If you play competitive shooters on an AMD GPU, you know the difference between a smooth game and a choppy mess is not just your hardware. The Best AMD Settings For FPS On Laptop And PC are a mix of driver tweaks, Windows tuning, and in game choices that focus on responsiveness instead of eye candy.

In this guide you will set up a performance first AMD profile, clean up latency, and apply a repeatable path that works on both desktop and laptop, without needing to be a full time technician.

Setting 1: Create A Performance First Global Profile

Your AMD Software Adrenalin global profile is the base layer for every game. If it is tuned for performance, every new FPS you install starts in a good place.

How To Set Up The Global Profile

1. Open AMD Software Adrenalin.
2. Click the gear icon in the top right.
3. Go to the Graphics tab, then Global Graphics.
4. Switch the profile to Gaming or Custom so you can edit everything.

Use this as a quick reference.

Apply this once and you have a solid baseline for all your FPS games.

Setting 2: Enable Anti Lag And Disable “Smart” FPS Killers

AMD packs a lot of smart features into Adrenalin. Some of them help latency, others quietly hurt consistency.

Turn On Radeon Anti Lag

Radeon Anti Lag shortens the queue of work the CPU sends to the GPU. That brings your mouse input closer to what you see on screen and reduces that floaty feeling when you flick.

• In Global Graphics, toggle Radeon Anti Lag to Enabled.
• Leave it on globally, then override per game if something misbehaves.

If you want the official deep dive, AMD explains how the feature works in its overview of AMD Radeon Anti-Lag.

Use Anti Lag 2 In Supported Games

For CS2 and other supported titles, Anti Lag 2 is built into the game itself. It lines up the game simulation and rendering loop more precisely than the generic driver version.

In CS2:

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Video, then Advanced.
3. Enable Radeon Anti Lag 2 if your card and driver support it.

Keep the global Anti Lag on for everything else.

Turn Off Radeon Boost For Competitive Shooters

Radeon Boost lowers resolution when you move the camera fast. That helps FPS graphs, but during a fast flick the target can look softer at the exact moment you need clarity.

• Keep Radeon Boost disabled for CS2, Valorant, ranked Warzone, and similar games.
• If you want to experiment with it, do it in casual modes first.

Turn Off Radeon Chill While You Are Grinding Ranked

Radeon Chill saves power by lowering FPS when nothing moves on screen. The constant adjustment can change mouse feel over a match.

• Disable Radeon Chill globally if you care about ranked consistency.
• Only enable it on a per game basis for story games or chill sessions.

How Game Optimizers Fit Into Your CS2 Settings

Manual optimization can feel like homework. According to the FPS boost and optimization tool Hone, you can also standardize your FPS settings for CS2 through automated boost packs that handle power plans, background services, and game config tweaks while you focus on playing.

Hone, or something like Razer Cortex is not a replacement for good AMD driver settings, but a way to automate the Windows and game side work you would otherwise have to repeat after every reinstall.

Setting 3: Control Frame Caps, Sync, And Image Sharpening

Once latency features are set, you need to control how your frame rate behaves.

Use A Gentle Frame Cap

A slight frame cap can:

• Reduce random spikes.
• Lower fan noise and heat.
• Keep you inside your monitor’s comfortable range.

Simple options:

• In game cap: use the built in FPS cap like fps_max in CS2 and set it just under your typical FPS.
• Driver cap: in Global Graphics, enable Frame Rate Target Control and set it a bit under your monitor refresh rate.
• External cap: advanced users can use external tools if they prefer.

A simple rule is refresh rate minus three. For 144 Hz, cap around 141 FPS.

Keep V Sync Off For Competitive Play

Classic V Sync holds frames until the monitor is ready, which removes tearing but adds noticeable delay.

For competitive FPS:

• Wait For Vertical Refresh in Adrenalin: Always Off.
• V Sync in game: Disabled.

If tearing really annoys you, you can test Enhanced Sync, but plain V Sync should stay off when your rank matters.

Use Radeon Image Sharpening As A Small Boost

Radeon Image Sharpening is a light sharpening filter that restores detail lost by TAA or lower resolution.

• Turn it on globally or per game.
• Start around 10 to 20 percent strength.
• Stop increasing when edges start to look noisy.

This works especially well in games that look a bit smeared at low settings.

Setting 4: System Level Boosts For Desktop PCs

Your desktop can squeeze more out of an AMD GPU if you let the CPU talk to VRAM more efficiently and stop Windows from being too aggressive about power saving.

Turn On Smart Access Memory

Smart Access Memory is AMD’s name for Resizable BAR. It lets your CPU access the full VRAM pool instead of tiny chunks and can give a small performance gain in some titles.

On a supported desktop:

1. Update your motherboard BIOS.
2. In BIOS, enable Above 4G Decoding.
3. Enable Re Size BAR Support or similar wording.
4. Disable legacy CSM so the system boots in UEFI mode.
5. In Windows, open AMD Software, go to Performance, then Tuning, and make sure Smart Access Memory shows as Enabled.

If the toggle is grayed out, your hardware mix or BIOS settings still need adjustments.

Use A High Performance Power Plan

Even desktop systems lose FPS when Windows decides to park cores or downclock the CPU.

• In Control Panel, select the High Performance power plan.
• In the plan’s advanced settings, set PCI Express Link State Power Management to Off so the GPU’s connection does not go into lower power states during spikes.

This pairs nicely with your AMD driver settings and keeps FPS more stable when a match gets busy.

Setting 5: Laptop Specific AMD Optimizations

Laptops have tougher limits. The same Best AMD Settings For FPS On Laptop And PC still apply, but power sharing and display routing can make or break performance.

Use The Highest Performance Mode When Plugged In

Most AMD gaming laptops include performance profiles in the OEM control panel.

• Open Armoury Crate, Alienware Command Center, Lenovo Vantage, or your vendor’s equivalent.
• Select the most aggressive performance preset while plugged in, usually called Turbo, Performance, or Ultimate.
• Watch CPU and GPU clocks in the AMD overlay to confirm both are actually boosting under load.

This helps SmartShift style power sharing give the CPU enough headroom for CPU heavy games like CS2.

Prefer Discrete GPU Mode Or SmartAccess Graphics

Many laptops route the dGPU output through the integrated GPU by default. That saves battery but costs FPS and adds latency.

If your laptop supports it:

• Use a Discrete GPU Only switch in BIOS or in the vendor app.
• If the only option is SmartAccess Graphics inside AMD Software, enable it so the discrete GPU has more direct control over the display.

You lose some battery life but gain cleaner performance for competitive games.

Force Games To Use The High Performance GPU

On hybrid systems, Windows sometimes chooses the wrong GPU.

• Open Windows Settings, go to System, Display, then Graphics.
• Add your main FPS titles and set their Graphics Preference to High Performance.

This prevents games from accidentally running on the integrated GPU.

Setting 6: In Game Graphics Settings That Work Best With AMD

Your driver and system are now tuned. The last part of the Best AMD Settings For FPS On Laptop And PC is your in game config.

Core Rules For Most Competitive Shooters

Almost every shooter reacts well to the same basic layout:

• Display Mode: Fullscreen.
• Refresh Rate: Highest your monitor supports.
• V Sync: Off.
• Resolution: Native or a slightly lower stretched resolution if you prefer larger models.
• Shadows: Medium or High so you still see enemy shadows without overdoing it.
• Textures and Models: Medium or Low to lower VRAM use and visual clutter.
• Motion Blur, Film Grain, Depth Of Field: Off.

If you want a game by game breakdown, the CS2 guide called The Best Settings For CS2 shows how to apply these principles inside the Source 2 engine, from resolution to visibility tweaks.

For Valorant, the article on the best graphics settings to use in Valorant for the most FPS illustrates how low impact graphics options can still retain clear models and readable maps on an AMD system.

Older titles still benefit too. If you play CS:GO on the side, the ultimate settings for CS:GO guide is a useful reference for keeping that game smooth on modern AMD drivers.

FAQs

What Are The Safest Global AMD Settings For FPS Games?

A safe global starting point is to let games control anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering, set texture filtering quality to Performance, enable surface format optimization, disable Morphological AA, and force Wait For Vertical Refresh to Always Off. Combine that with Radeon Anti Lag enabled globally and Radeon Boost and Radeon Chill disabled for ranked matches, and you have a profile that favors FPS and responsiveness without overclocking anything.

Are These AMD Settings Safe For Laptops?

Yes, the driver and in game settings here are safe for laptops. They do not raise voltage beyond what the manufacturer allows. The main things to watch are temperatures and fan noise. Always game while plugged in, use a cooling pad if the chassis gets very hot, and avoid pushing performance modes if your laptop struggles to stay under its normal temperature range.

Do I Need The Newest AMD Driver For Best FPS?

You generally want a recent driver that supports your games, but the newest version is not always the fastest or most stable on every system. A good approach is to stay on a stable release that recognizes your GPU and main games, then only update when new notes mention fixes or performance boosts for titles you actually play. If a new driver causes stutter, rolling back to the prior version is normal practice.

Should I Use FreeSync With These Settings?

If your monitor supports AMD FreeSync, it is usually worth enabling. Turn FreeSync on in the monitor menu and in AMD Software, then keep V Sync disabled in both the driver and the game. That way the display adapts to your FPS and reduces tearing without adding as much input lag as classic V Sync.

Will These AMD Settings Help For Non FPS Games?

Yes, these settings still help in other genres. Anything that benefits from higher FPS and lower latency, such as racing games or action titles, reacts well to Anti Lag, cleaner frame caps, and better power plans. For heavily cinematic single player games, you can raise texture and detail settings back up without changing the core driver profile, then decide per game how much FPS you are willing to trade for visuals.