Razer Cortex Review: Boost FPS and Optimize Graphics Settings?

How to increase framerates in games: Razer Cortex promises to boost FPS in games, as well as optimize graphics settings using machine learning AI algorithms. In this Razer Cortex review I put those claims to the test. I also address questions like "What is Razer Cortex?" and "Is it safe to use Razer Cortex?". So, is Razer Cortex a scam or is it a good way to increase your performance in games?

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Chapters:
0:00 What is Razer Cortex? What Does Razer Cortex do?
1:47 Is Razer Cortex a virus? Can Razer Cortex harm your PC?
2:21 Razer Cortex Game Booster- What does it do?
3:00 Razer Cortex Game Booster- Does it actually work?
5:12 Razer Cortex Booster Prime: What does it do and which games are supported?
8:42 Razer Cortex Booster Prime: Testing "Optimized" Settings in Cyberpunk 2077
13:47 Razer Cortex Booster Prime: More thoughts on optimized settings
15:00 Conclusion

[DeadDrop]

Fantastic objective review! I have seen multiple "overly positive" reviews on YouTube pushing people to download it. Yours is the first to parallel my real world experience point for point.

[Sam-K]

I think it's best to learn about graphical settings, how they work, what they're supposed to do and how much resources system they use.
Whenever I'm trying to optimize a game, I lock my frame rate to 30 or 60 (depending on my performance target) and turn-on GPU usage graph via MSI Afterburner. This way, I can see exactly how impactful each graphical setting is and tune the settings accordingly.
If a certain settings bumps up the GPU usage from say 55% to 59% then it means I can "afford" it. Anything over 10% is 'taxing' and 20% is 'pushing', if that makes any sense.
Really helps fine tune the game if you have low-end hardware.

[berryvr]

the best thing to do to get better performance out of your computer with software like this is something like Process Laso Pro. its basically the manual version of what this program is doing, but allot more detailed. i use it and my computer basically has 1-2% background useage (other computer obviously might be differnt) so its completely focused on running the game. highly recommend watching a tutorial first tho. your doing what people do with car tuning and just tweaking your computer programs to run more efficiently for when your gaming.

[goldentd]

Razer cortex actually lowers my fps for some reason in valorant

[philipnadera]

It helped my Warzone run so smooth where I can no longer worry that I may lose fights. I can really compete with other players now that I have Cortex installed. It is not placebo I can guarantee and it is working on my system really well. Maybe it won't have that much performance boost for your system, but on mine, I have experienced the huge boost. I also played Apex and Valorant with the use of Cortex and damn, it gives huge significant boost to my system.

[k_gold]

I tried razer on the suggestion of my friend. It's actually disastrous for RAM bottlenecked computers cuz mine has a i7 non-suffix cpu with just 8GB of ddr3 so the RAM is getting bottlenecked here, and since Razer is taking up 500MB of RAM and only clearing like 300MB im actually losing more precious RAM in the process. My theory to increase performance is simple: The lesser the items in your tray, the better the results in your game. That's why please don't prefer Discord over in-game voice chat gamers. Discord is unnecessarily taking up more RAM and CPU and most setups are bottlenecked by CPU not GPU

[beraire]

I'm on a low-end, 10GB DDr2 Ram, GTX 660 and i5 650 pc, and honestly, the program helps a lot in running Valorant along with Discord in the background. Without it, I lose about 20fps, which impacts gameplay by a lot.

[charlieharper]

I am at minute one and I can already tell that this is an amazing review you put a lot effort in. Subbed.

[darreno]

My sketchy alarm went off after watching this. Maybe they had good intentions, but if all it does is toggle in-game settings, installing this for it to end up taking system resources makes no sense. Great video!

[ebozic]

For me it really helped, i used to get stutters, too big loading times, i remember Waiting from 5-10 mins for fortnite to load now it loads in a minute or 2, and i got around 5 more fps, i mean it works much differently for others but for me it was good

[muttleythedog]

On my old Pc, game booster was the only thing that let me play any newer game. I would really recommend you try it if your PC is old.

[HullarsRedDust]

I used Cortex for years on my old pc and it worked fine and I THOUGHT it was "boosting" my games. But when i got my new pc and re-downloaded it I noticed that while it is "boosting", my game runs perfectly fine but every other program I have open becomes extremely laggy or unresponsive and even crash. I find some of the tools helpful like defrag and system clean, but overall it has gotten worse over time with the addition of pop up ads and "PlAy tO EaRn". I also have a theory that some of the performance problems on my new pc could be cause by the new P and E cores and maybe not working properly with the booster. (Old system: R7 4800h, RTX 2060, 16gb 3200) (New system: i7-12700, RTX 3060, 16gb 3200)

[dustinejohnson]

I play pvp and this thing worked like a gem for me. I noticed a drastic difference, and i had already optimized my computer. It fixed a ghosting issue i was having. The game i play, brawlhalla requires intricate inputs that any ghosting will disrupt and drop packets. I didnt thing Cortex would do anything, but it did. I dont know how, but it did.

[chincemagnet]

I have gotten some good deals from Cortex, although that was years ago. I haven’t used it in quite a few years. I seem to recall I stopped using it because Windows 10 has its own game mode.

[xjayesparkle]

Thank you for the video! Lots of great info and honest!

One feedback! Since you didn't think this was a good program to use.. It would be nice if you had an alternative you do recommend for game boosting performance that does what Cortex claims to do. I would absolutely love to find something like it that actually works well and makes sense in it's decisions to turn off things/change settings.

I'll keep an eye out for your response if you know something that I should try that you recommend!

[j.d.]

I have used this for years and it actually helped me with games where I had random stutters.
In other games it didn't help at all though and then there was a time where it CAUSED insane stutter, though I don't know if it was a broken version which they fixed again or something was wrong with my PC.

[TerraWare]

Unrelated to this software I'm not a big fan of Razer personally. I remember buying a gaming mmorpg mouse, a kraken headset and a black widow mechanical keyboard about 6 years ago. The mouse started having issues a little over a year after I bought it, the wires inside the cable were breaking internally so the mouse stopped working, the kraken headset broke where the speakers extend because of the crappy design and using weak plastic. I didn't have any issues with the keyboard. I vowed not to buy any of their peripherals. I've heard quite a few people have similar stories to mine.

[yourfriendlyneighborhoodjinx]

good info bro. I used a similar thing from asus and hp and both were useless with my modern high end pc but as I work on a few older systems I probably will add these. Also motion blur should always be turned off. It never looks good.

[GregoryShtevensh]

Razer game booster used to not touch your in game settings and instead would flush Ram, and close down windows Explorer. It would kinda bring your PC closer to the OS overhead of a console, and like you said, was mainly good for PCs with an older CPU

[isaacng]

I uninstalled it cause when I run my games on low to get better fps, It turned on DLSS and it put my graphics to high. My pc is an Rtx 3050ti soo I don't really need the app.