Intel’s latest 14th Gen chips aren’t a huge improvement over the 13th Gen in gaming performance, but a new Intel Application Optimization (APO) feature might just change that. Intel’s new APO app simply runs in the background, improving performance in games. It offers impressive boosts to frame rates in games that support it, like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and Metro Exodus.

Intel Application Optimization essentially directs application resources in real time through a scheduling policy that fine-tunes performance for games and potentially even other applications in the future. It operates alongside Intel’s Thread Director, a technology that’s designed to improve how apps and games are assigned to performance or efficiency cores depending on the performance needs. The result is some solid gains to performance in certain games, with one Reddit poster seeing a 200fps boost in Rainbow Six Siege at 1080p.

“Not all games benefit from APO,” explained Intel VP Roger Chandler in a press briefing ahead of the 14th Gen launch. “As we test and verify games we will add those that benefit the most, so gamers can get the best performance from their systems.”

In my own testing with the Intel Application Optimization, the results were more in line with Intel’s own guidance. Intel says Rainbow Six Siege with APO enabled should see a 13 percent boost and Metro Exodus a 16 percent boost.

I tested Rainbow Six Siege with the very high preset at 1080p on a Core i9-14900K system paired with an RTX 4090 and saw frame rates shift from 615fps to 688fps — a nearly 12 percent increase. In Metro Exodus Enhanced, frame rates improved from 177fps to 207fps, a nearly 17 percent increase, using the high preset at 1080p.

A more than 10 percent boost for just flicking a switch in an app is surprising, but right now, support for APO is limited, and the process to get the app up and running is cumbersome. APO only works on 14th Gen CPUs, and to even install the app, you’ll need some special drivers installed beforehand. Intel’s APO is only available in the Microsoft Store, and it will error out and fail to install if you don’t have the drivers present.

You’ll need Intel’s Dynamic Tuning drivers, which should be available directly from motherboard vendors like MSI and Asus. Not all motherboards have these drivers listed just yet, though. You’ll also need to enable Intel Dynamic Tuning Technology in the BIOS settings. Once you’ve got the drivers installed and the BIOS option enabled, you can then download the APO app from the Microsoft Store.

Once APO is all up and running, it will then start to detect games after you’ve launched them. It’s not clear how many games are supported right now, but Metro Exodus and Rainbow Six Siege both work. APO will detect games whether they’re installed from the Microsoft Store, Steam, the Epic Games Store, or elsewhere.

Intel hasn’t heavily marketed APO yet, probably because it’s super limited and difficult to install. Hopefully, there’s an easier way to enable this feature in the future and more games are supported as Intel continues to test and add them to the list.