These are the top 9 mistakes that you’re making with your gaming laptop and how to
avoid them! And don’t miss the bonus 10th mistake that everyone makes at the end!
Mistake number one, not cleaning. It’s no secret that gaming laptops have loud fans, and more air
intake means more dust sucked inside. Put simply, more dust inside your gaming laptop blocks the air
flow and heats it up, which can result in less performance, so clean it out a couple of times
a year if you use it a lot. The amount of dust and dirt available for your laptop to actually
suck up will depend on how dirty your environment is, so using an air purifier could help with that.
Mistake number two, laptop placement. Speaking of blocked airflow, ideally you should use your
gaming laptop on a flat surface like a table when actually playing 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.
Mistake three, gaming on battery power. Although convenient, there are a number of problems playing
games 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 give you 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. Basically if you’re near wall power, just plug in,
and even if you’re a little far away it’s probably worth investing in an extension cable.
Mistake four, not opening with care. Unfortunately a number of popular gaming
laptops are known to have issues with the hinges and they will break over time. The best way to
help reduce this happening is to not rip open the lid from the corner with lots of force.
Instead just gently open from the middle to spread out the pressure. Now I’m not
saying that you need to go around treating your laptop like it’s made out of glass or something.
Just be respectful to the device you probably spend thousands of dollars
on. I’ve seen people body slam their laptop and act surprised when it breaks.
We’re halfway to that bonus 10th mistake!
Mistake number five, not updating. Updates usually fix known problems and improve performance, so
it’s important to stay up to date. Unfortunately it’s not that easy. Most people are probably
familiar with Windows updates, and by default your computer will install these automatically,
unless you’ve gone out of your way to disable them manually 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’s new games out. For example once a popular launches
Nvidia usually has a game ready driver to go straight away. The laptop’s BIOS may also receive
updates over time that offer performance tweaks or security patches. If you’re
not sure how to update the BIOS on your laptop then refer to the manufacturers documentation.
Mistake six, not using dual channel memory. Put simply, if your gaming laptop only has
one stick of memory installed you’re probably leaving performance on the table by running
in single channel. Some laptops these days are still sold with just one stick of memory, which
means 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.
Mistake seven, playing games on 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 battery power like this right
now. The actual horsepower to run games though comes from the discrete graphics, which in this
case is Nvidia, and that’s also known as the dGPU, so it can 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 a MUX switch or advanced optimus, which basically means
the discrete graphics connects directly to the screen, there’s no iGPU bottleneck middleman. So
if you’re looking to buy a gaming laptop, finding one with a MUX switch is a great feature, but if
you’ve already got a laptop that doesn’t have one then you’re stuck with optimus. However you can
still get a performance boost by connecting an external screen, as most laptops have at
least one display output that connects directly to the discrete graphics, bypassing optimus.
Mistake eight, buying new too often. With all the YouTube channels like mine and others pumping out
laptop content, you might think that you need to continually upgrade in order to have a good gaming
experience. But that’s simply not the case. You’re definitely 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 almost never
a perfect time to buy. So definitely do watch reviews like mine 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 time. I don’t think
it should be something that you replace every one or two years. Sure, if you can sell the laptop and
you really want something new then go ahead, but in most cases I’d say the general rule of thumb is
that if your laptop still does what you need it to do, then 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.
Extra mistake eight and a half. 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 definitely want to avoid!
Mistake nine, performance tuning. Last one before that bonus 10th mistake! 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. I’ll leave some links in the
description below covering both undervolting and overclocking if you need more information.
And as a bonus for making it all the way through the video,
mistake number ten. Perhaps most importantly of all, most people don’t know you can turn your
laptop sideways when downloading so that gravity helps the loading bar go faster.
If you want tips on improving your gaming laptop then check out this video next, I cover my top
9 in 2 minutes, and unlike that last one these will actually help, so I'll see you in that next.