Gaming is one of the most intensive tasks you can perform on your laptop, and processors must work fully to cope with the crisp graphics and frame rate. Dedicated graphic cards also generate a lot of energy when in use.
This is why many laptops are prone to overheating when playing games. Dedicated gaming laptops are designed to cope with hardware-intensive tasks like gaming or video editing. Even with that, these laptops still overheat.
Why does this happen, and how can you stop your laptop from overheating while playing games?
Below, I’ve mentioned the causes and solutions to stop laptops from overheating when playing games.
Why Does My Laptop Overheat When Playing Games? (Causes)
Gaming laptops overheat mainly because of the heat from the functioning of the processor and graphics card. Other possible reasons your laptop could overheat while gaming include obstructed airflow, poor laptop placement, and dust obstructing the laptop fan.
Airflow
Airflow is essential in gaming laptops. A laptop must maintain positive airflow to perform power-intensive tasks without shutting down. Positive airflow is when the laptop takes in cool air faster than it generates heat.
You should generally aim for a positive airflow to prevent overheating in your laptop. This article will explain the processes of ensuring positive airflow.
Placement Of The Gaming Laptop
How you place your laptop can either have positive or negative effects on your laptop, and it can affect the airflow, either positively or negatively. Try to place your laptop in ways that enhance positive airflow.
The environmental temperature is also essential. Placing your laptop in a hot environment may cause overheating, which could be more severe during gaming. Habitualise yourself by placing your laptop in cool environments.
The Case Of The Laptop
The laptop casing can contribute to overheating. According to various observations, laptops with spaced casing systems are less likely to overheat during gaming, and this is because there is enough room to enhance air circulation.
Fans
The fan is the primary cooling agent in most laptops, and they are directly responsible for controlling the intake and expulsion of air in laptops. A fault with your laptop fan may be the main reason your laptop overheats.
The size, speed, and pressure of the fan are significant. Most standard laptops are susceptible to overheating while gaming because their fans aren’t powerful enough to deal with the intensity. This may not be the case in gaming laptops because their fans are optimized to deal with that.
Dust
Specks of dust blocking a laptop fan will almost certainly cause overheating during gaming. In addition to blocking the fan, dust may also cause significant damage to many other internal components of the machine, increasing the chances of overheating and throttling.
How To Stop Laptop Overheating When Playing Games? (Solutions)
Try To Connect Your Laptop To The Charger
When you’re using your laptop off the charger, the fans won’t work at their full potential to conserve battery life. Avoid gaming without plugging your laptop into the charger to prevent the laptop from overheating.
Restart Your Laptop
Restarting your laptop is usually one of the first ways to solve fundamental problems, and it works. Restarting your laptop would close all running apps and background processes and make your device cooler, and this could be all you need to eliminate the overheating.
End Background Task To Improve Efficiency
Background tasks running on your laptop may be the reason your laptop is overheating while gaming. Before gaming, close all open browsers and background tasks, and this will relieve the processor of extra burden and hopefully prevent overheating.
Run Power Troubleshooter
Power troubleshooter lets you discover standing power issues with your laptop and attempts to solve them. This may prove necessary, especially if you’ve altered your device’s power setting.
To run a power troubleshooter on your laptop, follow these easy steps.
- Go to the settings icon on your search menu.
- Select Update and Security, then select Troubleshoot.
- Select the Power option. It is located at the right-hand side of the window under “Find and fix other problems.”
- Select “Run Troubleshooter” and wait patiently for the process to end. After the scan is complete, the system will detect any problem related to the overheating and attempt to fix it.
Change Your Power Settings
Irregular power settings may compel your laptop to work harder than it should, causing it to overheat. Consider changing the power settings and see how it works out. You can change your power settings by following these steps.
- Enter the “Start” menu.
- In the search bar, search “Power” and select “Power and Sleep settings” from the search results.
- Under “Related Settings,” click on Additional power settings.
- The next page should display a power options window; select change plan settings bedside your power plan.
- Select “Change advanced power settings.” Enter processor power management and set the “Maximum Processor State” to a lower value. Adjust the minimum processor state, too.
This is how you can adjust your laptop power to prevent overheating. You must take note of the value before changing just in case the overheating goes away and you want to return it to normal.
Update Your Device’s Drivers
Drivers are the controlling force for all the hardware components on your computer. You need to ensure your device drivers are updated and compatible with your device to provide an optimal gaming experience. You can update your driver manually or use a driver updater to hasten the process.
In this case, faulty graphic card drivers may be the reason your laptop is overheating while playing games. Follow these steps to update faulty drivers manually.
- Press Windows+X on your laptop, and WinX will be displayed on your screen.
- Select Device Managers from the available options.
- In the next slide. Devices with faulty drivers will display a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in the middle (the yellow icon will also appear next to the GPU if the driver is faulty). These devices need their drivers updated.
- Right-click on the faulty devices and select “update driver software.” Then select the “Search automatically for updated driver software” option.
This should correct the faulty driver on your laptop. If manually updating the driver doesn’t go down well with you, you can use your device brand’s official website to update your driver. Before updating drivers on external sites, ensure they are compatible with your laptop brand or won’t work.
Alternatively, you can buy an auto driver updater software. These will thoroughly scan your device to detect and fix malicious drivers. You may have to pay for premium auto-updater software to update your drivers without your action.
Undo Overclocking
Increasing your device clock rate allows it to regulate the number of tasks it performs per second. Overclocking any component in your computer may result in overheating during your gaming process, and adjusting the clock settings to their default may fix the overheating problem.
If the overheating is still present after changing the device setting to default, consider setting it lower than the default. This is usually necessary if you use a regular laptop for intensive gaming.
Control Your FPS
FPS (frames per second) is the frequency with which images are captured or displayed in your video game. Higher FPS means a more immersive gameplay experience and tasks your hardware, causing overheating.
Luckily, you can reduce the FPS settings for most games on your laptop. Lowering the FPS will undoubtedly reduce the game demands on your hardware and combat overheating.
Elevate Your Laptop From The Surface
Using your laptop at a low level isn’t a bad idea, but it isn’t a good idea either. Consider elevating your laptop to free up air passages. This will enhance airflow and minimize overheating risks.
Avoid Sunlight
The sun is the hottest body of gas we know of yet. Using your laptop under the sun’s direct heat will cause it to overheat. To prevent overheating, you should avoid using your laptop under the sun’s natural heat at all costs.
Use A Cooling Pad To Reduce The Temperature
Consider purchasing a cooling pad to reduce your laptop temperature. A laptop cooling pad will prevent overheating and provide a smooth gaming experience.
Use Integrated Graphics Card
Most gaming laptops come with a dedicated graphics card and an integrated graphics card. While the integrated card can run most games fine, the dedicated card will always kick in, generating more heat than necessary.
You can set your laptop to use the integrated graphics card instead of the dedicated one for efficiency. There is an option to do this in the advanced power options on your control panel.
Replace And Plug-In Your Charger
In some cases, the overheating might result from a faulty charger. If the overheating only happens when you play games on your laptop while charging, it may be the charger.
To mitigate this problem, try to ensure you’re using a compatible charger with your laptop. Since a gaming laptop is a high-intensity laptop, you will need a high-quality charger to ensure adequate power supply and heat dissipation.
Check The Condition Of Your Laptop
Although your laptop isn’t a living thing, you can make it comfortable. Gaming in a cool and ventilated room will help supply air from the laptop’s exterior, providing cool air for the laptop’s air vents to suck in.
You should also clean your fans and vents regularly with pressurized air spray to remove specks of dust. This attention to little details will help ensure your laptop is in good condition. You will most likely get an optimal gaming experience when it is in good condition.
Reapply Your CPU And GPU Thermal Paste
Thermal pastes are used on computer components to reduce heat on the CPU and GPU. Because it is paste-like, it dries up over time, and it becomes less effective at conducting heat and may cause adverse side effects like overheating when this happens.
You can reapply the thermal paste to prevent overheating. Please note that there are different thermal pastes for different brands. If you are unsure which type works with yours, contact your online support or a user manual may help you.
Does Playing Games On A Laptop Damage It?
Games typically have minimum system requirements. As long as your laptop specifications exceed the minimum requirements of the game you’re trying to play, playing games on your laptop shouldn’t cause irreparable damage.
FAQs
How Can I Cool Down My Laptop While Playing Games?
You can get a cooling pad to cool down your laptop while gaming. Placing your laptop on a hard and flat surface will also help to dissipate excessive heat. Saving your gaming progress and restarting your laptop is also an excellent way to cool it down momentarily.
How Do I Stop My Laptop From Overheating While Playing Games?
Lowering your computer graphics settings, undoing overclocking, and reducing maximum processor rate settings are all ways to stop your laptop from overheating while playing video games. Gaming in cool temperatures may also help reduce overheating in your laptop.
Why My Laptop Gets Hot When I Play Games?
This is mainly because your CPU and GPU work at the highest capacity to meet the game’s demands. Gaming is a high-intensity task that requires a lot of processing power. Your device will likely overheat unless you use a very powerful gaming laptop.
Do Cooling Pads Help Gaming Laptops?
Cooling pads work well on gaming laptops, and they help bring down high temperatures in your laptop during gaming, making it less prone to overheating. It may be an unnecessary investment if your laptop can manage the heat without a cooling pad.
Why My Laptop Is Overheating While Gaming And Charging?
This is primarily because of a faulty charger. If your laptop overheats while charging, the charger is faulty or incompatible with your device. You may have to replace your charger to fix the problem.
How Hot Is Too Hot For Gaming Laptop?
Your laptop may start overheating when the temperature is more than 70 degrees Celsius or 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Although some laptops can endure up to 90 degrees Celsius, you should run your device at a cooler temperature.
Conclusion
These are some causes and ways to stop overheating while playing games on your laptop. Overheating in gaming laptops is common, but you can take preventive measures to prevent it from happening.
This article outlines some of the best preventive measures to make your device run smoothly and in cool temperatures, increasing its lifespan.
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