Been out of action for nearly 2 months and didn’t even realize that IObit’s Game Booster software has a paid version (shareware). The last time I reviewed Game Booster version 1 was two years ago and it managed to squeeze a little more FPS on the game Counter-Strike:Source by temporarily terminating unnecessary services and releasing RAM. Game Booster is now at version 2 and it has two versions which is the premium and free. From the official comparison webpage, it stated that both versions are able to provide basic game boosting and improved gaming experience.
As for the Premium version of Game Booster, it has advanced game boosting by detecting and closing more unnecessary services, tweaking system, adding unlimited games into Game Box, controlling interface settings, fast automatic update and free technical support. I think that the first three features are the main selling point of the Premium version.
I was curious about what other “more” unnecessary services that the Premium version can detect and close so I made a comparison but found no difference. I see the same list of unnecessary services on the Main tab. Weirdly if you click on the yellow Upgrade button where it shows “What’s in Premium”, it doesn’t say anything about “detecting and closing more unnecessary services”.
My guess is either IObit forgot to update the comparison page on the website or they have it there to attract people to buy the software…
The Premium version of Game Booster also activates System Tweaks where in my test system shows 7 items, probably a small fraction of system tweaks that can be found on Advanced SystemCare. They are disabling 8.3 names and last access for NTFS to speed up disk access, boosting priority of foreground applications, increasing IE download sessions, speeding up menu display (the good old MenuShowDelay registry tweak that has been around since Windows 95) and making system shutdown faster.
Another interesting feature I noticed on Game Booster Premium is the “Game Box” where it acts like a shortcut window allowing you to easily launch your favorite game and automatically boosting your system by turning on the Gaming Mode. Free version only allows you to add one game to the Game Box where the premium allows unlimited.
The official Game Booster Premium website states that the 1 PC license with 1 year maintenance cost $19.95 which sounds like a subscription based license structure but I think it’s not. I believe that when the 1 year period is up, you can still continue using the Premium features that is currently installed on your computer BUT you cannot use the Premium features of the “latest version released at that or later time”. You probably need to pay some money which is normally lesser than the original price to upgrade.
Currently IObit is giving away free license of Game Booster Premium for a week starting from yesterday. All you need is a Facebook account and follow the instructions on the link below to Like the page, Share it on your Facebook profile to get the unique ID and finally go to your profile and click on a link to convert the unique ID into Game Booster Premium license code. Do note that you only have 10 minutes to do that…
http://db.iobit.com/gamebooster/share.php
Once you got the license code, download the latest free version of Game Booster 2 from the link below, install it and enter the key to convert it to Premium edition. Do note that the current Game Booster 2.2 has a bug where it reverts the Premium version back to Free when relaunching the program. All you need to do is wait for the upcoming bug fixed version 2.3 which will be released soon.