How to Get 90fps and 120fps on Android Games (2026)

Most modern Android phones can run BGMI, COD Mobile, Free Fire and other competitive games at 90fps or 120fps — but ship with the option disabled, hidden behind a chipset whitelist, or capped by aggressive battery management. This guide walks through every reliable way to unlock high frame rates on Android in 2026, from the basic display setting most people miss to the advanced root-only methods. Plus a chip-by-chip table of what is realistically achievable on which hardware.

The short answer

For most users on most phones with high-refresh displays — enable Settings → Display → Refresh rate → 120 Hz (or High), then in each game set the in-game frame rate cap to the maximum offered. That alone unlocks 90 or 120 fps in BGMI, COD Mobile, Free Fire and most other major titles. The remaining tips in this guide squeeze out more sustained fps in long sessions and unlock high-fps in games where the developer has not whitelisted your chip.

Why your phone is locked to 60 fps by default

Phone manufacturers ship most devices with the display refresh rate set to either 60 Hz or “Auto” by default, even on hardware that supports 120 Hz. The reasons:

• Battery life in marketing benchmarks. “30 hours screen-on time” is a better headline at 60 Hz than “18 hours” at 120 Hz, so the default optimises for the marketing number.
• Compatibility with apps that flicker at high refresh rates. Some older apps render incorrectly above 60 Hz; the 60 Hz default avoids customer support tickets.
• Power efficiency. Most apps do not benefit from 120 Hz, so 60 Hz is a sensible default for typical users.
• Heat management. 120 Hz generates more heat in heavy 3D apps; 60 Hz default keeps thermals comfortable on long sessions.

The good news: every phone with a high-refresh display lets you change the default. The setting is just one tap deep but most users never look for it.

Step 1: Set the display refresh rate to high

Settings → Display → Refresh rate. The exact wording varies by skin:

• OneUI (Samsung) — Motion smoothness, set to Adaptive (60-120 Hz) or High (always 120 Hz).
• HyperOS (Xiaomi) — Refresh rate, set to High (120 Hz) or Custom.
• OxygenOS (OnePlus) — Refresh rate, set to High (120 Hz).
• Pixel UI — Smooth Display, toggle on.
• ColorOS (Oppo, OnePlus newer) — Refresh rate, set to 120 Hz.
• realme UI — Screen refresh rate, set to High.

If the option is not there, your phone’s display is locked to 60 Hz in hardware and no software trick will change that. Confirm by checking the spec sheet for your model.

Step 2: Enable high-fps in each game

Most major games gate their high-fps options behind both a system-side high-refresh display AND an in-game settings toggle. Enable both.

BGMI / PUBG Mobile

1. Open BGMI → Settings → Graphics
2. Frame rate: set to Ultra or Extreme if available (chipset-dependent)
3. Graphics: Smooth or Balanced (lower graphics = higher achievable fps)
4. Some chipsets need to enable a 90fps Mode toggle elsewhere in settings

COD Mobile

1. Settings → Graphics
2. Frame rate: Max or High Frame Rate
3. Graphics quality: Medium or High; lower for higher sustained fps

Free Fire

1. Settings → Graphics
2. Frame rate: High (90 fps mode on supported chips)
3. Graphics: Smooth for highest fps

Genshin Impact

1. Settings → Graphics → Frame Rate: 60 (the game caps at 60 on most Android chips) or 120 on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and newer

Asphalt Legends

1. Settings → Display → Frame rate: High refresh rate (chipset-gated)

If the game offers no high-fps option in its menu, your chipset is not on the developer’s whitelist. Workarounds in the next section.

Step 3: Developer options for stability

Enable Developer options (Settings → About phone → tap Build number 7 times), then under Developer options:

1. 1

   Force GPU rendering

   Forces 2D drawing to use the GPU rather than CPU. Reduces CPU load during gaming and improves UI responsiveness.

2. 2

   Force 4x MSAA

   Enables 4x multisample anti-aliasing in OpenGL ES games. Slight visual improvement; small fps cost on weaker chips.

3. 3

   Disable HW overlays

   Forces composition through the GPU. Costs a few percent fps but improves frame pacing — smoother gameplay even at the same average fps.

4. 4

   Window animation scale: 0.5x

   Speeds up the in-game UI transitions between menus. Doesn't affect gameplay fps but feels much snappier.

5. 5

   Transition animation scale: 0.5x

   Same as above for app-to-app transitions.

6. 6

   Animator duration scale: 0.5x

   Same family of tweaks; the three combined make the entire UI feel dramatically faster.

Step 4: System-level battery and RAM management

Disable anything that throttles CPU or kills background processes during gaming:

• Battery saver — disable entirely or schedule for off-hours only.
• Adaptive battery — some skins freeze background services the game depends on; disable for the duration of long sessions.
• RAM cleaner apps — uninstall any. They kill the game itself or its companion services.
• Background app management — Settings → Apps → game name → Battery → set to Unrestricted.

Most modern Android skins also have a built-in Game Mode (Game Booster, Game Space, Mi Game Turbo). Add your games to it and set the profile to Performance or Pro Gaming. This locks CPU and GPU clocks higher for the duration of each game session.

Realistic FPS by chipset

What you can actually achieve depends heavily on the SoC. Approximate sustained fps in 30-minute sessions in 2026:

When the game does not offer high-fps in its menu

Some games (especially BGMI’s Extreme+ tier, Genshin Impact 120fps mode, and certain regional COD Mobile builds) hide the highest fps option behind a chipset whitelist. If your chip is not on the list, the option does not appear in the game’s settings.

Workarounds, in order of risk:

No-root option: GFX tools (use with caution)

Apps like GFX Tool for BGMI and similar override the game’s chipset-detection by editing local config files. They work for some games on some Android versions but are a grey area — competitive games with anti-cheat may flag and ban accounts that use them. Use only on accounts you can afford to lose.

Root option: device fingerprint spoofing

With root, you can spoof the build.prop values that games use to identify your chipset. The game then unlocks the higher tier. Detection by anti-cheat is possible; bans are rare but real.

Root option: kernel governor tuning

Modules like Encore, Fas-Rs, FastCharge and others profile the kernel CPU/GPU governors aggressively for gaming. Real-world gain: 5 to 10 percent of additional sustained fps with increased heat and battery drain. Worth trying on rooted gaming phones.

Root option: 144 Hz / 165 Hz unlock on gaming phones

ROG Phone 8 / 8 Pro and Red Magic 9 have native 144-165 Hz panels but cap most apps at 120 Hz. With root and the right kernel module, the cap can be lifted. Niche use case; battery drain at 165 Hz is dramatic.

Cooling matters more than people realise

Sustained 120 fps gameplay generates significant heat. Without cooling, the phone thermal-throttles within 5 to 15 minutes — clocks drop, fps drops, you lose the advantage you set up. Three things help substantially:

• Remove the case during long sessions. Cases trap 3 to 8°C of heat.
• Place the phone on a hard surface (table, desk) rather than holding it. Hands and fabric trap heat.
• Drop screen brightness to 50 percent. The display itself contributes 5 to 8°C to total phone temperature at high brightness.
• For competitive use, consider a phone cooler — passive heatsinks, magnetic Peltier coolers (RedMagic, Black Shark, generic Pico Coolers). These can sustain high fps for hours instead of minutes on hot days.

What we never recommend

• Random “FPS Boost” apps from the Play Store. Most do nothing; some make performance worse via background CPU usage of their own.
• Overclocking the GPU via Magisk modules. Real-world gain is small and the heat increase is large; not worth the trade-off for most users.
• Turning off all animations to “speed up gaming.” Only the Window/Transition/Animator scales matter; “no animations” makes the UI feel broken without improving gameplay fps.
• Using high fps modes on cheap chargers during long sessions. A failing or counterfeit charger can over-deliver power, adding extra heat on top of the gaming load.

How to measure your actual fps reliably

The number the game shows in its own settings is what the developer is targeting, not necessarily what you are achieving. To measure actual sustained fps:

• Settings → Developer options → Show refresh rate displays the current panel refresh rate in the corner of every app. Useful for confirming the panel is actually running at 120 Hz when a game is open, but does not show in-game fps.
• GameBench (free version) profiles fps over a session and produces a graph showing average, 1 percent low and 0.1 percent low fps. The lows matter more than the average — a game averaging 110 fps with 1 percent lows of 40 fps will feel worse than one averaging 90 fps with 1 percent lows of 75 fps.
• PerfDog (more advanced, free for personal use) does the same thing with more detail including CPU/GPU load and battery temperature, useful for finding the exact moment the phone starts thermal-throttling.
• In-game native overlays — most competitive games have a built-in fps counter that you can enable in graphics settings; use this for quick checks during sessions.

A useful rule of thumb: if your 1 percent low fps is more than 25 percent below your average, you are thermal-throttling and the fix is cooling, not more performance settings.

When to call a professional

If you want to unlock high refresh rate options that your device hides, set up a stable rooted gaming configuration, install vetted performance modules without bricking risk, or have a thorough thermal optimisation done on a competitive gaming phone — message us on WhatsApp or Telegram. See our advanced mods service for what is included.