Live Boost Advanced: per-game overrides and saved masks

What the Advanced screen is for

Most of the time, Live Boost picks the right Core Director profile for each game automatically. The Advanced screen is for when you want more control. Use it when:

You want a game to always use a particular profile.
The automatic profile doesn't work well for a game.
You want to choose exactly which CPU threads a game can use.
You want to reuse the same custom mask across several games.

Overrides save automatically and apply the next time the game launches. Incorrect profiles can lower frame rates or stability, so test your game after making a change.

Getting to the Advanced screen

Open Live Boost in IQON and select the Advanced button (the sliders icon) in the top right of the dashboard. The Advanced screen has four tabs:

Core Director: per-game overrides and saved masks.
CPU activity: which CPU threads IQON has assigned to your game, background apps, and services.
Processes: running processes with their CPU use, memory, and file path.
Background Control: your custom Service Control and Background Isolation presets.

When you're done, select "Back to dashboard".

Per-game overrides

An override tells Live Boost to always use a specific profile for one game. Each row shows the game, its profile, and the CPU mask in use, with buttons to switch the profile, edit the override, or remove it.

Adding an override

Select "Add override" to open the setup. It walks you through a few steps:

Choose a game. Search your installed games, or select "Other (running process)…" to pick any app that's running.
Choose a profile. "IQON Recommended" uses IQON's profile for that game, tuned for its engine and your CPU. "Custom" lets you choose the CPU threads yourself.
If you chose IQON Recommended, keep "Recommended (Auto)" or pick one of the other recommended masks for your CPU. If you chose Custom, pick "Affinity mask" or "CPU set", then select the CPU threads the game can use. You can start from a CPU layout, reuse a saved mask, or pick threads yourself.
Review your choice and select "Save override". It applies the next time the game launches.

IQON Add override mask value step with CPU threads selected and a field to save the mask.

An affinity mask keeps the game on the selected CPU threads only. A CPU set makes them the game's preferred threads, and Windows keeps more flexibility for scheduling and power management.

Switching, editing, or removing an override

Select "Switch profile" on a row to change its profile without going through the setup again. The menu lists IQON's recommended masks for that game and your saved masks.

The pencil icon reopens the setup with the current choices filled in. The trash icon removes the override, and Live Boost goes back to picking a profile automatically. Removing an override doesn't delete any saved mask it used.

Saved masks

A saved mask is a custom set of CPU threads with a name. Saved masks appear in every game's profile menu, so you can reuse them.To save one, open "Switch profile" on a row that uses a custom mask and select "Save this mask…", or save it while building a custom mask in the setup. Give it a name, such as "P-Cores only", and select "Save mask".

IQON Live Boost Advanced screen with a game override and a saved mask.

Use the pencil icon on a saved mask to rename it, or the trash icon to remove it. Removing a saved mask doesn't change overrides that already use it.

CPU activity and Processes

The CPU activity tab shows each physical core and its logical processors, labeled Game, Background, Services, or Parked. It shows what IQON has assigned, not current CPU usage, and it works whether Live Boost is on or off.The Processes tab lists running processes with their PID, memory, average CPU use, and file path. Use the search box to find a process by name, PID, or path.

Custom Background Control presets

The Background Control tab lets you create your own presets. A custom Service Control preset pauses the services you choose while a game runs. A custom Background Isolation preset moves the processes and service hosts you choose off your game's cores. Select "New preset" to create one. Your presets then appear alongside the built-in options in Live Boost setup.

Tips

Test your game after saving an override, and remove it if you notice lower frame rates, stutter, or input lag.
Don't use a third-party affinity tool alongside an override. They'll compete over which cores the game uses.
Saved masks and overrides are independent. Removing one doesn't delete or change the other.

For an overview of how Live Boost works, see the Live Boost guide.

Live Boost Advanced: Per-game overrides and saved masks