Learn how to enable the hidden ultimate performance mode in Windows 10 to squeeze a bit more performance out of the system.
Generally, when you want your system to perform optimally, you enable the “High Performance” power plan. This mode prioritizes performance over the overall power consumption. However, if you want to squeeze even more performance out of your system, you can enable a hidden power plan called Ultimate Performance mode. This mode was first introduced in Windows 10 and is also now available in Windows 11. In this quick and easy guide, I’ll walk you through the steps to enable ultimate performance mode on Windows 11 and Windows 10. Let’s get started.
Before You Start
- Administrator rights are required to turn on the ultimate performance mode.
- Enabling this feature increases the overall power consumption and heat output.
- Due to the increased power consumption and heat output, this feature is not available to laptop users.
- If you are using Windows 10, make sure your version is v1803 or higher. To check your current version, press “Windows key + R”, type “winver”, and press “OK”. You will see the version number in the second line.
What is Ultimate Performance Mode
The Ultimate Performance mode is a new power plan specifically designed for PCs with mid to high-end GPUs. Once enabled, this mode allows you to get a bit more performance out of the hardware. Now, the performance jump isn’t that significant, but if you want to get the most out of your system, enabling it is helpful. In my case, enabling it improved the FPS by a couple of percentage points.
Do remember that enabling Ultimate Performance Mode will increase the overall power consumption and heat output of your computer.
Steps to Enable Ultimate Performance Mode
By default, the ultimate performance mode is hidden. That means you need to unhide it before you can enable it. Here’s how to unhide and enable the ultimate performance mode option.
- Open the Start menu by pressing the “Windows” key.
- Search for “PowerShell” and click “Run as administrator“.
- Run the “
powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61” command. - Press the “Windows” key to open the Start menu.
- Search and open “Control Panel“.
- Select the “Large icons” from the “View by” dropdown menu.
- Click “Power Options“.
- Click the “Show additional plans” option.
- Select “Ultimate Performance“.
- With that, you’ve enabled the ultimate performance mode in Windows 11 & 10.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
The first thing you must do is open PowerShell with admin rights. To do that, open the Start menu by pressing the “Windows” key, search for “Windows PowerShell“, right-click on it, and select “Run as Administrator.”
After opening the PowerShell window, paste the below command and press Enter. You will receive (Ultimate Performance) as the output.
powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
Now, open the Start menu again by pressing the “Windows” key. Next, search for “Control Panel” and click “Open“.
In the upper right corner, ensure “View by” is set to “Large icons“. Then, scroll down and click “Power Options“.
In this window, expand the “Show additional plans” section by clicking on it, select the “Ultimate performance” option, and you are good to go.
That’s it. You’ve enabled the ultimate performance mode in Windows 11 and Windows 10. As I said before, this feature is mainly intended for mid and high-end PCs. Even then, the performance improvement isn’t that significant. But, when needed, the Ultimate Performance mode can help you ring out that extra bit of juice from your system.
If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.
what wold the powershell command be to select ultimate performance, if it is already an option under the hide additional plans tab. so a command to put into powershell that changes the power plan from Balanced to Ultimate performance.
When it comes to setting power plans, PowerShell has no simple commands, at least to my knowledge. If you are still interested, take a look at this Microsoft Devsblog entry that goes into great detail on setting a power plan via PowerShell.
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/use-powershell-and-wmi-or-cim-to-view-and-to-set-power-plans/