TF2 PERFORMANCE ENHANCER AND FPS BOOST FOR ALL YOUR ENHANCING AND BOOSTING NEEDS

August 2024

The no BS FPS boost guide (or how I gained +60% FPS in TF2)

Tired of getting killed by snipers? Scouts overrunning you? Demomen detonating stickies all the time? You might need extra FPS!

Having more FPS makes the game more enjoyable and easier to play. Read on to see how you can gain FPS too!

Before we continue...

Everyone's system is different. Some settings may help, others may not. The way we can determine if the changes are working, we need a benchmark test to measure our FPS.

Currently, the standard benchmark is sbmrk24 (credits to shounic)
You can download a copy from here:
https://docs.comfig.app/latest/benchmarks/

Follow the instructions on the page to run a benchmark to establish a base number. It will tell us our average FPS in the developer console.

Every time you make a change, run a benchmark to see if your FPS goes up. This is a repeatable and consistent way to measure our performance, and is better than joining random servers

The results get stored in a sourcebench.csv file in your /tf folder so you can compare it later.

TF2 Config files (+25-35%)

The best FPS config at the moment is mastercomfig by mastercoms. It is very good, easy to modify, and is updated regularly.

Here is a download link for the best version of the config:
https://comfig.app/app/

Choose low or very low for the best performance. Very low should be used only if you are desperate.

Install guide:
First you want to clean your TF2 configs.
https://docs.comfig.app/latest/setup/clean_up/
WARNING: THIS WILL WIPE OUT ANY SETTINGS YOU HAVE, SO MAKE SURE YOU SAVE THEM

Then follow this guide:
https://docs.comfig.app/latest/setup/install/

Then the config is installed. This includes performance optimizations for both FPS and networking, so is useful for any TF2 player.

From my testing, I got 25% performance just by using the "low" preset. In other systems I tested previously, I could get 35-40%! Considering these configs help in other ways, like networking tweaks, these are a must have.

Custom TF2 HUD (+3%)

HUDs (or heads up display) is the UI that shows your health, ammo and other gameplay stuff while you are in game.

Surprisingly, if you have a custom, community-made HUD that has simpler elements, it can boost your FPS.

I used LightHUD, a HUD that claims to boost FPS. And over the normal TF2 HUD, I gained 2.7% performance! The simpler the HUD, the more FPS you get!

Have a look for different HUDs here: https://comfig.app/huds/1/

(Also by mastercoms, seriously consider donating to her)

Launch Options (+8%)

There is a lot of misleading information here so I will be short and direct to the point:

Option	Effect	Boost
-dxlevel [number]	Set the DirextX version. 81 gives more performance for some people, but it is suggested to use 91 or 95 on modern PCs.	+5 to +15% FPS
-particles 1	limits beam count to the minimum of 512	+3% FPS

For more VALID launch options, check out the mastercomfig wiki:
https://docs.comfig.app/latest/customization/launch_options

On my Ryzen 5 2600X based system I went from 280fps to 295fps just by changing dxlevel 95 to 81, a 5% increase!

Here are things to avoid:
https://docs.comfig.app/latest/tf2/misconceptions/

Here are some launch options THAT DO NOTHING. DO NOT USE THESE:
-noipx DOES NOTHING.
-heapsize DOES NOTHING.
-high CAN CAUSE YOUR SYSTEM TO HANG
-threads NEGATIVELY IMPACTS PERFORMANCE. USE CORE AFFINITIES INSTEAD

De-clutter TF2 with CleanTF2+ (+6%)

Perhaps not surprisingly, all the hats and extra models in the game lowers your FPS by a noticeable amount. If you want more performance, why not disable all hats in the game? Well it just so happens that someone had that idea!

A user on the TFTV forum, JarateKing, has created a command line utility called CleanTF2+, which allows you to remove some features from the game, like hats and unnecessary sounds, or even simplify textures. This can de-clutter the game, improving gameplay and visibility, and FPS! A win win!

Check it out here:
https://www.teamfortress.tv/51736/cleantf2-nohats-flat-textures-etc

Installation instructions:
https://github.com/JarateKing/CleanTF2plus/blob/master/README.md

Basically, unzip the folder in your "custom" in your C:/Program Files(x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Team Fortress 2/tf folder. Run generate.bat in cmd.exe and select what you want and you're done!

I saw anywhere from 2 to 10% FPS improvement by enabling this mod, and it works on valve casual! Well worth it if you don't care about hats.

Additional TF2 tweaks (up to 25%)

There are some more mods and console commands we can put into the game to get extra fps.

Match hud (+5%)

What is a "match hud"? Basically, its the thing at the top of the screen that shows who is alive and your team health. This is rendered inefficiently in-game, so it reduces your performance a lot. In my testing, it can be as much as 5% or even 10% loss of FPS. Crazy for a HUD element, and shows how unoptimized TF2 is.



In your TF2 console, type

tf_use_match_hud 0

This will disable that HUD element and give you fps. To renable it, simply change the 0 to a 1.

View models (+5%)

Viewmodels is basically the gun your are holding being rendered on your screen.

Remember, any extra models, lighting or rendering will reduce your FPS. The viewmodel is one of them, so removing them can boost our FPS!

To disable, in the developer console type:

r_drawviewmodel 0

Now your gun won't be on screen. Most competitive TF2 players hide their view model to improve visibility, so it might be a gameplay advantage also.

Disable 3D HUD character model (+2%)

If there are more 3D objects on the screen, thats more lighting, polygons and textures to render.
Though a major gameplay advantage to spies, its better to be toggled on when needed and not kept on all the time as it serves little to no gameplay purpose.

cl_hud_playerclass_use_playermodel 0

Texture quality

If you are on DirextX 9, using anything lower than "High" texture quality will result in a significant reduction in FPS. You can fix this by setting texture quality to high or better:

mat_picmip 0

Any value equal to or less than 0 will have the same effect.

If you are on DirectX 8 this does not apply to you.

Minecraft/NES mode

I didn't know minecraft was in tf2!!!

But you can activate a low resolution mode in TF2. In your console type

mat_viewportscale 0.5

to reduce the resolution. This can help on low end GPUs. Tweak this value until you get what you want, but its likely that it won't help. But you never know!

Reduce your resolution (+5% or more)

Your resolution is the screen size your game is rendered at. For example, 1080p, 1280x720, 4K, etc.

Lowering your resolution can help a ton if your GPU is bad. Less pixels that need to be rendered will result in extra performance!


But here's a little known secret. Even if you have a powerful GPU:

Changing your aspect ratio to 4:3 will boost your FPS? The FOV you set in-game is based upon a 4:3 aspect ratio. If you are using 16:9, like at 1080p, your FOV at 90 is actually 110 in-game!

Remember, the more stuff that needs to be rendered, the lower the FPS.


Credit: skybert88 on reddit

This could be a HUGE gameplay advantage (as you can see more of the game), but it also eats a sizeable amount of FPS, around 5% in my testing. If you want better frames per second, change the aspect ratio to 4:3 and lower your resolution.

For more scientific and mathy info read this:
https://www.teamfortress.tv/8532/a-guide-to-fov-in-tf2 [by Kerch on TFTV]

Use fullscreen mode

If you are running TF2 in a window, or borderless-windowed, you could be eating into your FPS, and more importantly your gameplay experience.

If you are on Windows 8, 10 or 11 and you are in a window, V-Sync is actually on. This is because the DWM (Desktop Window Manager) forces v-sync on all programs, UNLESS they are in fullscreen mode.

This means your input lag will be higher, and the game will feel less responsive. Rendering in a window also has a performance penalty versus fullscreen mode, so your FPS will also be lower.

To fix this, you should go to fullscreen mode.

Windows 10 Tweaks (+???%)

Driver updates

There may be some new drivers that improve performance. Be aware that some updates may affect this. For example, AMD crimson 19.7.1 and 19.7.2 drivers worsen fps a lot. Always exercise caution and if you're happy, don't change anything.

hl2. exe compatability

Go to C:/Program Files(x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Team Fortress 2 or where your TF2 is installed

Right click hl2.exe and go to properties

-> compatability tab
-> disable full screen optimisations CHECKED


Also we can override scaling and make it performed by the application. This can help on laptops from my experience.


These settings will give a 1-3% fps boost

Privacy options

Disabling privacy invading options are always a good thing and may increase your FPS marginally.

I recommend using W10Privacy to disable them as it has a lot of options that you cant access in system settings.
Remember:
Create a restore point
Read what all settings do and consider them carefully

Xbox game bar disabled

Some people report that disabling game mode, Xbox DVR and the gamebar improves their FPS.

Follow this guide on how to disable the game bar and game mode.
https://www.askvg.com/tip-how-to-disable-game-mode-and-game-bar-in-windows-10/

Follow this to completely disable Game DVR:
https://www.top-password.com/blog/disable-game-bar-and-game-dvr-in-windows-10/

And if you're adventurous you can remove all Xbox apps, but i don't suggest doing that.

Disable services

Some services are running in the background. Some are critical to Windows working right and some are not needed. Some can be safely disabled. CREATE A RESTORE POINT BEFORE DOING THIS.

Press the windows key and the 'R' key at the same time or search for "run"

Type in MSCONFIG

Click services

First hide all Microsoft services.
Uncheck any unneeded services. Google services you don't recognise or know what they do



Then if you are feeling adventurous and advanced, you can start to disable some of the Microsoft services you don't need. Heres a safe one you can probably disable: Fax. I doubt any of you send faxes anymore.


Don't be silly and disable Windows Audio or any critical windows services. If you don't know 100% what you are doing, don't.

Close all unneeded applications

Right click on the taskbar, and open task manager. Go to the details tab. Look for any running applications that you don't need. Sort by CPU usage by clicking on the CPU column at the top



Rule of thumb: if you don't know what it is, don't end the process. Google is your friend.

Run a malware check

You may have malware (malicious software like viruses) that are not only causing harm to your PC, but slowing it down also. Do a virus scan with Windows Defender, and if you still suspect you have a virus, i'd suggest downloading Malwarebytes, as they are reputable and have a high detection rate. Removing viruses can help boost your FPS a lot.

Windows 7 Tweaks

Disable DWM and Aero effects

The Desktop Window Manager (DWM) is a program on every PC since Windows Vista. It allows for pretty effects.

One large downside is that if you want to run windowed mode, it reduces your frame rates by a lot and also forces V-sync on, creating a large input delay.

An easy way to disable it is to enable the classic theme.

Right click the desktop and go to personalize.
Choose classic theme

Done! It should be disabled.

If this for some reason does not work for you, you can safely disable the DWM service from starting in services.msc.

Steam Tweaks (+3%)

Over the years Steam has gotten more and more bloated, and disabling some features can free up some CPU cycles for your game.

Disabling the in-game overlay

Especially if you alt-tab frequently, the in-game overlay can cause stutters, FPS drops and inconsistent performance. Disable this for better consistency.

Steam => Settings => In-game


Also, use Low performance mode and if possible, close your friends list. These have been reported to also cause stutters while in-game.

Hyper-threading/core-affinity

Back in 2007 when TF2 was first released, the game only really knew how to use a single core, and was therefore designed around that. Over the years it gained multi-core support, but only really uses about 3 cores today.

Hyperthreaded cores can help boost performance in general processing tasks, but TF2 prefers real performance cores. Windows is pretty stupid, so may assign the hyperthreaded cores to TF2 instead of the real cores.

To fix this, while TF2 is open, you can assign specific cores to TF2, or "process affinities".

In Task Manager, right click the TF2 process (might be called Team Fortress 2 or tf_win64.exe in the details tab). Select "Set Affinity". Now select core 0, core 2, core 4, core 6. This will avoid hyperthreaded cores and TF2 will only use real cores. This will give us more FPS!

Check your PC for Power or Thermal Throttling

Your CPU or GPU might be reducing the performance of your game because it is running too hot or out of power. To determine this, you can download HWInfo64 and look at power/thermal limit reasons under your CPU or GPU.

If you have determined you are thermal throttling (high temperatures reduces your clock speed)

• Clean out vents, fans and heatsinks to ensure you have optimal airflow
  
• Replace thermal paste with a superior one.
  
  Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut is a good but expensive paste. PTM7950 is also good for laptops. A good budget paste is Arctic Silver 5. Replacing the thermal paste can improve temperatures by 5C or even more depending how bad it is.
  
  
• Upgrade your heatsink/cooler if possible
  
• Under-volting (but you need to test stability if you do this)
  
• Limit the maximum power your CPU/GPU can use (throttling is WORSE than just running slower to begin with)

If you have determined you are power throttling (power limit)

You can try undervolting your CPU or GPU which not only reduces temperatures but allows more power to go to your CPU/GPU. In the bios (vCore) use an offset voltage.

Increase the power limit.

Intel core i3/i5/i7/i9 CPU: Increase turbo boost sustained power in the BIOS or Intel Extreme Tuning Utility
AMD Ryzen CPU: Enable PBO and increase EDC, PPT, and TDC values in the BIOS or Ryzen master
AMD GPU: In Radeon settings increase power target
NVIDIA GPU: Increase power target in MSI Afterburner or the Nvidia App

Raising power targets can make your PC hotter. So if you are already at 80+ Celcius, do not increase the power any more.

Increase airflow over VRMs
VRM stands for voltage regulator modules. These are the components in your PC that power your CPU. If these get too hot, they throttle themselves to keep them from failing prematurely. Have good airflow over this area and you won't VRM throttle. This situation is very rare and can explain why your clock speeds drop even if your CPU isn't thermal throttling.

VRMs are normally located near or next to your CPU, perhaps underneath some metal or plastic.
Metal is used so it can remove heat. If you put a fan there, it can cool off better.

Credit: Graphicscardhub.com

Upgrade your RAM

Look in your PC if you can. If you have 1 stick of RAM in, you are probably running in single channel mode. This will greatly reduce performance. You will get a lot of performance if you run in dual channel mode, which means having 2 sticks of RAM or more.

Your memory speed and timings can also affect how fast your game runs. TF2 loves lots of memory bandwidth and low latency. If your PC supports low latency and high speed RAM, you can also upgrade to this.

Some people report quad-rank RAM (2x2R) is faster than single or dual rank also.

[ADVANCED] Overclocking your CPU

TF2 is based on a source engine, an engine released in 2004. At this time, GPUs were not as good so it put all the effects onto the CPU. This was good for the time, but now when GPUs are much more powerful than CPUs, this has made the game heavily dependant on the single thread performance of your CPU.

Basically, the more powerful your CPU is, the better (to a point)

Look up some CPU overclocking guides for you specific PC or CPU. There are plenty of reputable guides online. I suggest buildzoid from Actually Hardcore Overclocking for his in-depth guides, but if you need help, check out r/overclocking on reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/wiki/index

If your CPU is running at 80+C already, do NOT overclock as you can cause damage to your PC.

In many cases all you need to do is increase the power limit of your CPU.

AMD - use ryzen master to increase power limits
Intel - use XTU to increase power limits

[ADVANCED] RAM/Memory overclocking

This is not for the faint of heart. I will not be explaining RAM overclocking here as there are many guides on the internet.

Buildzoid from Actually Hardcore Overclocking on Youtube has a great guide for you to follow on RAM overclocking.

The lower latency and the faster your RAM is, the better it is for TF2 and any source engine game. It's almost as important for single threaded performance for TF2.

Overclocking RAM can be VERY COMPLICATED, and you can introduce weird system behaviour or instability that can be hard to detect. You must stability test your entire system for 12 hours or more to ensure you dont corrupt data in your RAM!

Some good RAM stability tests in Windows are MemTest64/AIDA64 system stability test and memtest86+ is a good reliable utility outside of Windows.

I don't suggest doing this and letting XMP or DOCP do its job on its own.

Heres a nice little table showing my results with moderate overclocking:

FPS	Settings
254	JEDEC 2133MHz
289.3	3200MHz CL14 XMP
294	3200MHz C14 tweaked

[ADVANCED] Laptop tweaks

I would think a lot of people reading this are using a laptop. To increase performance on a laptop you can:

1) Ensure that if you have a dedicated graphics card that the laptop is using it in WIndows Settings
2) Fix overheating or power issues
3) Ensure we are at maximum performance possible

Using your dGPU

If you have a high end laptop or gaming laptop, you will have 2 GPUs. An integrated one and a dedicated one.

Integrated graphics are built into your CPU. They are very power efficient, but can be slow. So in general we want to use the powerful dedicated GPU (dGPU).

In windows, set your graphics driver preference to "maximum performance", and ensure you are selecting your dedicated GPU.

If you are an nVidia user, go to the nVidia control panel and set your preferred graphics processor to performance in 3D settings.

Fixing overheating and power issues

We can fix power and thermal issues by undervolting our CPU. Undervolting makes our CPU use less power while getting the same things done. This can cause system instability, so be sure to test with a stress test program, such as Blender, to ensure that we improve performance.

Check out undervolting guides online for your CPU. But in general:
Intel: ThrottleStop for undervolting
AMD: Universal X86 tuning utility

This can allow your CPU to run cooler and stay turbo boosted for longer. We aren't overclocking when we do this.

Undervolting is 100% safe. You won't damage something by putting too little voltage through it.

Heres a guide to follow:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Extreme-Tuning-Utility-XTU-Undervolting-Guide.272120.0.html

Alternatively, follow steps in the thermal throttling section.

If you are still overheating, chances are your laptop manufacturer or a community contributor has made software to control your fans. More airflow = cooler system. Try increase the fan speed of your laptop to improve cooling.

Maximum performance

Some laptops perform much worse on battery power compared to being plugged in. There are many reasons this could happen, but in general it tends to be BIOS issues or driver issues. Try updating your BIOS and drivers to ensure you get the latest fixes to any issues. If the issue still persists after updates, being plugged in is a sure fire way to get the most performance.

Additionally, you may be in a power saving power profile. Check power options in Windows and ensure you are at the "balanced" profile power plan, and any power saving features in modern Settings are disabled (power slider to the right)

[ADVANDED] IGPU Overclcoking

We can overclock our integrated GPU if our GPU is limiting performance.
You require Intel XTU for intel iGPU overclocking or MSI afterburner for AMD integrated GPUs

Overclocking voids warranty and i wont be liable if you damage anything!

Adjust graphics frequency. It probably will be at 1050 or 1150MHz. Up this by 50 MHz until it starts going strange or crashing. 50Mhz increase can improve FPS by 2 or 5 depending on your setup.

You may not be able to increase this at all. Depends on your setup.

Faster DRAM can improve IGPU performance. Dual Channel DRAM can improve IGPU and CPU performance.

[ADVANCED] Install Linux (Manjaro) (+7%)

Who would have thought? Linux performs better than Windows for TF2!

Linux, especially if you have an integrated Intel or a dedicated AMD GPU, will most likely perform noticeably faster than Windows 10. I saw up to a 7% performance increase by using Manjaro Linux.

Install Lutris from the App Store, enable Feral Gamemode in the lutris options, and you will perform faster than Windows! Many people report the game feeling more responsive than Windows also.

Only drawback is that you cannot run DXlevel 81, which might eat into the 7% performance bump you get anyway. But, if you want DX 9 and skins but with more performance, use Linux! With the KDE desktop, it is as easy to use as Windows 10, and way better to customize! (like the good old days in Windows XP)

I would suggest following a guide from Linus Tech Tips, as their Linux content is very easy to watch.

You dont have to use Manjaro. Pop OS, Fedora or Linux Mint are good options if you want a more stable and user friendly experience.

[ULTRA MEGA ADVANCED] Buy a new PC

Not something we all want to hear, but if you have a trashtop or your dads Pentium 4 from 2005 it might be time for an upgrade. No matter how much tweaking, you may not be able to get enough extra performance out of your PC.

I would suggest 2nd Gen Ryzen as a minimum target, something like a Ryzen 5 2600.

Some other good options are:
Ryzen: 2600 or better, 3600 or better, 5600 or better, 7600X or better.
Intel: 9600 or better, 12400 or better

Buy fast RAM.
DDR4: At least 3200MHz
DDR5: At least 5600MHz
Aim for low CAS timings.

Make sure you get a decent GPU. An Nvidia 1650 or AMD 6500XT at a minimum are good starting points.

Don't forget other things, like your monitor and mouse. Buy a high refresh rate monitor, as it will make the game look smoother and more responsive. Once you go above 120Hz, you won't want to go back!

Gaming laptop

TF2 doesn't take much to run as long as you apply the optimizations in this guide. I have an ultrabook with a Ryzen 5800U in it, and at 1080p I can get very playable framerates from it on low (150-200).

But if you want a gaming laptop, get something with a 6 core CPU or better and a dedicated GPU, and you're laughing!

TLDR: any somewhat modern (ie last 5 years) AMD Ryzen or Intel Core processor and a decent GPU and you will be fine.

Credits/Thanks

Mastercoms - For an excellent config thats updated and a good information resource on her wiki.
Comanglia - For creating the original comanglia config and updating it
JarateKing - For creating the CleanTF2+ program
meb - For creating the original TF2 benchmark all those years ago
Valve - for having a relatively unoptimised game with a bunch of clutter and hats in

All the awful FPS guides that exist that motivated me to make this one.

smiffy smells

Any suggestions to make this guide better are welcome in the comments :)

[laid off civil engineer]

Thank you brother!! This really helped me juice my performance on my old laptop that I bought in 2017. I used to get about 45 FPS and dropping to 20-30 FPS during chaotic fights which was really annoying. I did a lot of tweaks but the most important were: 1. updating my Nvidia driver which hadn't been updated since 2020. 2. installing mastercomfig medium-high. 3. removing -nod3d9ex from my launch settings. Those 3 tweaks seemed to give the biggest boosts (about 5 FPS each). Now I consistently have 60-70 FPS!!!

[fakeman]

I use these settings fine. Might be an OS/driver issue.

[⚡PolishGuy⚡]

Be careful using these settings! They break TF2!
I couldn't launch the game.
I made fresh reinstalls, I cleared cfg, I found out that -gl makes tf2 launchable but I don't want opengl and I can't go fullscreen. After half a day I suddenly thought about what the instructions said about the Compatibility. The DPI-scaling setting is what makes TF2 only able to run in windowed/borderless mode.

[trk305]

outdated tbh

[fakeman]

Updated some of the sections, including a tweak to texture quality that can boost your fps by up to 25%!

[fakeman]

Hey all I am going to be working on this guide again in the coming days.

Do note that some of the information in this guide is outdated. Notably some of the overclocking and TF2 specific tweaks. 64bit update fixed a lot of issues with the game.

I will rewrite this from scratch so it is a bit more ambiguous in some areas because everyone has different PCs and setups.

[✩ Ghost Gamer ✩]

Excellent :D

[Delubot]

Good asf

[Jajashi]

good

[xvyz]

yay