Helldivers 2

Why this game, specifically

A swarm encounter loads the CPU with entity simulation and the GPU with particles at the same time. There is no Windows setting that makes that cheaper, but there are several that decide how much of the machine is available when it happens. ORION audits background work, power behaviour and memory pressure, and says plainly that this is headroom, not a frame-rate increase.

What ORION checks

• Background activity: startup entries, scheduled tasks and always-running apps that take CPU time while a game has it.
• Power behaviour: the active power plan, processor power management, and device idle policy, including whether the machine is on battery.
• Memory pressure: page-file configuration, memory compression state and the caching services that compete for RAM.
• Graphics configuration: Windows graphics preferences, DirectX shader and pipeline caches, and presentation settings the OS controls.
• Capture and overlay: Game Bar background recording, broadcasting and clip capture, which run whether or not you use them.

Recommended changes

Broadly appropriate, low expected side effects, and reversible where the badge says so. These are catalog entries, not a script: ORION reads the current value on your PC first and skips anything already set.

• Enable Game Modegame-mode SafeFreeReversibleNo restart

  Turns on Windows Game Mode so the OS prioritizes the active game.

• Enable Auto Game Modegamebar-auto-mode SafeFreeReversibleNo restart

  Lets Windows automatically apply Game Mode when a game is detected.

• Disable Game Bar background recordinggamebar-bg-off SafeFreeReversibleNo restart

  Keeps Game Bar background recording off until you turn it back on.

• Disable Xbox Game DVRgame-dvr-off SafeFreeReversibleNo restart

  Stops Xbox Game DVR from recording in the background while you play.

• Reduce gaming notificationsfocus-assist-gaming SafeFreeReversibleNo restart

  Turns off a common notification surface while leaving Windows security notifications alone.

• High Performance power planhigh-performance-power SafeFreeReversibleNo restart

  Switches to the built-in High Performance power scheme.

• Maximize DirectX shader cachedx-shader-cache-max SafeFreeReversibleNo restart

  Maximizes the DirectX shader cache to reduce compilation stutters.

• Disable game broadcastinggame-broadcast-off SafeEliteReversibleNo restart

  Disables built-in game broadcasting.

Advanced options

Legitimate changes with real trade-offs: hardware dependence, power draw, or behaviour that varies between systems. ORION shows these separately, records the previous value before writing, and never folds them into a one-click run.

• NVIDIA Prefer maximum performancegpu-nvidia-powermizer-max ModerateEliteReversibleNo restart

  Sets NVIDIA Control Panel power management to Prefer maximum performance via the official driver API.

• Disable GPU adaptive powergfx-adaptive-power-off ModerateEliteReversibleNo restart

  Keeps GPU clocks stable by disabling adaptive power states.

• DXGI GPU thread prioritydxgi-gpu-priority-high ModerateEliteReversibleNo restart

  Raises DXGI GPU thread priority for faster frame submission.

• Disable memory compressionmemory-compression-off ModerateFreeNot reversibleRestart required

  Turns off RAM compression so paged-out memory goes to the pagefile instead.

Trade-offs and limits

• Vendor power and scheduling options depend on the driver you have installed. ORION checks for the control it is about to write and marks the tweak unsupported when it is not there.
• Raising a GPU power floor increases idle draw and heat. On a laptop that is a real cost, and ORION says so on the card.
• Storage and memory options are the ones that most depend on how much RAM and what kind of drive you have. ORION reads both before it recommends anything.

ORION does not publish a frame-rate figure for Helldivers 2, because we do not have reproducible before-and-after data for your hardware. What the app can do is capture frames on your PC, in your game, before and after a change, and show you that.