Poor and laggy performance is very frustrating when playing a competitive game. In almost all cases, your gaming laptop is the issue because it might not have enough performance to keep up with the games you are trying to play. Fortunately, updating and upgrading your gaming laptop is relatively easy. Follow these tips to give your gaming laptop a performance boost.
Upgrade Your RAM
You can get away with gaming on a computer with 8 GB of RAM, but you will not have the best experience when playing the latest games. Most modern games now require at least 16 GB of RAM.
To upgrade the RAM, start by checking the official manufacturer’s website to see the maximum amount of RAM the computer can handle the type of RAM to use, and the highest RAM speed the computer supports.
Most laptops have two RAM slots, so you can opt for two sticks of 8 or 16 GB each. Buy RAM of the highest speed you can afford and ensure both sticks have the same speed. This is because computers default to the speed of the lowest RAM, and you do not want one stick to be the bottleneck.
Switch To an SSD
All modern laptops support SATA SSDs and most new and fairly new laptops now support M.2 SSDs. Manufacturers now ensure their windows gaming laptops come with an SSD as the boot device. If you have a computer with a hard disk drive, you will see a massive improvement in boot and game load times when you switch to an SSD.
If your computer has an NVMe SSD slot, go with an M.2 SSD because most use NVMe, which is much faster than SATA used by most 2.5-inch HDDs and SSDs.
Switch The Network Card
Most laptops use a removable network card that handles Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. You can switch this network card and use a newer one. You can find network cards that handle faster internet speeds, have better Wi-Fi security, and use more modern Bluetooth protocols.
Most laptops will allow you to do this easily, as all you have to do is unscrew the card and unplug the antennas. Do the reverse to install a new one. Also, ensure the card is compatible with your laptop before switching to avoid issues. If the laptop uses a card that handles both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, replace it with one that handles both to not lose either capability.
Clean Your Laptop
This is not a hardware or software upgrade, but it has the potential to give you noticeable performance gains. Cooling is crucial in a laptop and one that cannot cool itself will overheat.
A dirty fan and clogged vents can cause reduced airflow and thus reduce cooling capabilities. Cleaning your laptop should rectify the issue, allowing it to cool adequately and improve performance.
Conclusion
While you do not have as much leeway to update and upgrade a laptop as you do a desktop, there are still a lot of things you can do to make it perform better. Ensure you refer to your manufacturer’s website before starting to avoid any unforeseen issues.
