DEV Community: Izanagi

NTFS and file system settings that affect gaming performance

Izanagi — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 10:00:19 +0000

NTFS has several features designed for enterprise file systems that add overhead during gaming. Here's what to disable.

Last Access Time

NTFS records the last time each file was accessed. For a game streaming thousands of small files, this means a metadata write for every file read. On SSDs this is low-cost but measurable; on HDDs it's significant.

fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1

This disables last access time updates. Nothing breaks — the feature exists for backup software and archival tools, not games.

8.3 filename generation

NTFS generates 8.3 format filenames (MS-DOS compatibility) for every file created. Games with thousands of assets create thousands of these entries.

fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1

Disable this on your game drives. Don't disable on the system drive if you have legacy software.

NTFS compression

Windows can compress files and folders transparently. Never enable this on game directories — decompression overhead during texture streaming causes stutters.

Check: right-click folder → Properties → Advanced → ensure "Compress contents" is unchecked.

MFT (Master File Table) reservation

The MFT is NTFS's file index. When it fills its reserved zone, it fragments across the disk. Reserve more upfront:

reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" /v NtfsMftZoneReservation /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

IzanagiOP sets last access time and 8.3 filename generation via the Safe Optimizations NTFS section. https://terweb.lt/

Why your PC runs slower after Windows Update and how to recover

Izanagi — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 10:00:19 +0000

It's a common experience: Windows updates overnight, and the next day gaming performance is worse. Here's what happens and how to fix it.

What updates change

Major Windows updates can reset:

Power plan settings (back to Balanced)
Some registry tweaks (particularly scheduling and visual settings)
Service configurations (disabled services get re-enabled)
Driver updates (new GPU driver may have different default settings)

Immediate post-update checklist

1. Power plan: check it's still on Ultimate Performance

powercfg /getactivescheme

2. Services: check SysMain, WSearch, DiagTrack status

sc query SysMain

3. Visual FX: Control Panel → System → Advanced → Performance — may have reset to "Let Windows choose"

4. Fast Startup: check it's still disabled

5. GPU driver: if the driver updated, NVIDIA Control Panel settings may have reset to defaults. Check Low Latency Mode, Power Management Mode.

Feature updates vs security updates

Security updates (monthly "Patch Tuesday"): minimal settings disruption. Mainly patches.

Feature updates (twice yearly, like 22H2, 23H2): significant disruption. Treat these like a fresh install — re-verify all your gaming settings afterward.

Preventing some resets

Store your registry tweaks in a .reg file. After feature updates, double-click to reapply all of them at once.

IzanagiOP can reapply all tweaks in one click after a Windows update resets them. https://terweb.lt/

How NVIDIA Reflex reduces latency and what Windows settings complement it

Izanagi — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 10:00:18 +0000

NVIDIA Reflex is an SDK that game developers integrate to reduce render latency. Understanding how it works helps you configure the rest of your system to complement it.

What Reflex does

Reflex replaces the default DirectX render queue management with a latency-aware alternative. It coordinates the CPU and GPU so the GPU starts rendering the latest game state rather than working through a queue of older frames.

Effectively: the CPU waits to submit the next frame until the GPU is close to finishing the current one. This keeps the rendered frame as close to "now" as possible.

Games with Reflex support

CS2, Valorant, Apex Legends, Fortnite, Overwatch 2, Rainbow Six Siege, and others. Enable in-game under Video/Display settings.

Reflex + Boost mode

Reflex Boost mode also raises GPU clock speed during low-utilization periods to ensure the GPU can process the next frame quickly when the CPU submits it.

What complements Reflex

Reflex works at the GPU queue level. These system tweaks address other layers:

Input-to-register: mouse polling rate, USB interrupt latency, pointer precision off.

OS scheduling: Win32PrioritySeparation=38, MMCSS Games priority, process CpuPriorityClass=3.

Display: G-Sync or FreeSync + monitor at native resolution with low response time.

Reflex handles the GPU side. IzanagiOP handles the OS and input side. Use both. https://terweb.lt/

Input lag vs frame lag: two different problems, two different fixes

Izanagi — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 10:00:10 +0000

Players often conflate input lag and frame lag. They feel similar but have different causes and different fixes.

Input lag

The time between a physical action (mouse click, key press) and the game registering it. Sources:

Mouse polling rate and USB interrupt latency
Mouse acceleration curve (affects perceived responsiveness)
Game input sampling frequency
Network latency (for server-authoritative games)
Display latency (monitor response time + panel lag)

Windows-side fixes: disable pointer precision, remove SmoothMouseXCurve, reduce USB interrupt moderation.

Frame lag

The time between the game rendering a frame and that frame appearing on your display. Sources:

Render queue depth (how many frames GPU queues ahead)
DWM composition latency
Display signal processing
VSync buffer depth

Windows-side fixes: MaxFrameLatency=1, disable MPO, Low Latency Mode Ultra (NVIDIA), Anti-Lag (AMD).

Why they feel similar

Both make the game feel unresponsive. High input lag means your actions register late. High frame lag means you see the result of your actions late. On high-latency connections, both are present simultaneously.

Measuring separately

Input lag: measure with a high-speed camera filming your mouse click and the on-screen reaction simultaneously
Frame lag: measure with FrameView or RTSS showing frame times and GPU render latency

Fixing both requires different registry changes. IzanagiOP's Trajectory Pack addresses input lag, Frame Pack addresses frame lag. https://terweb.lt/

Steam overlay, Discord overlay, Xbox overlay: which to keep and which to disable

Izanagi — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 10:00:09 +0000

Overlays inject into your game process and render additional UI layers on top of the game frame. Each one adds overhead. Here's a breakdown of what each costs and whether it's worth keeping.

Steam overlay

Injects into the game process. Renders the overlay UI when Shift+Tab is pressed. Even when not visible, the injection hooks are active.

Cost: small CPU overhead from hook maintenance, occasional frame drops when the overlay transitions in/out.

Worth keeping if: you use Steam chat, screenshots, or achievement notifications frequently.

Disable: Steam → Settings → In-Game → uncheck "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game"

Discord overlay

Renders who's speaking in voice chat as an overlay. More active than Steam overlay because it updates in real-time as people speak.

Cost: GPU overhead from rendering the overlay layer per frame, CPU overhead from the voice activity detection.

Disable: Discord → Settings → Overlay → disable "Enable in-game overlay"

Xbox Game Bar

Runs as a system-level overlay. Can show FPS, CPU/GPU stats, and the recording controls.

Cost: GPU encoder stays warm for potential recording. DWM has to composite the overlay layer.

Disable:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\GameBar
UseNexusForGameBarEnabled = 0

GeForce Experience overlay

Covered in a previous article. Disable ShadowPlay + overlay in GFE settings.

Keep one, disable the rest

If you need an overlay for voice chat notifications, keep Discord overlay only. Disable Steam, Xbox, and GFE overlays.

IzanagiOP disables all overlays via registry in Safe Optimizations. https://terweb.lt/

What happens when you disable memory compression in Windows

Izanagi — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 10:00:08 +0000

Windows 10/11 compresses infrequently accessed memory pages to fit more data in RAM. This sounds like a free lunch, but for gaming it has a cost.

How memory compression works

When RAM fills up, instead of writing pages to the pagefile (slow), Windows compresses them and keeps them in RAM (fast). The CPU does the compression/decompression work.

The gaming problem

Game engines allocate and access memory in patterns that are hard to predict. When the game accesses a compressed page, the CPU must decompress it before the game can read it. This adds latency to memory accesses that would otherwise be instant.

On CPU-bound games, the decompression overhead can cause frame spikes — sudden 1% low drops that don't correlate with visible game events.

When to disable it

16GB+ RAM: disabling memory compression is safe. You have enough physical RAM that Windows rarely needs to compress pages during a typical gaming session.

8GB RAM: leave compression enabled. Without it, Windows hits the pagefile much faster, which is slower than compression.

# Disable memory compression
Disable-MMAgent -mc

# Re-enable
Enable-MMAgent -mc

What you see after disabling

RAM usage appears higher in Task Manager (uncompressed data takes more space). This is normal — the data was always there, just compressed. System responsiveness during gaming should improve slightly.

IzanagiOP's Aggressive Optimizations disables memory compression. https://terweb.lt/

AMD Radeon Anti-Lag: what it does and how it interacts with system tweaks

Izanagi — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:00:07 +0000

AMD Anti-Lag is a driver-level feature designed to reduce input latency by managing when the CPU submits work to the GPU. Understanding how it works helps you combine it correctly with system-level tweaks.

How Anti-Lag works

Normally, the CPU runs ahead of the GPU — it submits several frames worth of work to the GPU queue in advance. This keeps the GPU fed and maximizes throughput, but means the GPU is rendering frames based on slightly stale game state.

Anti-Lag throttles the CPU submission rate to keep the CPU-GPU distance minimal. The GPU renders frames based on more recent game state, reducing the gap between your input and what appears on screen.

Anti-Lag vs Anti-Lag+

Anti-Lag+ (introduced later) works at the game engine level rather than the driver level, giving more precise timing. It requires game integration.

Combining with system tweaks

Anti-Lag works at the driver/flip queue level. System tweaks like Win32PrioritySeparation, MMCSS priority, and process priority work at the OS scheduler level. These are complementary — they address different layers of the latency stack.

MPO and Anti-Lag: ensure MPO is disabled (OverlayTestMode=5) when using Anti-Lag. MPO can interfere with Anti-Lag's frame timing on some driver versions.

HAGS and Anti-Lag: HAGS and Anti-Lag both touch GPU scheduling. On Navi GPUs (where HAGS causes issues), keep HAGS disabled even if Anti-Lag is enabled.

Enable Anti-Lag in Radeon Software → Gaming → Global Settings → Radeon Anti-Lag.

System-level latency tweaks at https://terweb.lt/

Hibernate vs Sleep vs Shutdown: which is best for gaming PCs

Izanagi — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 10:00:07 +0000

The mode you use to power down your PC affects performance on the next session. For gaming, a clean state matters more than fast resume.

Sleep

RAM stays powered. Everything is preserved in memory. Resume is near-instant (1-3 seconds).

Issue for gaming: background processes that were running before sleep resume exactly where they left off. If something was accumulating junk state (memory leaks, fragmented thread pools), it continues in that state.

Hibernate

RAM contents written to hiberfil.sys on disk. Power off. On wake, contents restored from disk.

Issue: slower resume (10-30 seconds). Same state preservation problem as sleep — you're restoring exactly the state from before hibernation, including any issues.

Shutdown

Full power off. On next boot, fresh kernel state, fresh service initialization, clean scheduler state.

Best for gaming: a cold boot before a gaming session gives you the cleanest possible system state.

Fast Startup problem

Fast Startup (enabled by default) makes shutdown behave like hibernate — the kernel state is preserved. So "shutting down" doesn't actually give you a clean boot. Disable it:

Control Panel → Power Options → Choose what the power buttons do → uncheck "Turn on fast startup"

After disabling, a genuine shutdown means next boot is a cold boot: fresh kernel, fresh drivers, no carry-over state.

IzanagiOP disables Fast Startup and hibernate (freeing hiberfil.sys disk space) in the Safe Optimizations pack. https://terweb.lt/

Windows event logs: why they grow large and how to manage them

Izanagi — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 10:00:05 +0000

Windows Event Logs record system events, errors, warnings, and application messages. By default they're capped at specific sizes, but older entries can accumulate across many logs.

Where event logs live

C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs\

Each .evtx file is a separate log channel. Common large ones:

System.evtx
Application.evtx
Security.evtx
Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance%4Operational.evtx
Microsoft-Windows-WMI-Activity%4Operational.evtx

Clearing logs

# Clear all event logs
Get-EventLog -List | ForEach-Object {{{ Clear-EventLog -LogName $_.Log }}}

# Or via wevtutil for specific logs
wevtutil cl System
wevtutil cl Application
wevtutil cl Security

Why it matters

Event log writes happen continuously in the background. On systems with many active services and verbose logging, this creates constant small disk writes. On HDDs this is audible. On SSDs it adds to write amplification over time.

Clearing logs periodically also speeds up Event Viewer — it doesn't have to parse thousands of old entries.

Log size limits

Right-click any log in Event Viewer → Properties → set Maximum log size. 20MB is sufficient for most use cases. The default for some logs is 1GB+.

IzanagiOP's Cleaner includes Event Viewer log clearing. The Aggressive pack also reduces log verbosity for non-critical channels. https://terweb.lt/

Cleaning browser caches: which ones matter for system performance

Izanagi — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 10:00:05 +0000

Modern browsers accumulate gigabytes of cached data. On systems where the browser cache is on the same drive as your game install, large caches cause I/O contention.

Chrome cache locations

%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache
%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Code Cache
%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\GPUCache
%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\ShaderCache

The GPU cache and shader cache can grow to several hundred MB. These are safe to delete — Chrome rebuilds them.

Edge cache

%localappdata%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Cache
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Code Cache
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\GPUCache

Edge also has a System Profile cache separate from your user profile.

Firefox cache

%localappdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\cache2

Brave

%localappdata%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Cache

How often to clean

Monthly is sufficient for most users. If you stream video or visit media-heavy sites daily, weekly cleaning keeps cache sizes manageable.

The performance case

Browser caches on NVMe SSDs rarely cause measurable game performance issues. On SATA SSDs with heavy fragmentation or on HDDs, clearing large caches reduces background I/O contention.

IzanagiOP's Cleaner covers all major browser caches in one click. https://terweb.lt/

USB polling and interrupt handling: optimizing input devices for gaming

Izanagi — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 10:00:04 +0000

Every USB device generates interrupts. Your mouse, keyboard, headset, and controller all compete for interrupt handling time. On a busy system this affects input latency.

USB interrupt moderation

Windows can moderate USB interrupts — batch them to reduce CPU overhead. For high-polling-rate devices (1000hz+ mice), interrupt moderation adds latency.

Disable USB selective suspend (which causes reconnect delays):

Control Panel → Power Options → Change plan settings → Change advanced power settings → USB Settings → USB selective suspend setting → Disabled

USB controller affinity

USB controllers can be assigned to specific CPU cores via interrupt affinity. By default Windows distributes interrupts across cores automatically. For dedicated gaming, pinning USB interrupts to cores that the game doesn't use can reduce contention.

This is advanced — use msconfig or registry affinity settings. Generally not needed unless LatencyMon shows USB as a DPC latency source.

xHCI vs EHCI

Modern USB 3.x uses xHCI controllers. Older EHCI (USB 2.0) controllers have higher interrupt latency. If you're running a high-polling-rate mouse through a USB 2.0 hub, move it to a direct USB 3.0 port.

Multiple devices on same controller

USB ports share controllers. If your mouse and keyboard share a controller with your audio interface, they compete for interrupt handling. Spread devices across physical USB controllers (check Device Manager to see which ports share controllers).

USB power management

Disable power management on USB hubs:
Device Manager → Universal Serial Bus controllers → each USB Root Hub → Properties → Power Management → uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

IzanagiOP disables USB selective suspend and USB hub power management globally. https://terweb.lt/

Valorant anti-cheat (Vanguard) and performance: what to expect

Izanagi — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 10:00:03 +0000

Vanguard runs at kernel level (ring 0) from system boot. It's among the most invasive anti-cheats in gaming. Understanding how it affects performance helps you work around it.

What Vanguard does at boot

Vanguard's kernel driver (vgk.sys) loads at startup and stays resident until shutdown. It monitors system state continuously, not just when Valorant is running.

Performance impact

Vanguard itself has minimal direct CPU cost. The indirect effects:

Other kernel software: Vanguard blocks certain kernel-level tools. Some overclocking software, RGB control applications, and hardware monitoring tools get blocked or cause Vanguard to flag the system.

Driver interference: Vanguard is sensitive to unsigned drivers and certain security products. If you have monitoring software that uses a kernel driver, it may conflict.

System call overhead: Vanguard intercepts certain system calls for inspection. On systems with high system call rates (lots of background activity), this adds overhead.

What helps

Reduce background kernel activity:

Close all hardware monitoring software before playing (HWiNFO, MSI Afterburner, etc.)
Disable overlays (Discord, GeForce Experience, Steam overlay)
Clean Windows services (fewer background services = fewer system calls Vanguard has to inspect)

Per-process priority for VALORANT-Win64-Shipping.exe:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\VALORANT-Win64-Shipping.exe\PerfOptions
CpuPriorityClass = 3
IoPriority = 3
GpuPriority = 8

Full Valorant optimization at https://terweb.lt/