I normally play super smoothly on my PC, but since the last Windows update I keep getting FPS drops. I already checked if anything's running in the background, but Task Manager is clean. What could be causing this?
Try completely uninstalling your graphics driver and reinstalling it fresh - for me that was exactly the problem after a Windows update, the old driver version didn't get along with the new system. Go to Control Panel, uninstall the current driver completely (important: use the "remove driver software" option), restart, and download the driver directly from Nvidia/AMD, not from Windows Update. Also worth checking out your power settings in the registry editor - sometimes Windows switches to power-saving options after updates, which throttles your graphics performance.
Clean in the Task Manager doesn't necessarily mean nothing's eating resources in the background - Windows updates often come with driver updates that haven't been running properly yet, or the graphics driver itself is acting up.
Have you checked in your GPU settings whether something got changed, or have you tried rolling back your graphics driver?
It could also be that Windows is just installing updates or running a disk optimization - those eat up CPU time in the background but don't show up prominently in the Task Manager.
Check out Windows indexing! It's often overlooked, but after a major update, the indexing service sometimes goes crazy and eats up your hard drive and CPU. Especially if you've got an SSD, that can seriously tank your gaming performance, even though the Task Manager looks totally fine when it's idle.
Go to the search bar, type "Indexing Options" and see if the service is currently indexing. If it is, just disable it for your game folders - or pause the service completely for a week or so until everything settles down. I had similar issues with my old laptop once when I wanted to play after an update. After a couple of days the indexing was done and everything ran smooth as butter again!
What the others said about drivers is right, of course - but try this indexing thing first before you completely reinstall your graphics driver. That's often the more annoying solution and doesn't always help if it's the other problem.
After a Windows update, the problem could also be that some background tasks are running that you can't actually see properly in the Task Manager - not because your computer is dirty, but because Windows is just doing stuff in the background. For example, the Windows Update Medic Service might be messing around or some services might actually be restarting.
Try going into System Settings, then "Apps" > "Startup" and check what's automatically starting there - sometimes something gets added after an update that's putting a strain on your system. Your power settings can also get reset after updates; some people have had luck switching to Performance mode instead of Balanced. If that doesn't help, I'd check your graphics driver situation - not just reinstall it, but maybe completely remove it first with something like DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) and then do a fresh install - cleaner than just an update.
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