Disabling Overlays

An overlay is an application which puts some of its interface on top of other applications. Plenty of voice chat and graphics applications have overlays to improve your experience with games. Sometimes they do the opposite of that, eating up bandwidth or introducing compatibility problems with certain programs. In this case, you'll need to disable them. Programs with overlays often auto-enable their overlay every time there's an update. If you keep running into performance issues with every update, you'll need to keep disabling them.

Here are a few super-common overlays and how to disable them.

AMD Radeon ReLive

AMD Radeon is a dashboard which contains many features including Radeon video drivers, game setting optimization, and automatic updates. The AMD Radeon Overlay can't be completely disabled, but most issues stem from ReLive, their capture and streaming feature. Here's how to disable it:

  1. Click on the System Tray to show hidden icons
  2. Double-click on the Radeon icon Radeon_icon.png
  3. Click on ReLive
  4. Under the "Global," check the status of ReLive
  5. If on, toggle it off
  6. Close the AMD Radeon Software window

Discord

Discord is a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) application designed for gaming. Its overlay allows players to access their Discord application over their game. You can disable it entirely, or just for League.

To disable it entirely:

  1. Click on the System Tray to show hidden icons
  2. Double-click the Discord icon Discord_icon.png
  3. Click on the Settings icon
  4. Click on Overlay on the navigation bar
  5. Switch "Enable in-game overlay" to off

To disable it just for League:

  1. Click on the System Tray to show hidden icons
  2. Double-click the Discord icon Discord_icon.png
  3. Click on the Settings icon
  4. Click on Games in the navigation bar
  5. Toggle "League of Legends" to off
  6. Close the Discord settings window

Nvidia ShadowPlay/Share

Nvidia GeForce Experience is a dashboard containing video drivers, game setting optimization, and automatic updates. It includes the Nvidia ShadowPlay overlay, which lets you record video, take screenshots, and broadcast your gameplay.

  1. Click on the System Tray to show hidden icons
  2. Right-click the Nvidia icon Nvidia_icon.png
  3. Click GeForce Experience
  4. Click on the Settings icon
  5. Toggle "In-Game Overlay" to off
  6. Close the GeForce Experience window

Overwolf Overlay

Overwolf is a platform that boosts other software's overlays, allowing for a variety of actions you'd normally need to downsize or close the game to do.

  1. Click on the System Tray to show hidden icons
  2. Right-click the Overwolf icon Overwolf_icon.png
  3. Click on the Settings icon
  4. Click on Overlay & Hotkeys
  5. Find League of Legends on the list of games
  6. Toggle off the overlay for League
  7. Close the Overwolf window

Razer Synapse Stats

Razer Synapse includes drivers, macro programming, customization for peripherals, and automatic updates. It also includes Razer Stats, which captures mouse clicks, keystrokes, heatmaps, and other data while you're playing games.

  1. Click on the System Tray to show hidden icons
  2. Double-click the Synapse icon Synapse_icon.png
  3. Click on Stats
  4. In the new window, click on the Settings icon in the top right
  5. Set "Data Tracking" to Off
  6. Click OK when prompted
  7. Close the Razer Stats and Razer Synapse windows

You can manually uninstall Razer Stats if you prefer, or if you keep having performance issues after disabling it.

  1. Go to My Computer
  2. If installed to the default location, navigate to C:\ProgramData\Razer\Synapse\ProductUpdates\Uninstallers\RzStats
  3. Double-click Razer_RzStats_Uninstall.exe (or a similarly-named file)
  4. Restart your computer

Razer Cortex Gamecaster

Razer Cortex contains the same useful stuff as Razer Synapse, along with the Gamecaster capture overlay.

  1. Click on the System Tray to show hidden icons
  2. Click the Razer icon Razer_icon.png
  3. Click Launch Cortex
  4. Click on the Gamecaster tab
  5. Toggle "Enable Gamecaster" to Off
  6. Close the Razer Cortex window

Xbox Game DVR

The Game DVR feature is integrated into Windows 10. Depending on which version you have, the feature is part of either Windows Settings or the Xbox application.

If you've got Windows 10 Creator Update or later, you'll access the feature through Windows Settings.

  1. Click on the Start button
  2. Click on the Settings icon
  3. Click the Gaming option
  4. In the Game bar, toggle "Record game clips, screenshots, and broadcast using Game bar" to Off
  5. Close the settings window

If you're running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the feature is integrated into the Xbox application.

  1. Click the Start button
  2. Click on All apps
  3. Click on Xbox. If you haven't already, you'll need to log into your Microsoft account here
  4. Click on the Settings icon
  5. Click the Game DVR tab
  6. Switch "Record game clips and screenshots using Game DVR" to Off
  7. Close the Xbox window

Twitch

The Twitch app has an automatic overlay that lets you access Twitch streams and begin streaming. To disable the automatic overlay:

  1. Click on the system tray to show hidden icons
  2. Double-click on the Twitch icon
  3. Click the drop-down arrow in the top right and select “Settings”
  4. Select the “In-Game” tab on the left-side menu
  5. Toggle “In-Game Overlay” to off, so the slider is gray
  6. Close the Twitch App window

Plays TV

Plays TV has an overlay that automatically records games when it detects you playing. Here’s how to disable automatic recording:

  1. Click on the system tray to show hidden icons
  2. Double-click on the Plays TV icon
  3. Click on Settings in the bottom left
  4. Under “Recording Mode” in the video tab, select Manual to disable Automatic recording
  5. Close the settings window
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