It happens at the worst possible moment.
You are playing Call of Duty Mobile or PUBG. You see the enemy. You aim down sights. You tap the fire button. And then… freeze. The screen stutters for 0.5 seconds. When the frame comes back, you are dead.
Lag isn’t just annoying; it is a competitive disadvantage. It is the reason you lost. (Okay, maybe your aim is bad too, but let’s blame the lag).
If you search for “How to boost Android performance,” you get a million apps promising to “Download More RAM.” Stop. Those apps are snake oil. They are garbage. They actually make your phone slower because they run in the background showing you ads.
I have been modding Androids since the Galaxy S3 days. I have rooted, overclocked, and bricked more phones than I can count. Here is the actual, technical, no-nonsense guide to squeezing every last drop of juice out of your device.
1. THE “REFRESH RATE” TRAP (CHECK THIS FIRST)
Before we hack anything, check the basics. Most modern Androids have 90Hz or 120Hz screens. But sometimes, out of the box, they are set to “Auto” or “60Hz” to save battery.
If your screen is refreshing at 60Hz, your game is capped at 60 FPS. It doesn’t matter if your processor is powerful enough to do 120; the screen literally can’t show it.
Go to Settings > Display > Refresh Rate.
Force it to 120Hz (or High).
Warning: Your battery will die faster. Like, 20% faster. But the smoothness is worth it.
2. THE “GAME MODE” (USE THE BUILT-IN TOOLS)
Every manufacturer has one now.
Samsung has Game Launcher.
OnePlus has Gaming Mode.
Xiaomi has Game Turbo.
A lot of people turn these off because they find the notifications annoying. Turn them back on. These aren’t just gimmicks. When you launch a game through these modes, the OS actually re-prioritizes the CPU. It tells the phone: “Hey, ignore the Instagram notification syncing in the background. Give all the power to the GPU.”
Pro Tip: Look for a setting called “Touch Sampling Rate” inside these modes. Crank it to the max. It makes the screen react faster to your finger taps. It feels like magic.
3. THE DEVELOPER OPTIONS (THE SECRET MENU)
Okay, now we get into the nerd stuff. You need to unlock the hidden menu.
Go to Settings > About Phone.
Tap Build Number 7 times fast.
It will say “You are now a developer!” (Congratulations, you hacked the mainframe).
Go back to System > Developer Options.
There are two settings here you care about.
Setting A: Graphics Driver Preferences Find this list. Find your game (e.g., Genshin Impact). Change it from “Default” to “System Graphics Driver.” Sometimes the manufacturer’s driver is better optimized than the generic Android one. It doesn’t work for every game, but when it works, it fixes stuttering instantly.
Setting B: 4x MSAA (The controversial one) You will see a switch for “Force 4x MSAA” (Multisample Anti-Aliasing).
What it does: It smooths out jagged edges. It makes the game look beautiful.
The Cost: It forces your GPU to work 4x harder.
When to use it: If your phone is powerful but the game looks ugly.
When to AVOID it: If your phone is lagging. If you are lagging, turn this OFF. It eats performance for breakfast.
4. THE “HEAT” PROBLEM (PHYSICS IS REAL)
This is the number one reason for lag. Thermal Throttling.
Your phone is a computer without a fan. When the processor gets hot, it has to slow down to prevent itself from melting. If you are playing Genshin Impact on High settings while charging the phone, your frame rate will drop from 60 to 15 in ten minutes.
The Fix:
Take off the case. Rubber cases trap heat. Let the phone breathe.
Don’t play while charging. It generates double heat (Battery heat + CPU heat).
The “Fan” Solution: Honestly? Buy one of those cheap magnetic cooling fans (like the Black Shark cooler) that clips onto the back. It sounds stupid, but it actually keeps the CPU at 100% speed indefinitely.
5. DELETE THE “CLEAN MASTER” APPS
I am going to say this again because it is important. Uninstall the “RAM Booster” and “Cache Cleaner” apps.
Android is smart. It manages RAM automatically. When you use a “Booster” to kill all background apps, here is what happens:
The app kills Facebook.
Android realizes Facebook is missing.
Android re-opens Facebook immediately because it needs to check for notifications.
This “Closing and Re-opening” cycle uses more CPU than just letting the app sit there.
You are fighting the operating system. Stop it. The only “Cleaning” you should do is deleting photos and uninstalling apps you don’t use to free up storage space. Storage space affects speed. RAM boosters do not.
THE TANGENT (WHY IS IOS STILL BETTER?)
(This pains me to admit. I am an Android guy. But developers hate us. Optimizing a game for iPhone is easy there are like 4 iPhones. Optimizing for Android is a nightmare there are 10,000 different phones with different chips (Snapdragon, MediaTek, Exynos). So developers usually just optimize for the iPhone and then do a “good enough” job for us. It’s not your phone’s fault. It’s the fragmentation. We are victims of our own diversity).
6. LOWER THE RESOLUTION (THE “UGLY BUT FAST” FIX)
If you are playing a competitive shooter, graphics do not matter. Frames matter. Go into the game settings.
Graphics Quality: Low / Smooth.
Frame Rate: Max / Ultra / Extreme.
Always prioritize Frame Rate over Quality. I would rather play a game that looks like a potato running at 90 FPS than a beautiful 4K movie running at 20 FPS. Shadows? Turn them off. They just hide enemies anyway. Bloom? Turn it off.
If you have done all of this Refresh Rate, Game Mode, Cool Down, Low Graphics and it still lags? Your phone might just be old. Mobile games are advancing fast. A mid-range phone from 2022 struggles to run the games of 2026. There is no software update that can download a better processor.
But try the steps above first. You might be surprised how much power was locked away behind a “Battery Saver” toggle. Now go get that headshot.