Top 10 Gaming Laptop Mistakes You Should Avoid in 2021
These are the top 10 mistakes you are making in 2021 with your gaming laptop and how to avoid them.
#1 Mistake: Not Cleaning Your Gaming Laptop
It's no secret that gaming laptops have noisy fans, and more air intake means more dust sucked in. Simply put, more dust inside your gaming laptop blocks the airflow and heats it, which can result in less performance, so clean it a few times a year if you use it a lot. The amount of dust and dirt available for your laptop to suck up will depend on how dirty your environment is, so using an air purifier could help with that.
#2 Mistake: Gaming Laptop Placement
Speaking of blocked airflow, it's best to use your laptop for gaming on a flat surface, such as a table, to play games. If you’re instead lying on a bed or using it on your lap then it's much easier for the air intakes underneath to get blocked, resulting in overheating and potentially less performance. Also, try to leave some space around the air exhausts on the sides and out the back so hot air can escape easier.
#3 Mistake: Gaming On Laptop Battery Power
While it is convenient, there are many problems to play while running on battery power. The first is that it puts a heavier load on the battery, more power needs to be expended at once. In most gaming laptops the battery can’t give you anywhere near as good performance compared to just being plugged in.
So simply plugging your gaming laptop into wall power will provide a better performance, and we all like higher FPS, right? Another problem with gaming on battery power is that you’re constantly going through discharge and recharge cycles, and this kills battery lifespan the more you do it. If you’re near-wall power, just plugin, and even if you’re a little far away it’s probably worth investing in an extension cable.
#4 Mistake: Not Opening Your Gaming Laptop Carefully
Unfortunately, many popular gaming laptops have hinge issues and can break over time. The best way to help reduce this occurrence is to not open the lid too hard in the corner. Instead, open gently from the middle to distribute pressure. Now, I'm not saying you need to go around treating your laptop like it's made of glass or something. Just respect the device you're likely to spend thousands of dollars on. I’ve seen people body slam their laptops and act surprised when it breaks.
#5 Mistake: Not Updating Your Gaming Laptop
Updates often fix known issues and improve performance, so it's important to keep up to date. Unfortunately, it's not that easy. Most people are probably familiar with Windows updates, and by default, your computer will install them automatically unless you've made the effort to manually disable them or something.
Along with operating system updates, you should also check the Microsoft store separately for updates, as a large number of apps including many gaming laptop control panels these days are updated through here, and for some reason, Microsoft thought it would be a great idea to have these two separate places to update.
I don’t know why they didn’t just have it all handled by Windows update, but yeah two separate spots! In addition to that, you’ll also want to make sure that you’re on the latest version of graphics drivers for your gaming laptop, whether that’s from AMD or Nvidia, as these drivers get regular updates when there are new games out.
For example, once a popular release, Nvidia usually has a game-ready driver to go right away. The laptop's BIOS may also receive updates from time to time that provides performance tweaks or security patches. If you are unsure how to update the BIOS on your laptop, consult the manufacturer's documentation.
#6 Mistake: Not Using Dual Channel Memory On Gaming Laptop
Put simply, if your gaming laptop only has one stick of memory installed you’re probably leaving performance on the table by running in a single channel. Some laptops these days are still sold with just one stick of memory, which means a slower single channel. Usually, it’s just a cost-saving thing to make the laptop price lower, and while it will work fine with just one stick, if you update to two there can be some significant performance boosts.
Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as just saying that you need two sticks, because some laptops like the ASUS Zephyrus series only have one memory slot. But they also have more memory soldered to the motherboard, so despite only having room for one stick, as long as that one stick is installed it’s still dual channel. If you’re not sure you can use software like Hardware Info, which simply says what you’re using.
#7 Mistake: Playing games on Your Laptop Optimus
Most gaming laptops have both integrated graphics and discrete graphics. Integrated graphics, or the iGPU, are part of the CPU, so either from AMD or Intel. The iGPU uses less power, so it's perfect when running on a battery like this now.
The real power to run games, however, comes from discrete graphics, which in this case is Nvidia, and this is also known as dGPU, so it could be Nvidia or Radeon.
Basically, with Optimus you load up a game, and the Nvidia graphics will render the frames, send them through to the iGPU and then that will send them onto the screen, and this means that the iGPU in the middle can act as a bottleneck.
Now some laptops have an advanced MUX or Optimus switch, which means the discrete graphics connect directly to the screen, there is no intermediate iGPU bottleneck.
So if you're thinking about buying a gaming laptop, finding one with a MUX switch is a great feature, but if you already have a laptop that doesn't, then you're stuck with the Optimus.
However, you can still get a performance boost by connecting an external display, as most laptops have at least one display output that connects directly to discrete graphics, bypassing the Optimus.
#8 Mistake: Buying New gaming Laptops Very Often
With all the YouTube channels like The Tech Chap,mrwhosetheboss, and others pumping out laptop content, you might think that you need to continually upgrade to have a good gaming experience. But that’s simply not the case. You’re not being left behind by not having the latest and greatest hardware.
Gaming laptops from a few years ago can still run modern games quite well. You need to be aware that there’s always going to be a constant cycle of new hardware being released. There’s always something new just around the corner, which also means there’s rarely a perfect time to buy.
So definitely do watch reviews like theirs and make an informed choice when buying something new, but generally, when you make that decision you want to do it keeping in mind that you’re probably going to be keeping the laptop for a few years. I don’t think it should be something that you replace every one or two years.
Of course, if you can sell the laptop and want something new then go ahead, but in most cases, I would say the general rule of thumb is that if your laptop still does what you need it to, you don't need to upgrade.
Buying used or certified refurbished can be a better way to get a deal, especially this year as there’s limited stock of brand new stuff, and even if you can get something new it’s probably overpriced. Sometimes all you need is a fresh Windows install and a new SSD to make everything feel brand new again.
#9 mistake: Assemble Your Gaming Laptop Carefully
If you do go to upgrade your laptop, keep track of the screws and where they go. Many laptops have different length screws, and the last thing you want to do is put a long screw in a small hole because it might go through some other component and break things.
Also when changing hardware it’s worth unplugging the battery first. Someone recently told me they dropped a screw on the motherboard and it shorted it out and killed the whole laptop, and trust me, that’s something that you want to avoid!
#10 Mistake: Performance Tuning On Your Gaming Laptop
Performance tuning goes both ways, some people don’t tune anything and they miss out on performance or their machine runs too hot, while some people go too far and might put an overclock on that’s unstable resulting in games crashing.
Of course between both of those extremes, there’s a happy middle ground. That said, I don’t think most people need to do a whole lot of tuning, it depends on whether you’re satisfied with how your laptop’s running.
If it’s too hot then maybe you might want to try undervolting. If you want to try and squeeze out a little extra performance in gaming, then maybe a little overclock with software like MSI Afterburner might be good.
If you want to share any tips to improve the performance of gaming laptops, please share them with us in the comments section!
