The Finals

Why this game, specifically

Most games have a roughly constant per-frame cost. The Finals does not: a building collapsing puts load on the CPU and GPU at the same time, late in a round, when the outcome is being decided. Headroom is therefore worth more here than in a game with a flat load curve, which is the case for auditing background work and power behaviour rather than chasing an average.

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.
• Graphics configuration: Windows graphics preferences, DirectX shader and pipeline caches, and presentation settings the OS controls.
• Latency-sensitive settings: frame-queue depth, presentation path, notification interruptions and input-related Windows options.
• 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.

• Keep fullscreen optimizations ongame-dvr-fse-window SafeFreeReversibleNo restart

  Keeps windowed-game optimization on.

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.

• D3D max frame latency 1d3d-max-frame-latency-1 ModerateEliteReversibleNo restart

  Limits D3D frame queue to 1 frame globally for lower input lag.

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.
• Frame-queue and scheduler options are the ones most likely to behave differently on your hardware than on someone else's. ORION labels them Advanced and records the previous value before it writes a new one.

ORION does not publish a frame-rate figure for The Finals, 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.