Razer Cortex: Game Booster

[Fkemman11]

Has anyone tried this? Is it safe to run with ENB or others? Sounds good but I don't want to screw things up naturally. I already have a function with AVG PC tune-up called turbo that seems to do something similar to this. Are they the same? From what I can tell it reduces the priority or something of non-essential programs running in the background or it puts them to "sleep" like Turbo freeing up v-ram for the game and then restores them when game session ends . :huh:

[iXenite]

I can imagine it is no different than the "Gaming mode" that Windows 10 has built in. However, enabling the gaming mode is a bit iffy for me. If I recall correctly the Razer Cortex thing is a software, as such it shouldn't interfere with something like ENB. I have no clue about AVG (I thought that was an anti-virus software) freeing VRAM though. Not really sure how it would do that to be honest.

[Fkemman11]

I can imagine it is no different than the "Gaming mode" that Windows 10 has built in. However, enabling the gaming mode is a bit iffy for me. If I recall correctly the Razer Cortex thing is a software, as such it shouldn't interfere with something like ENB. I have no clue about AVG (I thought that was an anti-virus software) freeing VRAM though. Not really sure how it would do that to be honest.

Sorry. I was a bit groggy when I typed that. The Game Booster is supposed to free up v-ram by reducing unnecessary, non essential use of it from apps that normally run in the background while you play a game. I already have a function from PC-tune up though that does something similar but with ram- not v-ram. From what I have read on its web page it sounds like a good thing- most people are giving positive feedback. It is free to download and use but you do need an account. I think I will try it today as I need all the ram and v-ram I can get to run FO4. Trying to use every trick I can to boost performance without sacrificing visuals. What mainly kills frame rate in FO4 are the lights. I can dip as far as 15-20 frames even with godrays off.

 

Another that has been suggested to steady framerate and boost it is MSi Afterburner. I have tried this in Skyrim though and was not satisfied with it because it seemed to make the game more unstable.

[iXenite]

So the Razer Cortex is supposed to free up VRAM? Sounds a bit interesting, I might give it a try as I only have 2GB's of VRAM and could use something that frees some of that up.

[sunshinenbrick]

I think it largely depends what OS you have and what you have running on it.

 

Windows 10 on its own, so far, seems to be pretty good at optimising itself to what the user is doing. As far as gaming it seems they have actually put some effort in, however both how long this 'sweet spot' will last and whether the new 'automatic' features and whatever begin to actually conflict unnecessarily with manual tweaks and people who want to explore their systems potential further, remains to be seen.

 

Older versions of Windows that were less game-orientated and often came with lots of bloatware, could benefit from game boosters and such but then these have gradually increased in what they try to do and can become problematic or worse cause unstable systems for people who do not know what they are doing. This is also likewise true for overclocking, which is something that is more a fine (and often expensive) art to get right if it doesn't actually cause more problems than it solves.

 

Like with all these things the best option is to start at the beginning and learn what you can yourself. It will take more time but the rewards are better and you will get a lot out of it as well. My own advice would be to not fiddle with Windows too much as for the most part it is quite stable unless you run into specific issues - this means there is no 'fix all' for all systems as each are different and it depends on the software configuration too. However as you learn the basics yourself then you can apply that to whichever system or game you are trying to optimise, like using programs they are different but once you get used to GUIs it gets easier to at least know where to perhaps begin.

 

I don't want to get into a full blown thing here as I cannot compete with Google and I have already made some rudimentary guides on some of this stuff (mostly for Skyrim but some of the system optimisation and ENB stuff is still largely applicable). What I will say though is to start actually doing the most obvious things like removing software and clients and whatnot that you don't use that much anymore. Reducing what is running from the get go is what will really help free up resources. Microsoft finally gave some user friendly controls of this in Task Manager now, but autoruns has always been a favourite for many.

 

Depending how limited resources are then there are the system visuals like 'peeking' that you can turn off, also set Virtual Memory to a fixed size (increasing too much can have reverse effects!), and if you are not using many home networking features then there are a few Services that are not necessary (but be very careful you don't break things). Turn off things like Cortana and all the other semi-useless Windows 10 jazz can help a lot too.

 

Lastly as for graphics cards, I personally avoid things like 'Nvidia Experience' or anything like that as with all the other boosters and stuff it actually can cause more issues and worse performance, especially when using ENB or other injectors - and if on laptop/Optimus setups. I just use Nvidia Inspector to fine tune certain options for games (I have not used ATI in a while but there is perhaps RadeonPro?). A lot of options that take time to get to grips with but I have some of this included in the guides I made as well so will not go into it here.

 

But if anything I would simply advise to be careful, take your time and keep a record of what you change and make restore points/backups as you go so you can actually be sure you are making improvements. :wink:

[iXenite]

 

 

I think it largely depends what OS you have and what you have running on it.

 

Windows 10 on its own, so far, seems to be pretty good at optimising itself to what the user is doing. As far as gaming it seems they have actually put some effort in, however both how long this 'sweet spot' will last and whether the new 'automatic' features and whatever begin to actually conflict unnecessarily with manual tweaks and people who want to explore their systems potential further, remains to be seen.

 

Older versions of Windows that were less game-orientated and often came with lots of bloatware, could benefit from game boosters and such but then these have gradually increased in what they try to do and can become problematic or worse cause unstable systems for people who do not know what they are doing. This is also likewise true for overclocking, which is something that is more a fine (and often expensive) art to get right if it doesn't actually cause more problems than it solves.

 

Like with all these things the best option is to start at the beginning and learn what you can yourself. It will take more time but the rewards are better and you will get a lot out of it as well. My own advice would be to not fiddle with Windows too much as for the most part it is quite stable unless you run into specific issues - this means there is no 'fix all' for all systems as each are different and it depends on the software configuration too. However as you learn the basics yourself then you can apply that to whichever system or game you are trying to optimise, like using programs they are different but once you get used to GUIs it gets easier to at least know where to perhaps begin.

 

I don't want to get into a full blown thing here as I cannot compete with Google and I have already made some rudimentary guides on some of this stuff (mostly for Skyrim but some of the system optimisation and ENB stuff is still largely applicable). What I will say though is to start actually doing the most obvious things like removing software and clients and whatnot that you don't use that much anymore. Reducing what is running from the get go is what will really help free up resources. Microsoft finally gave some user friendly controls of this in Task Manager now, but autoruns has always been a favourite for many.

 

Depending how limited resources are then there are the system visuals like 'peeking' that you can turn off, also set Virtual Memory to a fixed size (increasing too much can have reverse effects!), and if you are not using many home networking features then there are a few Services that are not necessary (but be very careful you don't break things). Turn off things like Cortana and all the other semi-useless Windows 10 jazz can help a lot too.

 

Lastly as for graphics cards, I personally avoid things like 'Nvidia Experience' or anything like that as with all the other boosters and stuff it actually can cause more issues and worse performance, especially when using ENB or other injectors - and if on laptop/Optimus setups. I just use Nvidia Inspector to fine tune certain options for games (I have not used ATI in a while but there is perhaps RadeonPro?). A lot of options that take time to get to grips with but I have some of this included in the guides I made as well so will not go into it here.

 

But if anything I would simply advise to be careful, take your time and keep a record of what you change and make restore points/backups as you go so you can actually be sure you are making improvements. :wink:

 

 

 

Thanks for the info, I will certainly take it into consideration! :)