Performance Guide
If you’re tuning your PC for sim racing (especially with overlays, VR, or triple screens), the goal isn’t “more FPS”, it’s stable frame times, predictable input timing, and a system that behaves consistently under load.
If that sounds harder than it should be: you’re not imagining it. Getting a sim to run smoothly can be genuinely frustrating, and the internet is full of performance tips that are either outdated, copied from other genres, or only “work” by hiding the real problem.
So yes, this is yet another guide on the internet. The difference is we’ll tell you why each setting matters, and we’ll avoid the “magic tweaks” that only work on someone else’s PC.
This guide is built from what we’ve learned supporting thousands of RaceLab users across a wide range of hardware. It’s meant to be a reliable baseline: settings that are broadly applicable, easy to validate, and unlikely to create new issues.
We also try to explain the reasoning behind every recommendation. If a tweak only fixes a narrow edge case (or trades one symptom for another), it doesn’t belong in a general performance guide, so we don’t recommend it here.
Overview
Sim racing titles behave very differently from typical games.
They run:
- High-frequency physics
- Real-time netcode
- Continuous input sampling
- Telemetry and overlays
- Often VR or triple-screen rendering
Because of this, frame pacing and CPU scheduling matter more than raw FPS.
Many popular “gaming” optimizations actively make sim racing worse.
This guide explains what each major performance setting does and what you should use instead.
Frame Synchronization and FPS Limits
What these settings do
G-SYNC, FreeSync, VSync and FPS limiters change when frames are allowed to be presented.
They reshape frame presentation timing so irregular frame delivery looks smoother on the display.
They do not improve:
- Physics timing
- CPU scheduling
- Input latency
They only change how the output is shown.
For sim racing this is a problem.
The CPU, GPU and physics engine must run without artificial timing gates.
These systems:
- Add input latency
- Hide CPU bottlenecks
- Create stutter when physics load changes
In-game settings
Disable:
- VSync
- Frame rate limiters
- Dynamic resolution
- Motion smoothing or reprojection (VR)
RaceLab recommendation
Sim engines need full, unrestricted timing control. Any frame control layer interferes with physics and input sampling.
NVIDIA Control Panel
For both Global Settings and the sim’s Program Profile:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Max Frame Rate | Off |
| Vertical Sync | Off |
| G-SYNC | Disabled |
| Low Latency Mode | Off |
| Triple Buffering | Off |
Why
Driver-side synchronization and frame caps override the game’s own timing and cause uneven frame delivery under CPU load.
AMD Radeon Settings
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| FreeSync | Disabled |
| Enhanced Sync | Disabled |
| Radeon Chill | Disabled |
| Frame Rate Target Control | Disabled |
Why
These features manipulate the render queue and GPU pacing, which breaks the tight CPU-GPU-physics loop that sims rely on.
RaceLab overlays and windowed mode
RaceLab renders its overlays in a separate transparent window on top of the sim.
Your sim must therefore run in windowed or borderless mode.
There is no inherent performance penalty for this on modern Windows (10/11).
Borderless windowed and exclusive fullscreen typically use the same modern presentation path (flip model / direct scan-out when possible). That means:
- No extra “frame copying” just because it’s borderless
- No built-in FPS advantage from fullscreen
- No built-in input-latency advantage from fullscreen
The main difference today is how synchronization features behave (G-SYNC / FreeSync / VSync / HDR), not raw performance.
RaceLab requires windowed/borderless for overlays, but that does not make the sim slower. It only makes sync technologies more likely to interfere with frame pacing, which is why we recommend disabling them.
Why sync behaves differently with RaceLab
In windowed mode Windows uses the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) to combine:
Game → RaceLab overlay → Windows → Display
When G-SYNC, FreeSync or VSync are active, the display synchronizes to the composited output, not the game itself.
Any jitter in the overlay now affects the game.
This creates:
- Extra buffering
- Added latency
- Frame-time instability
Why overlays make this worse
RaceLab updates continuously:
- Telemetry
- Timing
- Gaps
With synchronization active, the display waits for both the game and the overlay.
Any small delay in the overlay stalls the entire frame and indirectly couples physics timing to overlay rendering.
This causes microstutter and inconsistent driving feel even when GPU usage looks low.
If you need to limit FPS
Sometimes you may want to cap FPS to:
- Reduce GPU load
- Control heat or fan noise
- Stabilize VR reprojection
If you do, only use the game’s internal frame limiter.
Do not use:
- NVIDIA Max Frame Rate
- AMD Frame Rate Target Control
- RivaTuner
- External limiters
Why the in-game limiter is different
The sim’s internal limiter knows:
- When physics ticks run
- When frames are produced
- How the render queue is managed
Driver and external limiters do not.
They inject delays into the GPU pipeline without understanding the simulation timing, which creates jitter and input lag.
RaceLab recommendation
If you need a cap:
- Enable the sim’s built-in FPS limiter
- Leave all driver and OS limiters disabled
This preserves correct physics timing and keeps overlays and telemetry in sync with the simulation.
AMD BIOS Gaming Modes
Modern AMD boards include features that try to “optimize” games by changing core and CCD usage.
These are harmful for sim racing.
Turbo Game Mode
Disables one CCD and often SMT, forcing the game onto fewer cores.
Recommendation: Disabled
Gaming Adaptive CCD Parker
Parks cores and moves threads between CCDs dynamically, causing cache misses and jitter.
Recommendation: Disabled
Recommended AMD BIOS Configuration
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Turbo Game Mode | Disabled |
| Gaming Adaptive CCD Parker | Disabled |
| SMT | Enabled |
| All CCDs active | Yes |
| CPPC / Preferred Cores | Enabled |
| XMP / EXPO | Enabled |
Intel BIOS Gaming and Hybrid-Core Settings
Intel CPUs use fast P-cores and efficient E-cores.
Sim racing benefits from using both.
Disable motherboard “gaming” modes and let Intel manage boosting and scheduling.
Recommended Intel BIOS Configuration
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Intel Turbo Boost | Enabled |
| SpeedStep / Speed Shift | Enabled |
| Hyper-Threading | Enabled |
| P-cores | Enabled |
| E-cores | Enabled |
| Thread Director | Enabled |
| AI / Gaming Boost modes | Disabled |
| Multi-Core Enhancement (MCE) | Disabled |
| XMP | Enabled |
AMD X3D vs Intel Hybrid Cores in Sim Racing
AMD X3D CPUs use:
- One CCD with massive cache
- One CCD with higher clocks
Intel CPUs use:
- P-cores for latency
- E-cores for background work
Windows already knows how to schedule both correctly.
BIOS “gaming” modes break this by:
- Disabling cores
- Moving threads aggressively
- Breaking cache locality
Sim racing needs:
- Many active cores
- Stable cache
- Predictable scheduling
That is why RaceLab recommends letting the OS and CPU vendor handle scheduling.
Windows Power and CPU Scheduling
Use:
- High Performance or Ryzen High Performance
- No CPU core parking
- No USB power saving
This keeps clocks stable and physics timing predictable.
GPU Drivers
Drivers should:
- Present frames immediately
- Never block the CPU
- Never reschedule frames
Use no sync, no driver FPS caps, no latency modes.
Summary
For the best sim racing experience:
- Disable all sync and FPS limiters
- Run windowed or borderless with RaceLab
- Keep all CPU cores and SMT enabled
- Avoid BIOS “gaming” modes
- Use high-performance Windows power
This produces the smoothest physics, the most consistent frame pacing and the best driving feel.