A top-of-the-line gaming laptop will never match the performance of a similarly priced gaming desktop. But that doesn’t mean you can’t play the latest games on your laptop. Instead, it just takes a little “trickery” to make sure your laptop is optimized for gaming.
With desktops, users can upgrade the hardware, but with laptops, you can probably only upgrade the memory (and maybe the hard drive). So, how can you play your favorite games on your laptop? This article will provide you with 20 tips to improve your laptop gaming performance.
Table of Contents
The simplest answer to “How to increase gaming laptop performance?” is to plug it in. Some laptops tend to throttle performance or refuse to enable the discrete GPU when not plugged in, so keep an eye out.
There is a big difference in performance when playing on battery power versus when plugged in. The laptop fans will run at full speed unless otherwise set and your laptop hardware will be at its peak, giving you the best frame rates and no lag.
After a long day, you might want to enjoy your favorite RPG or MMO game while relaxing on your sofa or bed. No matter how comfortable it is, playing a game while placing your laptop on a cushioned surface like a bed or couch can be harmful to your device.
When you place your laptop on a soft surface like a bed, the computer's vents can become blocked, resulting in a buildup of heat generated by the hardware inside the device that cannot escape.
This affects the output your device produces and more importantly, playing games on soft, uneven surfaces can significantly affect the health of your device in the long run. You should always play games on a hard surface like a table.
Few devices can deliver great performance without power management. And when it comes to laptops, which are designed to be away from a steady power source, power management can be tricky. Windows offers some granular power management options, but laptop users often ignore them. This makes sense, but for a powerful gaming experience, you should keep your laptop plugged in.
Next, take a look at your computer's power settings. In Windows 10, open Settings > System > Power and sleep > Additional power settings and select the High performance option . Click Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings to change the settings to your liking.
Heat is a serious issue that has plagued laptop gamers for a long time. Although modern laptops are equipped with multiple fans, heatsinks, and other cooling technologies, if not configured properly, your computer can still reach higher temperatures, which reflects in the gaming performance it produces.
A simple yet effective trick to keep your gaming temperatures down to a manageable level is to keep your fans running at maximum speed or enable Turbo Boost mode if allowed. This ensures that your laptop's fans reach their maximum revolutions per minute (RPM) and actively cool the device.
If you’re not running Windows 10 and don’t have Game Mode, you can manually close background apps before launching a game. Before you hit the Play button in Steam, or double-click the desktop icon, make sure all other apps (even games) are closed.
Next, look in the system tray. This part of the Windows taskbar lists the applications running in the background. Right-click each icon and close it.
Gaming performance for laptops is largely determined by the hardware, drivers, and computer configuration. But if you’re playing online, there’s another factor to consider: your internet connection speed.
If your online gaming is slow, it could be a problem with your Internet connection, usually a slow connection between your laptop and your router. Typically, your wireless card will be updated through Windows Update or whatever system updates your operating system. If your drivers are updated but you're still experiencing slow performance, consider a wired Ethernet connection to your router.
Unlike gaming desktop setups, laptops are offered with a number of different power modes for their discrete GPUs. These power modes affect the performance your GPU can deliver and the power usage of your machine.
Inappropriate power settings for your GPU can have a major impact on your FPS output, thus hampering your gaming experience. While the power modes available on laptops vary by make and model, every computer offers two basic modes: Power Saving Mode and Standard Mode.
When gaming or doing anything that requires your PC to perform at its peak, make sure to switch your GPU's power mode to the maximum setting available on your laptop. Similarly, switch your power mode to Power Saving to preserve battery life when watching YouTube or surfing the web.
If your laptop has an NVIDIA GPU, you should change its power management settings in the NVIDIA control panel. Sometimes it can be set to power saving mode. Open the NVIDIA control panel and switch it to Prefer maximum performance to get the best FPS output from your NVIDIA graphics card.
Note that if you're playing on battery power (not recommended), you should reduce this setting to power saving mode. Otherwise, there's no reason to play in power saving mode while plugged in.
Finally, check your graphics card settings. Here you'll find settings for Textures and Shaders, which affect how the game looks. The available memory for your laptop's GPU limits your options, so you should choose a configuration that offers performance over looks. In short, high-resolution textures will consume RAM, which will affect your frame rate.
Note that you can also set Texture and Shaders for individual games. This is useful if an older game is capable of running at high settings. Additionally, you can still adjust individual game video settings from the video settings screen.
It can take a while to find the optimal video settings for your game, but once you find the balance between performance and quality, you'll find it's well worth it.
Vsync is a useful feature that can reduce and fix screen tearing. However, if you don't experience screen tearing, enabling Vsync can significantly limit the maximum frames per second (FPS) you get in a game.
The core function of Vsync is to lock the game's frame rate to match the refresh rate of your monitor. If your monitor is 60 hertz, with Vsync enabled, you will never be able to get past 60 FPS in a game, even if your hardware is capable of producing over 100 FPS.
This often results in gameplay and input lag, which can be detrimental if you’re playing competitive games, so as a general rule of thumb, always keep Vsync off unless you really need to use it.
The first thing to do is to keep your computer clean. Dust is the enemy of performance. Dust reduces airflow, causing your computer to overheat. When heat builds up, your processor, GPU, and most other components slow down.
The best way to deal with this is to clean the dust out. Obviously, this is not a simple task. Taking apart your computer can void your warranty and damage it if you are not an expert. So take it to a professional to clean it out and always keep the keyboard free of dust, food, or other substances.
Windows 10 comes with an Xbox app (if you've uninstalled it, you can download it again from the Windows Store) that includes a number of features. In addition to screen recording and playback, the Xbox app also has a Game Mode setting.
To enable this feature, press WIN + G after starting the game (best with the game menu on screen) and click Settings . In the General tab , select Use Game Mode for this game .
Windows 10's Game Mode will ensure the operating system runs games with optimal settings, possibly closing or pausing some background tasks.
Automatic updates can sometimes be a hassle. For example, Windows Update can download updates in the background, before prompting you to install the update. However, it’s not just the updates that are downloaded that can impact performance, but the prompts themselves as well. Unfortunately, you can’t disable Windows Updates permanently, so consider the following options:
Digital distribution systems like Steam also push updates. It’s also possible that a second game will download updates in the background while you’re playing something.
To avoid this:
You can also manage update rules for each game.
For Automatic updates , you can choose between Always keep this game updated, Only update this game when I launch it and High Priority .
You can choose between 3 Background download settings : Pause background downloads while I'm playing, Always allow background downloads, Never allow background downloads .
Today, computers running Windows, macOS, and Linux are mostly based on the same hardware and architecture. This means that regardless of the operating system, updating drivers is very important. Fortunately, this process is no longer as complicated as it used to be, most computer drivers are updated through standard operating system updates.
However, graphics drivers will need a more practical way to update, and Intel graphics will update their drivers through Windows Update, third-party graphics vendors don't offer that option. One important thing to note is to make sure your management software (like Nvidia GeForce or AMD Gaming Evolved) is set to update automatically.
DirectX is essential for gaming on Windows (and even Xbox consoles). There have been many versions of DirectX released over the years. For example, the latest version of DirectX that runs on Windows XP is DirectX 9.0. If you are looking for a way to improve performance on your laptop, you should not run this version.
DirectX 12 is the latest version, released in 2015, and users should have it installed on their computers. However, there is little documentation on how to install it, but usually DirectX will be installed automatically when a new game requires it. Sometimes DirectX is updated through Windows Update.
To check the current version of DirectX on your computer, press WIN + R to open the Run menu and type dxdiag . Wait for the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (DXDiag) to load, then open the Render tab . Here, you'll find information about your graphics card. In the Drivers pane , look for Direct3D DDI , which is numbered according to the latest version of DirectX.
In addition to updating your graphics drivers, make sure your audio drivers are up to date with the game. You can check your audio drivers in the Sound tab of DXDiag to see the date they were installed. Note that input device drivers are also summarized here. DXDiag is also a good way to check for missing drivers for gaming hardware. If you're not sure, you can run Windows Update and update your device drivers yourself.
Sometimes, due to bugs, video games or applications may not be able to use all of the CPU cores. So even with 8 cores and 16 threads, you can still get dual-core performance on CPU-intensive games or applications. There is an easy way to fix this.
First, start the game you suspect is the “victim” of this problem, then fire up Windows Task Manager. In Windows Task Manager, find your game process and right-click to select Go to details > Set Affinity > Select all the cores available . This will set your video game or any other application to use all cores of your CPU.
You can also check out WebTech360's guide on how to use Windows Task Manager to get the most out of it.
Laptop cooling pads are probably the best accessory you can buy as a gamer. They are cheap and effective in cooling your laptop. You should definitely consider buying one if your device gets hot while gaming or performing resource-intensive tasks.
Overclocking will increase your computer's performance but it can be a bit difficult for beginners. Tools are available for both AMD and Nvidia GPUs, so you shouldn't have much trouble overclocking.
The main issues with overclocking are power and heat. Overclocking uses more electricity, so you need to adjust your computer's power settings accordingly. However, overclocking also increases the heat of the GPU. Usually, the heat reduction is handled by the laptop's built-in cooling system. The heatsinks and fans need to be cleaned regularly. Otherwise, the laptop will automatically shut down - as a safety precaution - if it gets too hot. Looking for a GPU overclocking tool? The most popular one right now is MSI Afterburner, which is suitable for Nvidia and AMD graphics cards.
Installing new hardware is an effective way to speed up your laptop when gaming. But what can you upgrade?
Upgrading your laptop can seem like an impossible task. But there are three components you can upgrade.
Plus, if you want to save money on upgrades, why not improve your personal gaming performance with an external keyboard and mouse designed for optimal gaming?
Adding free space from one partition to another is the best way to make full use of hard drive capacity. The extra space in the large partition will not be wasted, and the problem of lack of memory in the smaller drive will also be solved.
If you don't like Photos on Windows 10 and want to view photos using Windows Photo Viewer on Windows 10, follow this guide to bring Windows Photo Viewer to Windows 10, helping you view photos faster.
No matter where you are or what computer you're using, you have everything you need to work, troubleshoot, and stay productive.
Changing the name of a Windows network does not affect the configuration and makes it easier to identify the network. There are several ways to change the name of a network on Windows.
Changing your WiFi password to special, complex characters is one way to protect your family's WiFi from being used illegally, affecting your family's WiFi speed.
Currently, Windows 11 has been officially launched and we can download the official Windows 11 ISO file or Insider Preview version to install.
The mouse pointer has disappeared from your Windows device and you're wondering: How do I get the mouse pointer back? Or, the mouse pointer always decides to disappear when you type.
Windows File Explorer does the job, but only just. No quick previews, clunky cloud access, and tedious batch operations make day-to-day file management more difficult than it needs to be.
Windows 10 support is coming to an end, and if your computer can't run Windows 11, it's headed for the scrap yard. But there's a clever tool that can get Windows 11 running on your old computer, thanks to a simple hack.
Game Mode, Windows 10/11's performance booster, can do more than just squeeze a few extra frames per second out of your favorite FPS.
When you first bought your computer, it booted up in seconds and ran like a dream. But things have changed over time.
This document is about deleting .tmp files, not how to clear your internet history or browser cache.
There are many ways to take screenshots on Windows computers, you can take them using keyboard shortcuts or using third-party software.
Installing a VPN will help keep your Windows 11 computer more secure.
Adding free space from one partition to another is the best way to make full use of hard drive capacity. The extra space in the large partition will not be wasted, and the problem of lack of memory in the smaller drive will also be solved.
A top-of-the-line gaming laptop will never match the performance of a similarly priced gaming desktop. But that doesn't mean you can't play the latest games on a laptop.
If you don't like Photos on Windows 10 and want to view photos using Windows Photo Viewer on Windows 10, follow this guide to bring Windows Photo Viewer to Windows 10, helping you view photos faster.
No matter where you are or what computer you're using, you have everything you need to work, troubleshoot, and stay productive.
Changing the name of a Windows network does not affect the configuration and makes it easier to identify the network. There are several ways to change the name of a network on Windows.
Changing your WiFi password to special, complex characters is one way to protect your family's WiFi from being used illegally, affecting your family's WiFi speed.
Currently, Windows 11 has been officially launched and we can download the official Windows 11 ISO file or Insider Preview version to install.
The mouse pointer has disappeared from your Windows device and you're wondering: How do I get the mouse pointer back? Or, the mouse pointer always decides to disappear when you type.
Windows File Explorer does the job, but only just. No quick previews, clunky cloud access, and tedious batch operations make day-to-day file management more difficult than it needs to be.
Windows 10 support is coming to an end, and if your computer can't run Windows 11, it's headed for the scrap yard. But there's a clever tool that can get Windows 11 running on your old computer, thanks to a simple hack.
Game Mode, Windows 10/11's performance booster, can do more than just squeeze a few extra frames per second out of your favorite FPS.
When you first bought your computer, it booted up in seconds and ran like a dream. But things have changed over time.
This document is about deleting .tmp files, not how to clear your internet history or browser cache.
There are many ways to take screenshots on Windows computers, you can take them using keyboard shortcuts or using third-party software.
Installing a VPN will help keep your Windows 11 computer more secure.
