Playing games is a habit for each one of us, once in our lifetime we must have played video games for sure however ways of playing games have changed a lot PS4 or playing on consoles have changed to PC and laptops in the 21st century.
We all own a laptop or PC at our home it has become a necessity for us to do all the office-related work, if you are still playing games and have a normal laptop then I am pretty sure your system must be lagging and running way slower.
The biggest reason is latest games are more power hungry and software to takes a lot of space, Dedicated gaming laptops are quite expensive and everyone can not afford them.
While the best practice is to use your normal laptop for gaming, in this post, I am going to cover a few effective steps you can use on your existing old laptop, let us begin with How to turn a laptop into gaming laptop.
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How to turn a laptop into a gaming laptop?
Before starting to discuss how to convert a normal laptop into a gaming laptop? let me tell you first you must check the system requirements of your game then decide on doing the following steps.
As most of the latest released games within a span of 4 years demand a powerful CPU and GPU to run it smoothly.
Additionally, to run games like cyberpunk 2077, red dead redemption 2 you also need an excellent cooling form factor that normal laptops do not have as they are designed to serve working purposes rather than playing games.
How to convert a normal laptop into a gaming laptop (Free Methods)
I am going to cover the first free methods that you can apply on your device as sometimes fixing a few upgrades can really boost the machine to maneuver smoothly.
You also need to spend money to make the laptop ready for the game I will cover all the steps soon, now let us begin.
1. Start with cleaning your laptop
The biggest obstacle to the performance of your laptop those stubborn and unwanted dust, cleaning the machine from the outer to inner parts makes the device run a lot better.
Provide a lot of attention to your keyboard during cleaning, as while using it for games you need user-friendly keys to move faster.
However, cleaning inner hardware is not the easiest task as they are delicate and require a lot of care yet there are a lot of video guides on the web you can watch before start implementing.
Do it carefully there are various laptop cleaning sprays and cleaners available in the market you must use them.
2. Check the thermal paste of the laptop:
The thermal paste in a laptop is a very crucial element, it helps your machine hardware to stay cool during usage and can really affect the efficiency.
Check if the paste has minimized around the CPU, however in most cases you do not have to worry for 3-5 years as it works fine for a long time.
Yet in case your laptop suddenly started generating a lot of heat then make sure to check the condition of the thermal.
Do not avoid this as it can also harm the durability of the machine, moreover, it’s normal for a laptop to heat during gameplay but you should not play for long hours specifically if you are using a nongaming laptop.
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3. Install Windows 10
Are you using windows 10? if not then it’s time to update the operating system and check if your components either capable of tackling windows 10, it’s not the most challenging task to install windows 10 in your system.
Windows 10 is a much better operating system than some of the other platforms, this version has a list of all the possible games, and you get a lot of variety and a few good options like choosing gaming mode to enjoy the gameplay.
4. Update laptop drivers:
The basic construction of all the drivers and software is quite parallel to operating systems, be it Windows, Mac, or Linux.
These drivers need continuous updates to keep laptop frequency and speed intact, as the older version slows down the system.
There are essentially two main drivers device and software, both you need to update, the process of updating is quite easy and does not take much time, you can go to settings or simply type on search device manager.
Now you will get the option to update it just click on the drivers you need to update, there are many tutorials available online you can always go through the video to do it promptly.
5. Install Latest DirectX:
This is a very effective method on our list of How to turn a laptop into a gaming laptop, this enhances the gaming performance and helps to generate a few more FPS while playing the game.
However, there are chances if you update the windows OS recently you do not need to install DirectX latest system, as it automatically updates itself with windows 10.
Yet if you want to double-check go to the search bar & write “Dxdiag” you will get all the information, the latest version is “DirectX 12”.
Just read through the detail and you are good to go, in case you do not have windows 10 then just make sure to install it to enjoy the game on a regular working device.
6. Check Internet speed:
Online games require fast web speed now though games do not demand to get those 400mbps yet try to keep around 100mbps if you really want to enjoy the fullest, however, even 50mbps is decent enough for beginners.
Without good internet you can not play games nowadays, so keep the practice of checking the net speed and set up before starting your session.
In fact, I suggest using a wired connection rather than wireless internet, yea I know it’s a little old method, and it occupies space.
At the same time really limits you from moving but if you try to connect with a wired net you can see the visible difference in performance also it keeps you away from any threat of internet loss suddenly.
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7. Close applications running in the background:
Have you ever checked the background applications that are still running in your system, it puts a lot of impacts not only on performance but also on battery life, it’s very easy to find the applications following the below process.
Go on the search taskbar- go to settings- select a privacy option- scroll down a little to get background app options- just disabled the unwanted apps do not worry you can enable them whenever you need them.
8. Delete unwanted software:
Check the software you have installed if it’s not in use it’s better to delete it, as the software takes up space in your hard drive.
Additionally, this can make your device run slower, as the game uses a lot of resources to run so better to get rid of older applications.
9. Use Game Mode in Windows 10:
This feature you get even on normal laptops in windows 10, game mode really helps to convert normal laptops into gaming laptops, do not expect to play demanding games still, it will boost a few FPS on the laptop and the game runs nicely.
There are multiple ways to enable this option the simplest one is you can again simply go to settings- gaming- turn on the gaming mode that is it you are done with the procedure.
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10. GPU Overclocking:
This step is not for beginners because the laptop starts using a lot of loads that can be damaging to your laptop’s durability, and also makes your machine heat up quickly so use it wisely.
Besides, I do not recommend this step on a laptop with an integrated graphics card rather this is very rarely possible to do on a normal laptop.
Yet it’s a good option for those who understand the technical aspect and who own a laptop with a dedicated GPU, read below for more about how to turn a laptop into a gaming laptop.
How to make a laptop into a gaming laptop?
Now it’s time to discuss a few options where you need to spend a few bugs to turn your laptop to gaming.
Some of them are quite costly yet good steps to increase efficiency not only for video play but also for keeping your laptop smooth up and running for a long time.
1. Check the CPU capacity:
There are many games that are CPU bound as well, before doing all the below processes just check the processor.
For running even basic games without any lag and stuttering you must have 10th gen intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 5, in case your laptop has a very old generation CPU then I suggest you to rather buy a new gaming laptop.
There are ways to use an external CPU on a laptop, yet the cost is very high for the process so better to get a dedicated machine that can support playing all the demanding and latest games.
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2. Can I use an external GPU for a laptop?
The game is all about graphics and visuals almost every demanding program requires graphics resources to run it smoothly besides the good combination of d-GPU + refresh rate really boosts FPS.
Since you are looking to make your laptop to gaming beast the upgradability is next to impossible as GPU is attached to the motherboard.
The external GPU is connectable to the device via a thunderbolt port, however, your machine should have the capability to vent out the warm air.
As a dedicated video card makes the laptop heat up a lot more immediately, in case the laptop does not have enough ways to throw away heat then it can damage the inner hardware that puts a bad impact on the durability of the laptop.
Moreover, you can try using cooling pads while playing games to keep the device under control temperatures, yet at the initial stage keep checking the temp. during the gameplay through the software MSI afterburner.
Lastly, for single-player games, you can install the shadow cloud server which works pretty well but is not worth it for the multiplayer game.
Overall before using an external GPU, you can always test this program for improving gaming, but GPU is the most essential element that you can not avoid.
Additionally, do some in-depth analysis on GPU before purchasing, not all video chip works with every CPU, you need to keep a good blend between processor and GPU to run any program, to avoid bottleneck you must keep this in your checklist for the graphics card.
3. Upgrade Ram & Hard drive:
Though memory and hard drive not going to increase FPS yet it’s significantly integral components in making a laptop into a gaming laptop, let’s discuss each one of them separately to understand the importance of both.
Ram: The memory of the laptop ensures running applications, and files smoothly while you are operating, it makes your multitasking smooth, basically good ram support can run video programs smoothly and your device does not slows down.
The 8GB is the minimum you must have in your system and here we are discussing whether can you turn a regular laptop into a gaming laptop.
Here the scenario is a little different there are chances GPU and CPU underclock in regular machines, so by any chance, your laptop has an upgradeability slot I suggest you add an extra stick up to 16GB.
For instance, with dual-memory laptops, you have a great advantage to capitalize on this opportunity.
Fill the empty slot with another 8GB ram basically, it gives far superior multi-tasking as you have dual ram memory that works separately, overall a great trick for running heavy programs like games.
Use SSD instead of HDD: The next big step towards making laptops into gaming, by any chance your device is equipped with an HDD drive, get rid of it as soon as possible HDD is way slower than SSD and slowdowns the process of booting to loading, this affects including software and gaming applications, the SSD give 5-10 times more efficiency.
4. Use an external monitor:
Regular laptops do not come with very high standards of refresh rate restricts them from achieving high FPS on even standard games.
There is a lot of variety of gaming monitors available in the market you can utilize by connecting a laptop through HDMI or DisplayPort.
The gaming monitors are specially built for playing video games, so the display has a much better refresh rate however make sure to check before purchasing, the minimum screen frame rate for running smooth FPS is about 120-144hz.
Final words and conclusion:
So here we have discussed How to turn laptop to gaming laptop? overall these are some of the great ways to optimize your non-gaming machine.
Moreover do not expect to run games that require a high-powered GPU yet there are many popular games you can run with the above tricks.
I am sure these tips help you with making your laptop ready for gaming, share your thoughts and experience and if you have any queries post them in a comment box we will sort them out with a reply for you.
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