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How To Keep Laptop Cool While Gaming? 9 Pro Tips

How To Keep Laptop Cool While Gaming

If you’re an avid gamer or even a professional live streamer, your laptop is almost certain to overheat or shut down.

If you’re stumped as to why you’ve come to the correct spot! Overheating can affect your device’s performance and lifetime, which is why you should take every precaution to keep your gaming laptop cool.

We’ll discuss everything you need to keep in mind to keep your gaming device cool in this article.


Is It True That Your Laptop Is Getting Too Hot?

Is It True That Your Laptop Is Getting Too Hot

The more powerful and active your laptop, the greater the likelihood of it overheating. However, the following symptoms clearly indicate that your laptop is overheating:

If your laptop begins to feel substantially warmer and the fans begin to spin faster than normal, even when you are merely browsing the web or watching movies, there is a good chance that you have an overheating problem.

Another indicator is a noticeable decrease in performance when performing computationally intensive tasks such as gaming. If your device frequently stalls and your frame rate dips, this is also a warning indicator.

It occurs as a result of the CPU or GPU clocking down when the temperature rises above a safe level.

Even increasing power usage can be a sign of very high temperatures, as heated hardware components take more power.

Individual hardware sensors’ temperatures can be monitored using tools such as HWiNFO or HWMonitor. However, what temperature is considered excessive for a laptop?

While typical temperatures vary by device, a CPU should not exceed 130 F (55 C) during regular usage.

Under full load, temperatures of up to 160 F (70 C) are acceptable. Isolated peaks in moderation, on the other hand, are not the reason for alarm.

Given that you have a gaming laptop, it very certainly has its own graphics card (GPU) and does not make use of the integrated graphics processor in the CPU.

In normal operation, the temperature zone for that should be below 110 F (45 C), however, temperatures up to 175 F (80 C) are allowed under load.


Keep Your Gaming Laptop Cool Using the Following Tricks

Keep Your Gaming Laptop Cool Using the Following Tricks

I’ve compiled a list of the greatest tips and strategies to employ if your gaming laptop overheats, so you can continue playing your favorite games without interruption.

There are several methods for preventing overheating, both at the hardware and software levels. Some are rather straightforward, while others take a bit more technical know-how.

Finally, everyone should be able to adequately cool their gaming gadgets.

Tip 1: Select an Appropriate Gaming Surface

Avoid using your laptop on an unsuitable surface, such as a bed. Rather than that, keep your computer on a stable surface at all times, especially if you’re running high-performance programs.

Soft coverings such as blankets, pillows, or even your legs may considerably hinder airflow and hence cooling.

On hard surfaces, such as tabletops, the rubber feet elevate the laptop sufficiently to allow the ventilation perforations in the floor to suck insufficient air.

Therefore, before you get concerned, do temperature testing on a suitable surface.

Tip 2: Purchase a Cooling Pad for Your Gaming Laptop

Cooling pads are an excellent and economical solution to keep your laptop cool. Gaming laptops operate at a high rate of speed, and these pads include external fans to assist in keeping your laptop cool.

Typically, you would place your laptop on the pad and connect it via USB to your device.

While the majority of laptops inhale cold air from the bottom and exhale warm air through the sides, some laptops exhale warm air from the bottom.

If your gaming device blasts air from the bottom, heat accumulates and the two gadgets become obstructive. Ensure that you first determine how your laptop handles ventilation.

Tip 3: Inspect Laptop Fans

If you are experiencing excessive heat, the first step should always be to inspect the fans.

Numerous fans are incorporated in current gaming systems, which collectively offer good cooling and ventilation throughout the system.

If one of these fans fails, the entire system’s cooling performance may suffer.

Additionally, you may use the tools listed above to determine whether your fans are still operational. Additionally, these display the current fan speeds (RPM).

There are two other indicators that your fans are not performing optimally when they are loaded. Keep an ear out for the following:

Rattling – A faulty fan will generate a variety of rattling or grinding noises long before it dies altogether. If your fans are creating this type of noise, they are most likely not operating correctly.

Complete Silence — Obviously, while a laptop is overheated or under load, no fan is idle. If you discover that a fan is silent when your laptop is operating at maximum capacity, it is most likely malfunctioning and should be replaced.

Tip 4: Clean the laptop’s fan and case

If all fans are functioning normally, it’s time to clean! Over time, a heavy coating of dust frequently develops on older laptops, impairing cooling performance.

Covering cooling fins or ventilation grilles significantly reduces the temperature.

Certain laptops have conveniently accessible pull-out dust filters for ventilation holes. Regrettably, this is seldom the case. Generally, there is little that can be done to avoid unscrewing the laptop.

This may vary based on the device, so if you are unsure, investigate your laptop explicitly.

If a layer of dust accumulates inside the laptop, carefully clear it using cotton swabs, a vacuum cleaner equipped with a tiny attachment, or, best of all, a little compressed air. More information about dusting your laptop may be found here.

There is no way to keep your gaming laptop clean. As a result, you should clean your laptop regularly, ideally every three to six months.

Tip 5: Renew Thermal Paste

If the thermal grease in your laptop appears to be deteriorating, you may want to consider replacing it.

This step is only recommended if you have no difficulty accessing the CPU. The thermal paste may dry out and lose efficacy over time in older systems.

If your CPU is easily accessible, you may unscrew the cooler and change the paste or just upgrade it.

This method will lower the temperature by a few degrees, but it does take some additional technical ability.

Of course, the same holds true for the GPU, since the thermal grease may be updated there as well, but this is frequently more involved.

Tip 6: Upgrade Hardware

Installing an SSD on your laptop might help to cool it down. The busier your laptop is, the hotter it becomes.

Newer hardware that is more capable of handling the workload can significantly lower the temperature of your gaming laptop.

Upgrades to the hardware on laptops, in particular, are sometimes only achievable to a limited extent, but something may frequently be done in the field of RAM and hard drives.

Increased RAM results in less CPU and hard drive load since files are not transferred as often between RAM and the hard drive.

Even better, if you use an SSD rather than a mechanical HDD, your system will normally run cooler and perform better.

Tip 7: Discontinue Running Excessive Numbers of Programs

Because the temperature of the hardware is directly related to its load, it is recommended to shut down applications that are operating regularly rather than merely leaving them running in the background.

Particularly before starting high-performance applications like games, you should terminate any unnecessary processes.

Browsers from the past, such as “Google Chrome” or “Mozilla Firefox,” have a reputation for being resource hogs.

To determine which apps are the most resource-intensive on your system, you may utilize the Windows task manager.

Additionally, you should frequently scan your system for viruses such as Bitcoin miners, as they can consume a significant amount of system resources.

Tip 8: Decrease the graphics settings in games

Occasionally, less is more. To keep your system cool when gaming, you may also lessen the demand placed on it by games.

This is accomplished by lowering the quality of performance-enhancing features like anti-aliasing and shadow computation.

Additionally, setting a frame limit makes sense, especially for older games when your machine exceeds the needed 60 frames per second.

If the game does not provide a direct function for this, you can also utilize V-Sync, as the frame rate is restricted to that of your monitor.

This is how you may significantly reduce power use, which also results in significant temperature reductions.

If you’re experiencing frequent frame dips as a result of temperature-related downclocking, this option might help you achieve a more consistent and fluid experience through continuous frame rates.

Additionally, you may purchase an external graphics card. This is a fantastic way to achieve desktop-class graphics performance while significantly reducing internal heat generation.

Tip 9: Undervoltage

Please utilize your processor voltage only if you are certain you understand what you are doing! Whether you have the option of “undervolting” your laptop is determined by the model.

The word refers to the process through which the voltage delivered to the CPU is reduced. The lower the voltage, the lower the temperature generated when the motor is running.

However, you should explore this approach only if nothing else works and you are certain of your actions; otherwise, you risk inflicting more harm than good.

If you drop the voltage too much, the system’s stability may degrade, and the laptop may crash and freeze often. If you still choose to attempt it, you must access your laptop’s BIOS.

If free voltage regulation is possible, you should look for an item like “CPU Core Voltage” or something similar.

If this is set to “Auto,” change it to “Offset” mode and enter –0.01V as the offset value. Reboot your system and verify that it is still operating normally, for example, by running a Cinebench stress test.

Prime95 is not advised for gaming laptops because of the cooling system’s inability to handle the simulated load.

If your system survives two or three Cinebench runs without crashing, you can drop the value by around 0.02V in your BIOS. Rep till your system becomes unstable.

Once at this stage, gradually raise the voltage in the smallest feasible steps until the laptop regains stability. This establishes your “sweet spot” and allows you to push a few more degrees out under load.

If you change other settings or set them wrongly without realizing it, you might have a serious impact on your system and perhaps permanently harm it!

Thus, you should view this as a last alternative and only consider it if you are very knowledgeable about what you are doing!


Insufficiently Powerful Hardware

Insufficiently Powerful Hardware

True, a dedicated GPU will certainly create some heat, but if we’re talking about a low-end GPU being pushed too hard by recent games, the temps may become unmanageable.

The same is true for CPUs equipped with integrated graphics (almost every Intel CPU) or AMD’s APUs.

Therefore, if you see considerable performance losses in conjunction with the increase in heat, this indicates that your graphics processor has reached critical temperatures.

In this situation, you must either clean it or get a cooling pad, ideally both.

If it does not work, you have two options:

  1. Reduce the game’s settings. This reduces the GPU’s workload and, thus, generates less heat. It is recommended to begin with GPU-intensive features like ambient occlusion or anti-aliasing. Reduced display resolution, on the other hand, is a proven method to assist an aging or weak GPU to keep up with the times.
  2. Purchase an external GPU. These are wonderful methods to get desktop-class graphics onto a laptop while significantly lowering the amount of internal heat generated. They are, however, extremely expensive, and you should check that your CPU is strong enough to handle the GPU you intend to purchase.

Change Settings on Your Laptop

Believe it or not, there are options in your machine that you can adjust to ensure it operates properly at all temperatures.

Along with purchasing a laptop that fulfills the specifications of the game you’re playing, you’ll want to routinely check and update your drivers.

Reduce the brightness of your screen, ensure that it does not require plugins, and shut down any resource-intensive apps that are not in use.

Additionally, examine your laptop’s power management settings, which provide several choices and default setups that help you save the most energy.

If you want to ensure that your adjustments are effective, you can always download a free tool such as SpeedFan that actively monitors your laptop’s temperature.

Not every fan or piece of gear on the market includes an integrated workforce meter. However, it would be beneficial if you could determine your machine’s heat output regardless.

Although this is a less typical occurrence, you may wish to check to see whether your BIOS requires updating.

Your BIOS menu has settings that specify the temperature at which your fans should operate, and the current version of the BIOS allows you to alter the temporary reading setting based on the popularity of video games.

If your fans exercise sooner, you may avoid long periods of inactivity.

Routine Maintenance and Battery/Charger Management

As with any electronic equipment, laptops are not manufactured in the same way as other devices.

Thus, everything within your laptop operates on a timer. As a result, routine laptop maintenance is important.

And, while cleaning your laptop regularly is an important component of preserving a nice notebook, there are additional things you can do to help retain your laptop computer operating as efficiently as possible.

If your laptop experienced an overheating problem recently, you’ll need to replace the incorrect fan. Generally, you can detect if the noise is detrimental to a fan.

While fighting or grinding is a solid indicator of problems, silence is just as awful. If your system fails to operate but your fans continue to malfunction, they may shatter.

Additionally, you must ensure that you do not abuse your laptop computers. The simplest way to destroy your laptop is to overcharge it.

On the majority of laptops, the charging connector is soldered to the motherboard, and if it is not, a repair will almost certainly be more expensive than purchasing a whole new laptop computer.

Maintaining a plugged-in laptop at all times is a simple method to immediately reach the charging jack.

Additionally, while your laptop’s battery is charged, it becomes hotter.

Therefore, charging your laptop at night after usage and then only when you need it ensures that your laptop cooler is operating properly.


FAQs on How To Keep Laptop Cool While Gaming?

Want to keep your laptop cool while gaming? Get expert answers in our FAQ guide.

Learn effective cooling techniques and tips to improve your gaming performance. Keep your laptop cool for the best gaming experience.

Are cooling pads beneficial for gaming laptops?

Cooling a gaming laptop will assist in maintaining a comfortable operating temperature and will theoretically increase performance.

Nonetheless, the reality remains that adding several fans beneath your laptop will not improve your gaming experience. Possibility of Apologies, party.

How can I cool my laptop down without using a cooling pad?

If the palm rest and keyboard temperatures are excessive, install a tiny fan (small fan) around the notebook.

Avoid using a USB fan. However, another issue arises: although the fan may generate excessive heat, it may also introduce dirt, dust, or water into the keyboard.

Is the use of cooling pads detrimental to the performance of laptop laptops?

Cooling pads are equally detrimental to laptop components! The pad will pump a lot of air (and dust) into your laptop, fooling some sensors into believing they’re cool and causing the machine to overheat.

Placing your laptop on a cooling pad can resolve the issue momentarily but will eventually produce problems.


Conclusion on How To Keep Laptop Cool While Gaming 2024

Fiddling with a laptop is more difficult than it is with a desktop PC. It is frequently preferable to have a professional fix your pricey gaming laptop rather than tinkering with it yourself.

Several of these ideas provide a solid starting point for cooling down your laptop if it becomes very hot. However, if you are not a technical person, it is best to get advice from a friend or an expert.

Never unscrew your laptop if the warranty is still valid since this will void the warranty!

If none of these suggestions work, there may be a serious fault in one of your hardware components.

If your laptop is recent and still covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, it’s not a bad idea to contact the company.

Describe your issue in detail, since manufacturers are frequently already acquainted with it and can provide you with additional recommendations relevant to your device.

Additionally, you may explore forums dedicated to your laptop to gain helpful knowledge.

If the laptop is outdated, the hardware may be no longer capable of handling the system load generated by modern games and apps.

In this scenario, only a new acquisition will suffice if you are unwilling to forego the latest gaming titles.


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Avatar for William Larson

William Larson is a computer engineering graduate and a techy writer and a laptop enthusiast based in New York who is the man behind BestLaptopsVenture.com, where he reviews and writes professionally about laptops & cutting-edge technology with more than 12 years of experience in the industry. He tends to spend most of his time researching the best laptops. His love for studying laptops enables him to assist others to find the best laptops. He has written and managed content for tech websites like Laptops, Computers, T-Sprint, and TracFone Wireless, etc. On YouTube, he reviews laptops, How to guides, Tips, peripherals, and hold giveaways. You can follow him on Twitter.

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