Best free-to-play games with a short daily loop

Finally worked this out, so here is the write-up I wish I had found. Once it clicked, it felt obvious, but getting there took far longer than it should have.

The default settings are clearly tuned for a different setup than mine. I can post logs or screenshots if that would make this easier to diagnose.

Only partly related, but that behaviour is intentional, even though it is poorly explained in-game.

Quick correction to the above: worth testing on a second account to rule out something profile-specific.

This comes up a lot, so: this changed for me after the last patch, so older threads may steer you wrong.

Short version: keep a note of what you changed, otherwise you cannot undo it cleanly later.

Not the answer you want, but verify the files before anything else; it catches more problems than people expect.

The usual fix here is that behaviour is intentional, even though it is poorly explained in-game.

Same boat here. the defaults are conservative on purpose, so there is usually headroom to gain.

Not the answer you want, but nine times out of ten it is a driver or a background process, not the thing you suspect.

Worth a shot before anything drastic.

Agreed on most of this, except give it a clean reinstall before assuming the hardware is at fault.

From experience, measure before and after, otherwise you are just guessing whether it helped.

Had the exact same issue. ignore the loudest advice; the boring answer is usually the correct one here.