Windows 11's default configuration is optimized for general use, not gaming — and especially not for PoE2's unique CPU and I/O demands. These tweaks disable security features that hurt gaming performance, fix network throttling that causes latency spikes, and ensure your system dedicates resources to the game.
Important: Some of these tweaks reduce system security (disabling Memory Integrity). Evaluate the trade-off for your use case. Our Config Generator handles all in-game settings regardless of your OS configuration.
1. Disable Memory Integrity (Core Isolation)
Windows Security → Device Security → Core Isolation → Memory Integrity → OFF. This virtualization-based security feature reserves ~5% of your CPU for hypervisor overhead. In PoE2, which is heavily CPU-bound in endgame, disabling it recovers 3-8% FPS on Ryzen and Intel systems. Restart required. Only re-enable if you work with untrusted applications on the same machine.
2. Disable Virtual Machine Platform (VMP)
Control Panel → Programs → Turn Windows Features On/Off → Virtual Machine Platform → OFF. Hyper-V and VMP interfere with GPU scheduling. Some anti-cheat systems require VMP — PoE2 does not. Disabling it improves 1% lows by ~4% on tested systems.
3. Network Throttling Registry Fix
Windows throttles network traffic for multimedia applications by default. This causes PoE2 latency spikes. Fix it:
- Open
regedit→ navigate toHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile - Find
NetworkThrottlingIndex→ set toffffffff(hexadecimal, = decimal 4294967295) - Create it as a DWORD (32-bit) if it doesn't exist: New → DWORD → name
NetworkThrottlingIndex→ Valueffffffff→ Base → Hexadecimal - Restart your PC. This completely disables Windows' network throttling for PoE2's traffic.
4. Game Mode → ON + GPU Scheduling
Settings → Gaming → Game Mode → ON. Then Settings → System → Display → Graphics → Change default graphics settings → Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling → ON. HAGS reduces CPU overhead on the WDDM graphics driver scheduler. Combined with Game Mode, this gives PoE2 priority access to GPU resources.
5. Disable Xbox Game Bar + Background Recording
Settings → Gaming → Xbox Game Bar → OFF. Then Captures → Background recording → OFF. The Game Bar's DVR feature keeps a constant 30-second video buffer in memory, consuming GPU encoder resources. This directly competes with PoE2's rendering and can cost 2-5% FPS.
6. High Performance Power Plan
Control Panel → Power Options → High Performance or Ultimate Performance. Standard and Balanced plans allow CPU core parking and clock-throttling. In PoE2, this causes frame-time spikes when the CPU needs to ramp back up after a quiet moment in hideout. High Performance prevents this.
7. Disable Mouse Acceleration (Enhance Pointer Precision)
Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Mouse → Additional mouse settings → Pointer Options → UNCHECK "Enhance pointer precision". Mouse acceleration interferes with PoE2's raw input mode. Even with raw input ON in-game, Windows pointer processing can add input lag.
8. Set PoE2 to High CPU Priority
Launch PoE2 → Task Manager → Details → find PathOfExile2.exe → right-click → Set Priority → High. This tells Windows to schedule this thread before most others. Note: this resets each session. Use Process Lasso to persist it. Disable CPU Core 0 for PoE2 in Process Lasso if you experience background stutter.
After applying these tweaks, use our Config Generator to get the perfect in-game settings for your hardware.