Consoles
Xbox Will Not Turn On or Keeps Shutting Down
Power cycling, power supply faults, overheating shutdowns and the difference between a console problem and a display problem.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
MR
Marcus Reyes
PC Hardware & Performance Editor
Marcus has been building, breaking and repairing gaming PCs since 2011, first as a weekend favour for friends and then for eight years as a bench technician at an independent repair shop in Portland, where roughly a third of the job was diagnosing machines that "ran fine yesterday".
He runs the Spyld test bench: a Ryzen 7 7800X3D / RTX 4070 Super main rig, a deliberately underpowered i5-10400 / GTX 1650 "budget reality" box, and a 2019 Dell laptop that overheats if you look at it wrong. Every performance claim on this site is measured on at least two of those three, with frametime graphs rather than average-FPS screenshots.
He is unreasonably opinionated about the fact that most "boost your FPS" advice on the internet does nothing measurable, and he publishes the numbers that prove it.
Background & credentials
- CompTIA A+ certified
- 8 years bench-repair experience
- 400+ systems diagnosed and repaired
102 articles by Marcus
Consoles
Xbox Storage: What You Can Play From an External Drive
A cheap USB drive works for some games and not others. The rule is simple once you know it.
Marcus Reyes·2 minAugust 12
Consoles
Is Game Pass Still Worth It? Working Out Your Actual Break-Even
Subscription value depends entirely on your play pattern. Here's how to work out whether it's saving you money or just feeling like it.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
Windows Settings That Genuinely Affect Gaming Performance
Most Windows optimisation guides are folklore. These are the settings with measurable effects, and the ones that do nothing.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
Router Settings That Actually Reduce Lag
QoS, band selection, channel congestion and the settings that make a measurable difference versus the ones that are placebo.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Fixes
Why Game Downloads Are So Slow (When Your Internet Isn't)
A fast connection downloading at a crawl usually isn't the connection. Here's what's actually limiting it and how to test each cause.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
When to Upgrade Your GPU: The Signals That Actually Mean It
Most people who think they need a new graphics card need a setting change, a CPU, or more VRAM. Here is how to tell which.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
VRAM and Texture Settings Explained: How Much Do You Actually Need
What VRAM does, why allocated is not the same as used, and how to tell whether you are genuinely short of it.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Gear
Buying a VR Headset: What Matters and What Is Marketing
Comfort, tracking and library size decide whether a headset gets used. Resolution figures decide almost nothing.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Safety
VPNs and Gaming: What They Do, and the Three Myths
A VPN cannot lower your ping to a nearby server. It can do several other things, some of which get accounts banned.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
Thermal Paste: When to Repaste and What Actually Matters
Paste choice matters far less than application and mounting pressure. Most repasting fixes a mounting problem, not a paste problem.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Mobile
Tablet or Phone for Gaming: The Trade Nobody Mentions
Tablets are better in every way except the one that decides it for most games.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Consoles
Switch microSD Cards: What Speed Actually Matters
Most of the numbers on a microSD card are irrelevant to a Switch. Two of them are not.
Marcus Reyes·2 minAugust 12
Creators
Single PC or Two PC Streaming Setup? The Honest Answer
Hardware encoders made single-PC streaming good enough for almost everyone. Here's where that breaks down.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
FixesComplete guide
Steam Errors, Solved: Disk Write, Content File Locked, Missing Privileges and the Rest
Steam's error messages are consistently unhelpful. Disk write error, content file locked and missing file privileges are three names for overlapping problems. Here's what each actually means.
Marcus Reyes·5 minAugust 12
Consoles
Handheld Gaming PCs Compared: What the Spec Sheets Do Not Tell You
Battery under real load, the software layer, and why the faster handheld is often the worse one to actually live with.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
ConsolesComplete guide
Steam Deck Settings That Actually Extend Battery Life
The Deck's biggest wins come from frame caps and TDP limits, not graphics presets. Here's how to double your battery life without ruining the game.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Guides
Linux Gaming in 2026: What Works and What Still Does Not
Compatibility layers have made most single-player games work well. Anti-cheat remains the wall, and here is exactly where it sits.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Guides
Sim Racing: What to Buy First and What Not To
The pedals matter more than the wheel, which is the opposite of how everyone spends their money.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Consoles
Handheld Gaming PC vs Console vs Laptop: Which One Is Actually For You
Handhelds solve a specific problem well and everything else badly. Here's the framework for deciding before you spend.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
Shader Compilation Stutter: Why New Games Hitch and How to Stop It
The hitching in modern PC releases is usually shader compilation. Here is how to identify it, and the cache settings that actually eliminate it.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Performance
Second Monitors and Gaming: What Breaks and How to Fix It
Frame rate drops when a video plays on the second screen, alt-tab problems, mismatched refresh rates and the fixes for each.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Gear
Buying Used Gaming Hardware Without Getting Burned
The used market is the best value in gaming. Here's what to buy, what to avoid, and the tests to run inside the return window.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Roblox
Running Roblox on a School or Work Laptop
Integrated graphics, locked-down accounts and 4GB of RAM. What actually helps on hardware that was not bought for games.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
GuidesComplete guide
Retro Game Emulation: Getting It Right (Legally and Technically)
Emulation is easy to do badly. Here's how to get accurate timing, low input lag and a setup that doesn't fight you.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Consoles
Retro Console Collecting Without Getting Ripped Off
Counterfeit cartridges, dying capacitors, save battery failure and what a fair price looks like in a market that has stopped being cheap.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
RAM Speed and Timings: How Much It Actually Matters
Memory speed matters more than it used to and less than enthusiasts claim. The bigger issue is that most people never enable it.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
Choosing a Power Supply: The Component Nobody Budgets For
Wattage is the number everyone checks and the least likely to be the problem. Transient spikes are what actually trip supplies.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Consoles
PS5 vs PS5 Pro: Who the Upgrade Is Actually For
The Pro solves a specific problem. If you do not have that problem, it solves nothing you will notice.
Marcus Reyes·2 minAugust 12
Consoles
Expanding PS5 Storage: What Actually Works and What to Avoid
Internal NVMe for PS5 games, external USB for PS4 games and cold storage. Here's the spec requirement and the heatsink question.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
Prebuilt vs Custom Gaming PC: The Honest Cost Comparison
The price gap narrowed years ago. What separates the two now is which components the builder chose to compromise on.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Consoles
PlayStation Controller Problems: Pairing, Drift and Battery
Controllers that will not connect, disconnect mid-game, drift, or die in two hours. What is fixable and what is not.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
MobileComplete guide
Phone Overheating While Gaming: Why It Throttles and What to Change
A phone that gets hot drops frame rate within minutes, and no setting stops physics. Here's how to reach a stable frame rate that survives a full session instead of a good first five minutes.
Marcus Reyes·5 minAugust 12
Fixes
PC Not Detecting a New SSD: The Order to Check Things
A drive missing from Windows is usually present in BIOS and simply uninitialised. Five minutes of checking in the right order finds it.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
ConsolesComplete guide
PC vs Console in 2026: The Honest Cost and Convenience Comparison
Hardware price is the smallest part of this decision. Here's the real cost over five years, and the factors people discover too late.
Marcus Reyes·2 minAugust 12
Gear
Which PC Part to Upgrade First
Diagnosing your actual bottleneck before spending, and why the part you want to upgrade is usually not the one holding you back.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
PerformanceComplete guide
PC Overheating While Gaming: Diagnosis and the Fixes That Work
Frame rate that degrades after ten minutes is thermal, not a driver problem. Here's how to identify which component and what actually fixes it.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Fixes
No Display After Building or Upgrading a PC
Black screen on a new build or after a GPU swap. The five causes in order of likelihood, and how to test each in minutes.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
PerformanceComplete guide
Why Your Games Crash: A Diagnosis Guide That Starts With the Symptom
Crash to desktop, black screen, freeze-and-reboot and BSOD are four different faults. Here's how to read which one you have and what each actually points at.
Marcus Reyes·6 minAugust 12
Gear
Case Airflow: Why More Fans Is Not the Answer
Airflow is about pressure and path, not fan count. A restrictive front panel undoes six fans instantly.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
GearComplete guide
Gaming PC Build Mistakes That Cost People Money
Unbalanced parts, an inadequate PSU, and buying for a resolution you don't own. The expensive errors, in order.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Safety
Password Managers for Gamers: The Specific Problems
Gaming raises three password manager problems that normal advice ignores: consoles, shared machines and recovery codes.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
Packet Loss and Rubber-Banding: Finding Where It Actually Happens
Rubber-banding is not lag. It is packets going missing, and a two-minute test tells you whether the fault is yours or theirs.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
NVIDIA Control Panel: The Settings That Actually Matter
Most of the control panel should be left alone. Four settings are worth changing and one of them is genuinely important.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Consoles
Getting More Out of a Nintendo Switch
Storage cards, dock behaviour, battery decline, Joy-Con drift and the settings most owners never change.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Consoles
Joy-Con Drift: What Actually Fixes It and What Buys Two Weeks
Cleaning works temporarily because it treats a symptom. Here is the difference between the two and when to stop cleaning.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
Monitor Calibration for Gaming: Getting Past the Factory Settings
Factory settings are bright and oversaturated because that sells monitors in shops. Fifteen minutes fixes it.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Mobile
Mobile Multiplayer Lag: Why Wi-Fi Is Often Worse Than Mobile Data
Switching to mobile data frequently fixes lag, which surprises people until they understand what Wi-Fi is doing.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Mobile
Mobile Graphics Settings: Which Ones Actually Cost You
Frame rate cap and resolution scale do most of the damage. The preset slider does less than you think.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Minecraft
Minecraft Shaders and Texture Packs: What Costs Performance
Shaders and texture packs cost performance in completely different ways, and one of them is far cheaper than people assume.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
MinecraftComplete guide
How to Set Up a Minecraft Server for Friends (Without Paying)
LAN, self-hosted or Realms? Here's the honest comparison, the RAM you actually need, and the port-forwarding step people get wrong.
Marcus Reyes·5 minAugust 12
MinecraftComplete guide
Minecraft Lag Fix: Why It Stutters on Hardware That Should Fly
Minecraft runs badly on machines that handle far heavier games. The reasons are RAM allocation, garbage collection and render distance — not your graphics card. Tested on Java 1.21 and Bedrock.
Marcus Reyes·6 minAugust 12
Minecraft
Minecraft Enchanting and Villager Trading: The Efficient Route
The enchanting table is the slow path. Librarian trading is how experienced players get Mending, and it takes about twenty minutes.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Minecraft
The Minecraft Mods Worth Installing First (Performance and Quality of Life)
Skip the mega packs. These are the mods that change how the game runs and feels, in the order you should install them.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
Minecraft Java Performance Tuning: Allocation, Mods and Render Distance
More RAM is the fix people reach for and usually the wrong one. Here is what actually moves frame rates in Java.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
Memory Leaks in Games: Why Performance Degrades Over a Session
Some games get progressively worse the longer you play. That specific pattern has a specific cause and one reliable workaround.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
Input Lag: Where the Milliseconds Actually Go
People chase five milliseconds in the driver while losing forty to a television picture mode. Here is the real budget.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
Gaming Chairs: What Actually Matters and What Is Marketing
Racing-style chairs sell on looks and fail on adjustability. What to check before spending, and the alternative most people should consider.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
Benchmarking Your PC: Measuring What Actually Matters
Average frame rate hides the problem you are trying to find. One percent lows are the number that matches how a game feels.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Consoles
Retro Handhelds: Which Tier You Actually Need
The chip tiers, what each can emulate, and why buying the most powerful one is usually a mistake for a retro library.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Performance
Open World Games Stuttering: Why Cities Kill Frame Rates
Smooth in the countryside, terrible in the city. That is a specific, diagnosable problem with specific fixes.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
PerformanceComplete guide
GPU at 100% But Low FPS — What's Actually Happening
Full GPU utilisation with a bad frame rate is not a contradiction. Here is what 100% actually measures and the five causes worth checking.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Gear
How Much Storage Do You Actually Need for Gaming in 2026?
Game sizes have outgrown 1 TB. Here's the real capacity maths, whether Gen 5 helps, and when a hard drive is still fine.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
GearComplete guide
Gaming Monitor Buying Guide: What the Specs Mean and Which Ones Matter
144Hz vs 240Hz, 1080p vs 1440p, curved or flat, response time claims that aren't real. Here's what changes your experience and what's a spec sheet decoration.
Marcus Reyes·5 minAugust 12
Gear
Gaming Chair vs Office Chair: Which Actually Supports You Better?
Racing-style gaming chairs look the part and are usually worse for long sessions. Here's what to look for instead.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Fixes
A Game That Will Not Launch: The Order to Check Things
Nothing happens when you press play. Anti-cheat, overlays, permissions and corrupted files, in the order that finds the cause fastest.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Fixes
Everything Broke After an Update: A Recovery Order
New patch, new problems. Here's how to tell whether it's the patch, your drivers, or your install, without wasting an evening.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Fixes
Stuck on a Loading Screen: Infinite Load Diagnosis
An infinite loading screen is usually waiting for something that will never arrive. Working out what narrows it fast.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Fixes
Corrupted Save Files: Recovery, and the Backup Habit That Prevents It
A corrupted save is usually recoverable if you stop immediately. It is entirely preventable with five minutes of setup.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
Game Runs Worse After a Driver Update: Rolling Back Properly
New drivers occasionally break specific games. Rolling back works, and there is a right way to do it.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Fixes
Backing Up Game Saves (Before You Lose Two Hundred Hours)
Cloud saves cover less than you think. Here's where saves actually live, what isn't backed up, and a setup that takes ten minutes.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Guides
Modding Games Without Breaking Them
Load order, mod managers, backing up saves and why the mod you added third is the one causing crashes.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Performance
Fullscreen, Borderless or Windowed: Which and Why
Exclusive fullscreen is faster and less convenient. Borderless is smoother to use and adds latency. Here is when each wins.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
PerformanceComplete guide
DLSS, FSR and Frame Generation: What They Actually Do
Upscaling renders fewer pixels. Frame generation invents whole frames. They have completely different trade-offs and one adds latency.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
FPS Dropped After a Windows Update: What to Check
Windows updates re-enable settings you turned off and occasionally install a driver you did not want. Both are reversible.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Safety
Fake Game Downloads: How the Malware Actually Reaches You
Gaming malware arrives through four routes and all of them look like something you wanted.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Fixes
Epic Games Launcher Problems: Downloads, Errors and Games That Won't Start
Stuck downloads, games that verify forever, launcher errors that mean nothing. Here's the diagnostic order that actually resolves them.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Fixes
Missing DLL Errors: The Right Fix and the Dangerous One
Never download a DLL from a DLL website. The correct fix is a runtime installer and it takes five minutes.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Fixes
DirectX Errors: Reading What They Actually Mean
DirectX errors name a component, and the component tells you whether the problem is the runtime, the driver or the hardware.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
GearComplete guide
Which CPU Do You Actually Need for Gaming?
Games use fewer cores than you think and care enormously about cache. Here's what the specification sheet is hiding.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
Air Cooler or AIO: The Honest Comparison
A good air cooler matches most liquid coolers, never leaks, and costs less. Liquid wins for specific reasons that are not performance.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
CPU Bottleneck: How to Prove It Rather Than Guess
Utilisation figures tell you which component is the limit. Two numbers settle an argument people have endlessly.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Consoles
Console HDMI and TV Settings: Why Your 4K Console Looks Wrong
The console is usually configured correctly. The television is usually not, and one setting is buried under a strange name.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Fixes
Cloud Saves: Moving Your Progress Between Devices Without Losing It
Sync conflicts, the wrong save overwriting the right one, and how to move a game to a new PC or console safely.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Consoles
Cloud Gaming in 2026: Which Service Is Worth Paying For
Latency, library ownership and the connection you actually have determine whether cloud gaming works for you, not the marketing figures.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Safety
How Anti-Cheat Actually Works (And Why It Sometimes Breaks Your Game)
Kernel-level anti-cheat is why some games conflict with your software. Here's what it does, what it costs, and how to troubleshoot it.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Fixes
Black Screen When Launching a Game: Working Out What Loaded
A black screen with audio is a completely different problem from a black screen without it. That is the first thing to check.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
Buying a Graphics Card: Reading Specs That Actually Predict Performance
Core counts and clock speeds do not compare across brands or generations. Here is what does, and what to check before ordering.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
GearComplete guide
The Best GPU for 1440p Gaming in 2026 (Without Overpaying)
1440p does not need a flagship. Here is the real VRAM floor, the cards that hold up, and the tier where extra money stops buying frames.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Gear
Do You Need a Gaming Router? What the Features Actually Do
Gaming routers sell features that mostly rebrand standard networking. One of them is genuinely useful.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
Buying a Gaming Laptop: The Numbers That Are Not on the Box
Two laptops with identical GPUs can differ by thirty percent. Here is what causes that and how to find the figure before you buy.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Gear
Gaming Setup Ergonomics: The Changes That Stop the Aches
Monitor height, desk height, wrist angle and the cheap fixes that resolve most gaming-related discomfort without buying furniture.
Marcus Reyes·4 minAugust 12
Creators
Recording Gameplay: Capture Card, Software, or Neither?
Most people do not need a capture card. Here's when software recording is enough, when it isn't, and the settings that stop recordings looking terrible.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Mobile
Choosing a Budget Gaming Phone: What Actually Matters
Sustained performance, screen refresh rate and thermal design matter far more than peak benchmark scores on a cheap gaming phone.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
Background Apps Killing Your FPS: Finding the Actual Culprit
Closing everything in Task Manager is a blunt instrument. A few specific categories cause nearly all the damage.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Fixes
Crackling Audio and No Sound in Games
Crackling is usually a sample rate mismatch and takes two minutes to fix. Missing audio is usually the wrong output device.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Mobile
Android Emulators on PC: Which Games Allow It
Emulators work well and some games ban you for using them. Knowing which is the only thing that matters here.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Performance
AMD Adrenalin: Which Settings Are Worth Enabling
Adrenalin has more features enabled by default than NVIDIA's panel, and a couple of them are worth turning off.
Marcus Reyes·3 minAugust 12
Fixes
Roblox Keeps Crashing on PC: The Fixes That Actually Stick
Roblox crashing to desktop, freezing on launch or closing mid-game — each has a different cause. A diagnostic-first walkthrough using the client's own logs, tested on three machines.
Marcus Reyes·8 minAugust 11
PerformanceComplete guide
How to Lower Ping in Games: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why
The changes that measurably reduce ping and jitter, ranked by how much they actually help — plus the popular 'fixes' that do nothing, tested with real packet logs.
Marcus Reyes·10 minAugust 10
PerformanceComplete guide
How to Fix Stuttering in Games: A Frametime-First Diagnostic
Stuttering is a frametime problem, not an FPS problem. Learn to read the frametime graph, identify which of the six stutter types you have, and apply the fix that matches it.
Marcus Reyes·10 minAugust 10
Gear
Is 16GB of RAM Enough for Gaming in 2026?
16GB is still playable and no longer comfortable. Measured memory use across ten 2026 titles, what actually breaks when you run out, and how to decide whether to upgrade to 32GB.
Marcus Reyes·6 minAugust 7