How to Optimize Your Gaming Laptop for Improved FPS

Experiencing low FPS while gaming on your laptop can be frustrating, and various factors may contribute to this issue, such as outdated drivers or the presence of malware. To ensure an enjoyable gaming experience, it’s crucial to understand the reasons behind suboptimal FPS and explore ways to enhance your laptop’s performance.

Thankfully, numerous methods can help optimize your gaming laptop, addressing different issues that may affect its speed and responsiveness. Continue reading to uncover strategies for keeping your games running smoothly and achieving optimal FPS on your laptop. Lack of FPS usually because of a weak laptop, even if you make low graphics, not always get to increase fps to 75+, so you need to improve your laptop.

Enhancing Game Performance on Your Laptop

While gaming on a laptop offers advantages like superior graphics quality and the flexibility to install mods, it’s essential to take responsibility for optimizing your computer to deliver the best possible performance.

Unlike consoles, where developers work with a fixed hardware configuration, the vast array of possible PC setups poses a challenge. PC games cannot be perfectly optimized for every unique hardware combination, as developers cannot test every potential configuration.

Consoles, with operating systems tailored exclusively for gaming and basic apps, operate more efficiently with resources. PCs, offering greater versatility, also expose themselves to the risk of other programs consuming processing power and diminishing gaming performance.

Common factors that may slow down your laptop include the presence of numerous background programs, malware or virus issues, and outdated hard drives. Addressing these issues can contribute to an overall improvement in system speed.

While resolving general issues related to a sluggish laptop can enhance performance, specific hardware upgrades can further boost your laptop’s Frames Per Second (FPS). Continue reading for insights into FPS and effective methods to increase it for optimal gaming performance.

Understanding Low FPS and Its Causes

FPS, or Frames Per Second, represents the number of frames displayed on your screen in one second as generated by your laptop’s video card using data from the running game program. Low FPS can result in choppy visuals and a less responsive gaming experience.

Unlike videos that typically run at around 24fps, games need higher frame rates to appear smooth and responsive. This discrepancy is attributed to the absence of motion blur in video games. While a film camera introduces motion blur by keeping the lens open longer during each frame, games display objects precisely without such effects.

Various factors can contribute to low FPS, including:

1. Outdated drivers
2. Aging or slow graphics cards
3. Concurrent operation of other programs
4. Excessive graphics settings
5. Running games at higher resolutions than necessary

Improving FPS on Your Gaming Laptop

If you’re eager to enhance your frame rate without investing in new hardware, here are effective measures to consider:

Update Graphics and Video Drivers

Graphics card manufacturers, such as AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel, regularly release drivers with performance enhancements. Ensuring your graphics card has the latest drivers is crucial for optimizing performance. Visit the manufacturer’s website to download and install the newest drivers, and check for auto-update settings to maintain ongoing driver updates.

For more details on identifying your current graphics card, refer to our guide on choosing the best graphics card.

Optimize In-Game Settings

While maxed-out video settings offer stunning visuals, they can strain your hardware, leading to a compromised frame rate. Adjusting in-game settings, particularly under ‘post-processing’ and ‘special effects,’ can significantly boost FPS. Keep an eye on features like sunrays, bloom, and motion blur, as they demand substantial processing power for minimal visual impact. Consider reducing settings like ‘render distance’ and ‘texture quality’ for further FPS improvement.

Reduce Screen Resolution 

Higher resolutions increase the graphics card’s pixel-rendering workload, potentially decreasing FPS. Ideally, match the game resolution with your screen. If maintaining sufficient FPS proves challenging even after adjusting other settings, consider lowering your screen resolution. Most games offer this option in their video settings menu.

Adjust Graphics Card Settings

Both AMD and NVIDIA provide control panels allowing users to modify performance settings. Switching your power mode to maximum is a crucial option, preventing the graphics card from conserving energy and maximizing processing power. Refer to AMD’s and NVIDIA’s websites for guidance on using control panels and adjusting power modes.

Explore FPS Booster Software

FPS booster software claims to enhance frame rates, but if you’ve already optimized FPS through other means, the impact may be limited. Such software can, however, halt or slow down background processes, freeing up computing power for your game. Microsoft’s Game Mode, accessible with Windows 10 (Windows key + G), minimizes the impact of concurrent programs. Razer’s Cortex software prioritizes processing resources for games and performs tasks like deactivating your computer’s CPU sleep mode. While Cortex is free, it may not yield significant performance improvements.

Implementing these strategies can contribute to a smoother and more enjoyable gaming experience on your laptop.