it by default. The trouble happens at the moments the planes change: a video starts, a game goes fullscreen, an overlay appears, or the refresh rate shifts because VRR is doing its job. On some driver and firmware combinations those transitions are not clean, and what you see is a flicker, a black frame, or a hitch. Because it lives below the game, nothing you change inside the game makes any difference — which is exactly why people end up searching for this after trying everything else. HOW TO TELL IF MPO IS YOUR PROBLEM MPO is a likely suspect when the symptom follows a pattern like this: The flicker or black screen happens when something on screen changes state — alt-tabbing, a video thumbnail starting to play, an overlay popping up, a game entering or leaving fullscreen. It is more common with G-Sync or FreeSync switched on, and often disappears entirely when you switch VRR off. It can appear on the desktop, not only in games. It survives a clean driver reinstall, because the driver is not the whole story. And it usually arrived with a Windows or driver update rather than with new hardware. MPO is an unlikely suspect when the stutter is tied to load rather than to transitions: it gets worse as the scene gets busier, your GPU or CPU is pinned at 100%, or your temperatures are climbing while your clock speeds fall. That pattern is thermal or bottleneck-shaped, and turning MPO off will not touch it. If you are not sure which of the two you are looking at, that is a measurement question rather than a guessing one — a sensor log will show whether your clocks were dropping at the moment of the stutter, which separates a thermal problem from a compositing one. THE FIX: OVERLAYTESTMODE Disabling MPO is a single registry value. OverlayTestMode is an undocumented Windows value — it appears in NVIDIA's support article rather than in Microsoft's documentation — and setting it to 5 tells the Desktop Window Manager to stop using overlay planes. It is fully reversible, and the steps below include exactly how to reverse it. The value lives in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm and must be created as a DWORD (32-bit) named exactly OverlayTestMode, with the value 5. A restart is required — the Desktop Window Manager reads it at start-up, so nothing changes until you reboot. WINDOWS 11 24H2 AND OVERLAYMINFPS On Windows 11 24H2 and newer, OverlayTestMode=5 stopped reliably disabling MPO for many people. The companion value is OverlayMinFPS, a DWORD (32-bit) set to 0, created in the same Dwm key. Set both, restart, and re-test. If you are on 24H2 and only the first value did nothing, this is the missing half rather than a sign that MPO was innocent. WHAT IT COSTS YOU This is a trade, not a free win, and it is worth knowing what you are trading. Compositing in hardware exists to save power. With MPO off, the Desktop Window Manager does that work itself, so idle and video-playback power draw rise slightly. On a desktop you will not notice. On a laptop you may lose a little battery life during video playback — the case MPO was designed to optimise. There is no meaningful frame-rate cost in games. MPO is about how finished frames reach your panel, not about how they are rendered, so disabling it does not reduce your FPS. What changes is the smoothness of the path to the screen, which is the entire point. IF IT DID NOT HELP Put it back. A fix that changed nothing is a fix you should not keep carrying, and leaving unexplained registry values behind makes the next problem harder to diagnose. Delete the value or values you created, restart, and the previous behaviour returns. Then look at the shape of the symptom again. Stutter that scales with scene complexity, clocks that fall while temperatures rise, a GPU sitting idle while the CPU is pinned — these are different problems with different fixes, and the pattern is visible in a sensor log even when it is invisible on screen. WHY THIS FIX IS SO WIDELY RECOMMENDED MPO problems are unusual in that the symptom is dramatic and the cause is invisible. A black screen or a flicker looks like failing hardware, a dying cable, or a broken monitor. People replace DisplayPort cables and reinstall Windows over it. The actual cause is a composition feature doing something subtle at layer-change time, and there is no error message anywhere to point at it. That gap between how alarming the symptom looks and how small the cause is explains why this one registry value has become one of the most-shared fixes in PC troubleshooting — and why it is worth trying before you buy anything.
Disable Hardware Acceleration in Apps
Many background apps (Discord, Chrome, Spotify, Steam, etc.) use Hardware Acceleration, offloading rendering to your GPU. While this can make apps smoother, it can compete with your game for GPU resources, cause FPS drops and stutters, or trigger overlay/driver issues. Disabling hardware acceleration in non-essential apps can help keep your GPU focused on the game, improving stability.
Disable CSM in BIOS
CSM (Compatibility Support Module) is a BIOS/UEFI feature that enables legacy boot support for older operating systems and hardware. On modern PCs, keeping CSM enabled can sometimes interfere with full UEFI mode features and cause minor stability or performance issues. Disabling CSM ensures the system runs in pure UEFI mode, improves compatibility with modern features like Secure Boot, and reduces legacy boot overhead.
Lower Mouse Polling Rate
Your mouse polling rate (Report Rate) controls how many times per second the mouse sends position updates to the PC. Very high polling rates like 1000Hz, 2000Hz, 4000Hz, or 8000Hz can create extra CPU interrupt load (DPC/ISR overhead). On some systems, this shows up as micro-stuttering, especially when moving the mouse quickly in-game. Lowering the polling rate can reduce micro-stutters, improve frame-time consistency in CPU-limited games, and reduce interrupt overhead.
Disable HPET (High Precision Event Timer)
HPET (High Precision Event Timer) is a hardware timer used by Windows for timing and scheduling. On some PCs, it can contribute to micro-stutters, uneven frame pacing, or input latency in games. Disabling HPET (or letting Windows choose the best timer automatically) can sometimes reduce micro-stuttering, improve frame pacing, reduce input delay, and improve overall gameplay smoothness.
Disable Fullscreen Optimizations
Some games on Windows suffer from FPS stuttering or input lag because of Fullscreen Optimizations. Disabling this feature forces the game to run in classic fullscreen mode instead of Windows' hybrid fullscreen/borderless mode, which can reduce frame stuttering, reduce input delay, and improve overall performance stability.
Set Windows Timer Resolution
Windows uses a system timer resolution (tick interval) to schedule sleep/timer-based work. For some games/systems, forcing a higher timer frequency (i.e., a lower interval like 0.5ms) can improve frame pacing and reduce micro-stutter by making timing/scheduling more precise. A popular way to force this is using ISLC (Intelligent Standby List Cleaner) by Wagnard, which includes an option to set a custom timer resolution.
Disable Windows Game Mode
Windows includes Game Mode that is supposed to improve gaming performance by prioritizing the game and limiting background activity. However, in some games it can actually cause FPS stuttering, frame drops, or input lag because of how it manages system resources and interacts with overlays and background services. Disabling it can reduce random stutters, make frame times more stable, and improve overall smoothness.
Clear Standby Memory List
Windows uses standby memory to cache data it thinks you might need again soon. On some systems (especially with 8-16 GB RAM) Windows can let the standby list grow too large and only clear it when absolutely necessary. When that happens during a game, Windows may suddenly free a big chunk of memory, causing FPS stuttering, micro-freezes, hitching, and frametime spikes. ISLC automatically monitors RAM and clears the standby list when free memory gets too low.
Increase NVIDIA Shader Cache Size
By default, NVIDIA's shader cache size is quite small. When the cache is too limited, shaders have to be recompiled more often, causing shader compilation stutter, micro-freezes when loading new areas or effects, and inconsistent frametimes. Increasing the shader cache size gives the GPU more room to store compiled shaders, which helps reduce stutters and improve smoothness over time.
Use Ultimate Performance Power Plan
Windows includes a special (often hidden) power plan called Ultimate Performance. It's designed to reduce power-saving behaviors that can cause CPU throttling, slower boost response, or inconsistent performance—especially during demanding tasks like gaming. Enabling this plan can keep CPU clocks more consistent under load, improve responsiveness, and stabilize performance in CPU-heavy games.
Disable Memory Compression
Windows uses Memory Compression to fit more data into RAM by compressing it. While this can reduce paging to disk, on some systems the extra compression/decompression work can cause micro-stutters or inconsistent frame pacing—especially in games or heavy multitasking. Disabling it may help reduce micro-stutters, improve frame pacing consistency under load, and lower CPU spikes caused by compression.
Disable Core Isolation / VBS
Core Isolation (often tied to VBS – Virtualization-Based Security) is a Windows security feature that uses virtualization to protect your system. Memory integrity (HVCI) can add overhead and reduce performance in some games—especially on CPU-limited systems. Turning it off can improve FPS and frame-time consistency, reduce micro-stutters in CPU-heavy games, and lower virtualization overhead.
Disable Onboard WiFi/Bluetooth Adapter
Some onboard WiFi/Bluetooth adapters (commonly certain MediaTek chips) can cause severe stuttering, FPS drops, and input lag when their drivers crash or repeatedly reset in the background. Even if you're on Ethernet, a faulty wireless driver can still spam errors, interrupt system processes, and hurt real-time performance in games. This tweak can eliminate stutters caused by wireless driver crashes and improve input responsiveness.