If you’re wondering and looking about how to upgrade your laptop for Gaming to a level where it could match the speed and performance of a gaming desktop is a little challenging.
You can always make certain tweaks to increase your existing performance, whether you are worried about your laptop getting slower or want to increase the speed and performance of the laptop here is what you can do.
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1-Increasing your RAM to get a smooth gaming experience?
Most of the modern generation laptops come with inbuilt RAM of 4Gb to 8Gb. While this could be enough for most users for basic tasks and to play normal to medium graphic demanding games.
But when one wants to play high graphic demanding games, they need to have more RAM space to ensure that the memory is not filled up and doesnt interfere in experience smooth and fast gaming experience.
But the question is how to upgrade a laptop for Gaming by increasing the RAM. Well, depending upon the brand and model of your laptop, you would have the option of adding an additional memory chip to increase your RAM.
Generally, it is advised to purchase the RAM stick from an authorized dealer or directly from a manufacturer.
In some cases, you can purchase the memory stick from third-party manufactures, but while doing so, one has to ensure that the memory stick is rightly compatible and works perfectly with other hardware components of your laptop.
The majority of modern laptops come with two memory slots in which one slot is fixed with RAM that you currently use, and the other one is to add an additional memory stick.
If your laptop does not have any additional slot to add a new memory stick, you can replace the old RAM with a new one. Ideally, a minimum of 16GB ram is preferred if one wants to play high graphics demanding games. (but it depends if your laptop supports 16gb RAM)
2-Turn a laptop into a gaming laptop by replacing your HDD with SSD for faster Gaming
Suppose you are using a considerably old laptop. In that case, you must have faced issues like slow loading of programs, delay in turning the laptop on, or just slowness in general performance and daily functions. Well, this could be occurring due to your hard disk (HDD).
While sometimes it could be because of the non-availability of space in your hard disk, most of the times, it the very own hard disk causing this problem.
As HDD work on the mechanism where they contain spinning platters, things which called the actuator moves a small arm that floats at a distance above the surface of disk platters.
The read and write head of the arm is responsible for reading and writing binary data onto the disk. These disks spin at high rates, and over time, due to wear and tear, they get slow and do not function properly.
In contrast, SSD has a non-volatile computer memory in which the information stays on the memory chip once it has been kept in the memory.
SSD is more durable, shock-resistant, and does not have any effect by a magnetic field which leads to better performance, speed, and durability. In addition, SSDs work with less noise and more efficiency while offering better write and read speeds compared to HDD.
Ideally, an SSD of 512 Gb or 1TB is preferred to not only enhance the performance of your laptop but also improve the gaming experience on your laptop.
3- Upgraded GPU and CPU to increase gaming power
While most of the laptops come with inbuild GPUs and CPU soldered to the motherboard, there are few laptops out there in which these components can be replaced. While replacing a CPU is difficult, and most companies do not offer this flexibility, one can use an eGPU (external GPU) to increase the graphics power of your laptop.
4- Improve performance by updating your DirectX software?
There are certain software in your laptop that are associated with hardware that is responsible for facilitating the graphics in your video game.
When you are on the Windows platform, DirectX is the software responsible for optimizing and handling your laptops graphics demands. Therefore, it is advisable to keep the DirectX software updated to the latest version available.
Here is how you can check your existing DirectX version:
- Click Windows + R and it will open the Run dialog box.
- Enter dxdiag and wait till DirectX Diagnostic Tool (DXDiag) gets loaded
- Now you would be able to look at your DirectX version at the bottom of the list on the system tab.
To update your DirectX version:
- Click Windows + I to open settings
- Click on Update & Security and select windows update
- Now check for any new updates and update them accordingly.
5- Updating the drivers
If you want to know about how to turn a laptop into a gaming laptop which are running on any platforms such as Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The first thing you need to do is make sure that you are having the correct drivers and keeping them updated is critical to achieving the maximum performance capabilities of your laptop.
At the same time, this approach needs to be taken careful look when considering drivers of your graphics card. Ensure that you have the drivers which are compatible with your hardware, GPU management software is rightly updated, and other drivers such as audio and controllers are up to date.
In addition, make sure that these updates do not come with any bugs which could impede the overall performance of the laptop.
6-Turning a laptop into a gaming laptop by Overclocking the Graphic card
you might try looking into overclocking your GPU to its maximum capacity Overclocking GPU helps in increasing the overall computing capacity of the GPU but one downside of it is it produces extra heat so the risk of GPU burning is very high in overclocking.
Although overclocking the graphic card is a risky process and does come with certain caveats, but when it is done correctly, it could increase the performance of your laptop immensely.
Both AMD and Nvidia GPUs do offer tools to perform these functions, and in order to get sustained performance, make sure that your cooling system is working properly, as overclocking might lead to heating problems.
7- High-speed Internet and Keeping a check on Power settings?
The majority of modern games are either played online or requires an internet connection to play. While having good software and hardware is essential-have good quality gaming experience, having a High-Speed internet connection is also very important.
As these online games are hosted online, especially the ones which are multiplayer games, where you need to interact with other players, the quality and speed of your internet connection determine on how seamlessly you can play the game.
Having stable high-speed internet will ensure that you experience lag-free gaming time. Of course, one has to have a good router to support such high-speed internet, and an Ethernet cable can be used to drive the internet into a laptop which helps it getting much better speeds.
In order to increase the performance of the laptop while Gaming, one needs to keep a check on the power settings of their laptop. In windows laptops, the users can tweak few options in their power management settings to get a better gaming experience.
This is how you can keep a check on your laptop power settings:
- Press WINDOWS + I to open the settings menu
- Click on “System” Settings and go to “Power and Sleep” menu
- Open Additional Power Settings and Select High Performance
- Now Click Change Plan Settings and go to Change advanced power settings
Set the power settings to optimum levels.
8- By activating the Game Mode and Managing RAM efficiently?
Windows operating system allows the users to enhance their gaming performance by activating the game mode. Windows 10 comes with an Xbox app which has features like screen recording, streaming, and also Game mode, and when this game mode is turned on, windows 10 will ensure that the game is played at optimum settings.
Activating Game Mode on Windows 10:
- Press WINDOWS + I to open the settings menu
- Select Gaming and go to “Game Mode” Menu
- Turn it on and close the settings menu.
Improving RAM management:
- Make sure that only the game is running and no other apps are running in the background as these might take up additional ram and slow down the performance
- Go to Task Manager and disable all the unnecessary apps or operations that are not related to the game.
9-Simply cleaning your laptop to maintain optimum performance
For someone who is finding new tricks on how to upgrade a laptop for Gaming, simply cleaning from dust and dirt can solve your problem. In most cases, the usual lag and sluggish nature of your device could be due to excessive heat generated while the processor or GPU gets throttled.
And one of the most common reasons for these heating issues is an accumulation of dust and dirt inside your laptop. These dust particles will reduce the airflow in and out of the laptop, due to which the pressure and temperature will rise, leading to heating issues.
Although your laptops are sealed, you can try some techniques to clean the dust at vent areas, keyboards, and any other external open areas.
10-Keeping a check on the automatic software updates
The laptops come with the settings turned on for automatic windows update. While update software seems to be a good thing to do, sometimes it could bring some unnecessary apps, and sometimes these upgrades can downgrade your performance. because downloading can begin while you’re gaming this may annoy you.
Here is how you can manage your windows update:
- Try to keep your laptop in offline mode.
- Make good research on the update before downloading and installing it.
- Ensure that there is no download process taking place while you are in the middle of the game.
11-Tweaking the Games Video setting increases the FPS while gaming
One of the best methods to turn your laptop into gaming laptop is by changing the actual games video settings which will help in increasing the FPS of your gameplay and ensue a lag free smooth gaming experience.
One can reduce the quality of settings like resolution, textures, shadows and reflections. Tweaking Anti-aliasing will help in smoothening the edges of objects in the game and this will help in increasing the FPS while gaming.
Changing Graphical settings such as motion blur, lens flare and other graphical flares can improve the game FPS. Turning off VSync which actually help in preventing the screen tear, can sometimes increase the FPS number
12-Uninstalling Bloatware and Unused programs
At times your laptop might get slower due to unwanted bloatware and programs as there may run at the background and occupy additional memory.
Softwares such as AVG tune-up Wise care 365, Glary Utilities can help the user in identifying these programs which running and using memory at the background and thereby uninstalling them which could help is increase the overall system performance.
With the increase in demand and popularity of the gaming world, people are looking for various solutions on increasing the perfermance of the laptop to play the game better in their existing hardware.
Hence, to simplify it one needs to know, having a good laptop to play high-end games and achieve optimum gaming experience is vital, combined with upgrading components such as RAM, GPU and making certain tweaks to software and inbuild OS settings can help in turning their laptop into gaming one and in order to do so they can follow the above mentions ways to turn your laptop into gaming laptop