PC Performance & Frame Rate Terms

By Treesz · Updated Oct 12, 2026

Performance advice online is full of options that sound like switches for "more speed": turbo, performance mode, cache clearing, hyper-threading. Some of them do exactly what they say, some do the opposite of what people expect, and a few are the same word used for unrelated things. This glossary sorts out seven terms that come up when a game stutters, runs hot or starts slowly.

Before changing anything, find out what limits your game. If the graphics card is at full load while the processor is half idle, you are GPU-bound, and visual settings such as resolution and shadows will help. If one processor core is at full load and the graphics card is not, you are CPU-bound, and lowering graphics settings gains little. Most of the terms below make sense only against that background.

Term	What it is	Helps when	Watch out for
FPS cap	A ceiling on frames per second	You want steadier frames, lower heat or lower power use	A cap set too low raises input lag
Performance mode	A preset that trades picture quality for frame rate	You play on a console or a weak PC	Names differ from game to game
Hyper-threading	One CPU core handling two threads	Almost never worth changing	Not every CPU has it any more
Shader cache	Compiled graphics programs stored on disk	A game stutters the first time effects appear	Do not delete it without a reason
Clear cache	Deleting temporary files of a game or platform	Odd glitches, slow downloads, corrupted launcher	"Clear data" on phones deletes progress
Preloading assets	Loading data before it is needed, or downloading before release	Long waits, launch-day downloads	More memory used, longer first load
Turbo mode	Three different things sharing one name	Depends on which kind	Check the meaning first

FPS cap

An FPS cap (frame rate limit) tells the game or the graphics driver not to produce more than a set number of frames per second. It sounds like the opposite of what you want, since more frames normally feel smoother. There are still good reasons to use one:

Steadier frames. If a game swings between 90 and 160 FPS, capping at a rate it can always hold (say 100) removes the swings. A steady 100 feels better than a jumpy 90 to 160.
Less heat, noise and power. A card that is not asked for every possible frame runs cooler. On laptops this also saves battery.
Matching a variable refresh rate display. With G-SYNC or FreeSync, a cap slightly below the monitor's refresh rate keeps the display in its variable-refresh range. Blur Busters' G-SYNC tests found that a cap about 2 FPS below the refresh rate was enough to avoid the extra delay that appears when the frame rate reaches the ceiling; a lower cap brought no further benefit and can slightly increase input lag.
Games whose physics depend on frame rate. Some games, notably Bethesda's Skyrim and Fallout 4, run parts of their simulation in step with the frame rate, so very high FPS can cause odd physics or speed. Capping avoids it.

How to set one, from most to least preferred:

In the game's own menu. An in-game limiter usually gives the smoothest frame pacing because the game itself decides when to start each frame.
In the graphics driver. NVIDIA Control Panel and AMD Software both have a per-game or global limit.
With a third-party tool such as RivaTuner Statistics Server, which many players use because it works in nearly every game and shows frame-time graphs.

Do not cap below what you need. In fast shooters, a lower frame rate means each frame is older when it reaches your screen, so the delay between a mouse click and the picture grows. The right cap is your monitor's refresh rate or a few frames under it, not 60 on a 144 Hz screen. For more on delay on the network side, see online play and connection terms.

Performance mode

Performance mode is a preset that favours frame rate over picture quality. The best-known version is on consoles, where many games offer two choices:

Mode (names vary)	Typical aim	Cost
Performance	A high, steady frame rate, often 60 FPS or more	Lower resolution or fewer effects
Quality, Fidelity or Resolution	Sharper image and richer effects	Often 30 FPS

Sony's PlayStation 5 also has a system-wide choice, in the saved data and game settings, between Performance Mode and Resolution Mode that games use as their default when they support it. On PC the equivalent is simply the graphics preset or a manual combination of settings.

What a performance mode usually changes:

Resolution or render scale goes down, often with an upscaler making up some of the loss. See render scale.
Effects and shadows are reduced, along with density of foliage and particles. See graphics settings and visual effects.
Ray tracing is commonly switched off.

Choose it for fast, competitive or action-heavy games, where responsiveness matters more than sharpness. Choose the quality mode for slow exploration and story games, where a stable 30 FPS can look and feel acceptable on a controller. Two cautions: on PC, "performance mode" in a laptop's software or in Windows power settings is a different thing, which changes how hard the hardware may run, and it does nothing for a game that is limited by its own settings.

Hyper-threading (SMT)

Hyper-threading is Intel's name for simultaneous multithreading (SMT): one physical processor core presents itself as two logical cores, so it can work on two threads at once and fill gaps when one thread waits for data. AMD uses the generic name SMT. Intel introduced Hyper-Threading in 2002, with a 3.06 GHz Pentium 4 for desktops announced in November 2002.

How it matters in games:

A modern game spreads its work over several threads, but typically has one or two heavy ones (main game logic, rendering commands) and several lighter ones. The extra logical cores help with the light ones and with background tasks, but the heavy threads are limited by the speed of one core.
In practice the gain from SMT in games is modest and varies between titles. It is far more useful for work like video encoding and compiling, where every thread has plenty to do.
Turning it off is a common troubleshooting tip when a particular older game behaves badly with many logical cores, but it is rarely a way to gain speed in modern titles.

Things worth knowing when you shop for a processor or read specifications:

Core count is not thread count. An eight-core processor with SMT shows 16 threads; the same chip without it shows 8.
Not every chip has it. Since 2021, Intel's hybrid designs mix performance cores, which have Hyper-Threading, with efficiency cores, which do not. The Core Ultra 200S desktop line, launched in October 2024, dropped Hyper-Threading altogether, so it has fewer threads than its predecessors at the same core count.
A quick check. Task Manager's Performance tab shows "Cores" and "Logical processors"; if the second number is double the first, SMT is on.

If a game is slow, hyper-threading is almost never the cause. A weak graphics card, too little memory or a full disk are far likelier. See patches, builds and error terms for the memory-related problems.

Shader cache

A shader is a small program that runs on the graphics card and decides how a surface, light or effect looks. Games ship shaders in a general form, and the graphics driver must compile them into instructions that your exact card and driver version understand. Compiling takes processor time, and if the first appearance of an explosion forces the game to compile its shader in the middle of a fight, you see a stutter. The shader cache is the stored result: once compiled, a shader is saved on disk and loaded next time instead of rebuilt.

Where you meet it:

"Compiling shaders" screens. Many PC games compile up front at first launch and after driver updates, before you reach the menu. It takes longer but prevents stutter later. Let it finish rather than skipping it.
Engine-level precaching. Unreal Engine added pipeline state object (PSO) precaching in version 5.1 and called it production-ready in 5.3. It compiles what a scene may need in the background before it is shown.
Steam Shader Pre-Caching. Steam added the ability to download pre-compiled shaders for supported OpenGL and Vulkan games in 2017; it can be switched on and off in the client settings.
Driver settings. NVIDIA's control panel has a Shader Cache Size option (added with driver 496.13). The AMD and Intel drivers keep their own caches.

Practical rules:

A new driver means a rebuild. Compiled shaders are tied to your card and driver version, so the first launch after a driver update is slower and may hitch.
Do not turn the cache off to save space. It can grow past a gigabyte, but that space is a better trade than compiling everything again and stuttering through it.
Delete it only when troubleshooting. Graphical corruption or crashes that began after a hardware or driver change are the usual reason. Windows' Disk Cleanup lists a "DirectX Shader Cache" entry for this.
Tell stutter types apart. A hitch the first time an effect appears points to shader compilation. A hitch when you enter a new area points to streaming of the world, often called traversal stutter.

Clear cache

A cache is a folder of temporary data kept to make things faster: downloaded images, launcher web pages, compiled shaders, store data. Clearing the cache deletes those files so the program rebuilds them. It is a safe first troubleshooting step, because a cache by definition holds nothing you cannot get again.

Typical situations and what to clear:

Platform	Symptom	What to do
Steam	Downloads stuck or store pages broken	Settings, Downloads, Clear Download Cache (you may need to log in again)
Epic Games Launcher	Blank or broken store pages	Close the launcher and delete its `webcache` folder
PC games generally	Strange visuals after a driver change	Clear the shader cache (see above)
PlayStation 4	Freezes, long loading	Safe mode, "Rebuild Database"
Xbox	Odd errors, slow menus	Power-cycle: hold the console's power button until it turns off, unplug briefly, restart
Phones and tablets	App misbehaves	App settings, Storage, "Clear cache"

Clear cache and clear data are not the same. On Android, "Clear cache" removes temporary files only, while "Clear data" (or "Clear storage") resets the app and can delete local progress, settings and logins. If the game does not sync progress to an account, do not use it. Likewise, deleting a game's own folder by hand can remove save files and configuration, so move a folder away instead of deleting it when you are unsure.

After clearing, the first launch is slower while the cache rebuilds. If the problem remains, the next steps are verifying game files and updating drivers, as covered under runtime errors.

Preloading assets

"Preloading" is used in two ways, and both are about having data ready before the moment it is needed.

1. Pre-load before release (a download feature). Steam, PlayStation and Xbox let you download a game ahead of its release; the files stay locked until launch time. The point is to avoid a launch-day queue and to avoid starting a big download at the moment you want to play. A pre-load usually does not include the day-one patch if the update is published only on launch day.

2. Preloading inside the game (engine behaviour). The game loads models, textures and sounds into memory before the player reaches them, so that they appear without a pause. Common approaches are:

Level-based loading: the next level or area is loaded while you finish the current one, which is what a loading screen or an elevator ride often hides.
Streaming: the game continuously loads and unloads data near the player. Open-world games rely on it.
Priority loading: the most important assets are loaded first, so the game is playable before everything is ready.

The trade-offs are memory and start-up time. A game that preloads more has fewer in-game hitches, but uses more RAM and video memory and may take longer to reach the menu. If a game runs out of memory because of this, see memory leaks for how to check. A solid-state drive helps far more than any setting: streaming from a hard disk is the usual reason for texture pop-in and stutter when turning a corner.

Turbo mode

"Turbo" is one of the most reused words in tech. In a performance context it can mean three unrelated things:

1. A faster game mode. Some games add a mode that speeds up matches. The best-known case is Dota 2's Turbo mode, added in November 2017: it uses the usual All Pick rules but boosts gold and experience, shortens respawns and weakens towers so that games finish in a fraction of a normal match. Rewards in that mode are reduced compared with normal matches. The exact numbers have been changed by later patches, so check the current patch notes before relying on them. Other titles use the words "turbo", "fast" or "quick" for shorter or sped-up matches in the same spirit.

2. Processor boost. Intel calls its automatic overclocking "Turbo Boost" and AMD's equivalent is "Precision Boost": the processor runs faster than its base clock while temperature and power allow. This happens by itself, and its length depends on cooling. A processor that sags in speed during long sessions is usually limited by heat, not by a missing setting.

3. A controller turbo button. On some controllers and arcade-style sticks, a turbo function repeats a button press automatically (rapid fire). Whether it is allowed depends on the game and the competition rules; in online play it can be treated as an unfair macro.

(Very old PCs also had a literal "turbo" button on the case; it slowed the machine down to run older software at the right speed.)

If you read "enable turbo mode for more FPS" in a guide, check which meaning is intended. For a game that is not CPU-limited, none of the three will change the frame rate.

A short order of operations

When a game performs badly, work through the terms above in this order:

Watch the hardware (Task Manager or the game's performance overlay) to see whether the GPU, CPU, memory or disk is the limit.
Update the graphics driver and let any shader compilation finish.
Adjust graphics settings that match your bottleneck.
Set an FPS cap to remove swings and lower heat.
Clear caches only if there are odd glitches.
Leave hyper-threading and BIOS settings alone unless a specific game's support page asks for it.