Modern gaming is defined by fast-paced action and non-stop adrenaline, which requires a laptop that can keep up. A slow device will completely ruin your gaming experience. Playing with a sluggish laptop may delay your responses to lightning-fast gameplay and stall communication with other online gamers. These speed deficiencies can take the joy out of your gaming experience.
If you’re tired of the lagging in your games, there are ways to improve this situation. Numerous gaming laptops have design features that can optimize performances. In addition, you can also adopt a few best practices to make the machine run faster. Here are the different ways you can speed up the laptop for video games:
1. Close all extra programs
Even with a powerful laptop, too many active programs will cause your gaming performance to dip. Running multiple programs puts strain on your CPU and RAM. This strain is magnified when you run resource-intensive programs like OBS for streaming, Internet browsers with multiple tabs, and music programs like Spotify.
While gaming, close everything that isn’t immediately necessary to your game experience. Check the programs running in the background that you might not regularly notice. Bluetooth connections, Discord, and Skype are examples of background programs you can close to increase performance.
2. Cool down your laptop
Heat can put a laptop under a lot of stress. The heat will damage the unit’s internal components, causing performance to drop noticeably. Most CPUs have built-in thermal throttling, which is an automatic response that reduces performance when your CPU is too hot. Without a proper cooling system, you’ll find it difficult to play games on high settings for long periods.
The ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo is an example of a laptop with a high-quality cooling system. This laptop allows you to lift the ScreenPad Plus area, which increases airflow by 35%. It also features a dual-fan setup with six heat pipes, ensuring heat is pushed away from the internal components.
3. Clean your cooling system
Sometimes, your laptop struggles to cool itself because dirt and debris have clogged up the vents. It leads to overheating, a significant problem that will cause your games and other programs to run slowly. If you’re having trouble with performance, it’s worth cleaning your laptop’s cooling system. Spray your vents with compressed air to release any dirt that might have gotten clogged.
4. Change your power settings
If your laptop uses Windows, the power settings may prevent you from getting optimal performance. Windows 11 allows you to choose power modes that either enhance battery power or prioritize performance.
In Settings, you’ll see the option to choose the high-performance mode. This mode is ideal for plugged-in laptops, so you don’t have to worry about the extra power drain on your battery. High-performance mode prevents key applications from going into power-saving mode while playing a game. Switching to the high-performance mode is an excellent first step for troubleshooting poor gaming experiences.
5. Run an internet speed test
Sometimes, diminished gaming performance is related to your internet connection. If you’ve already checked all the software and hardware on the laptop, your internet connection is worth inspecting. Slow internet connections can cause lag, diminishing the experience you have while playing online games.
Ensure your laptop has the latest wireless routers installed and that you don’t have any large files downloading. If you live in a multi-device household, eliminate as many devices from the Wi-Fi network as possible. Laptops like the ASUS ROG Flow X13 come with Wi-Fi 6 support. That ensures a consistently strong internet signal as you enjoy your action-packed online gaming sessions.
6. Disable automatic updates
Not only are automatic updates annoying, but they also take precious computing power away from your games. Automatic updates can include upgrades to your security software and other programs you have running in the background. While you shouldn’t skip these updates, they don’t need to be automatically loaded.
In the Windows settings menu, you can disable these automated updates under the Update & Security section. You’ll see the option to deactivate automatic updates, which prevents Windows from using the internet or computing resources while you’re playing a game. It’s one of the easier ways to speed up a laptop for gaming.
7. Load your game from an SSD
One of the best strategies to improve loading times is to save your game on a solid-state drive. Solid State Drives (SSDs) can read and load files up to 10 times faster than a regular hard disk drive. With an SSD, your laptop will struggle less to download information from your game. You’ll also find that your start-up times become much quicker when opening your game.