Features like Game Mode, improved graphic drivers, and support for Xbox Streaming make Windows 10 the go-to-choice for gamers, but are there other ways you can Improve Gaming Performance on a Windows 10 laptop? The beautiful answer to that question is ‘yes’ and you are about to find out how.
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How to Improve Gaming Performance on a Windows 10 Laptop
- Use Game Mode
- Change to a high-performance power plan
- Tweak your active hours
- Install DirectX 12
- Change your visual effects settings
- Disable notifications
- Upgrade online gaming
- Get an SSD
- Ensure your GPU drivers are updated
Use Game Mode
Let’s start with the obvious one. With the Creators’ Update of 2019, Microsoft decided to add a Lil’ something for gamers – a feature that optimizes the computer’s resources for gaming by cutting down the resources allocated to other tasks.
If you do not have Game Mode turned on, here’s what to do:
- Go to the ‘Start Menu’
- Go to ‘Settings’
- Click on ‘Gaming’
- On the left-hand navigation menu, select ‘Game Mode’.
- Toggle it ‘on’
As long as your laptop supports Game Mode then you’re on to the promise of faster framerate.
Read more: How to Overclock Laptop CPU and RAM on Windows 10
Change to a high-performance power plan
Yes, the power plan is meant to help you conserve the battery, especially when using a laptop. However, for the duration of time, you are playing a game, you could always switch to a high-performance power plan.
This will make your PC perform better, obviously.
- Press ‘Windows key + I’
- Type ‘power’ in the search box
- Select ‘Power and Sleep settings’
- Select ‘Additional power settings’
- Select ‘Create a power plan’ on the left-hand navigation menu
- Choose ‘High performance’
Tweak your active hours
One thing we are familiar with when it comes to Windows 10 is the frequent updates, which can be annoying as they are usually unannounced.
However, to keep an update from happening when you are in the middle of a game, change your active hours.
- Press ‘Windows key + I’
- Choose ‘Update & Security’
- Select ‘Change active hours’
- Depending on the time you spend gaming game, select what works for you but note that the max is 18 hours.
This means Windows 10 will only update when you are inactive. If you need a reminder before it happens, though, then go back to ‘Windows Update’ and select ‘Advanced options’. Set it to show you a reminder and that is tweak number 3 that improves gaming performance on a Windows 10 laptop!
Read more: How to Increase FPS on Windows 10 Laptops
Install DirectX 12
DirectX 12 is an application that serves as a middle-man between your game and computer, telling the computer what it should do. The advantage is that it not only increases framerate but can also draw resources from more than one CPU core at the same time.
Install it by:
- Pressing ‘Windows Key + I’
- Selecting ‘Update & Security’
- Clicking ‘Check for Updates’ then waiting for the installation to finish.
Change your visual effects settings
When it comes to improving the gaming performance on a Windows 10 laptop, visual effects matter, and luckily, this OS offers options even though it may affect the available processing power of your PC.
- Press ‘Windows + I’
- Type ‘performance’ in the search bar’
- Select ‘Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows’
- Choose ‘Adjust for best performance’
- Click on the ‘Advanced’ tab and check if the setting applied to ‘Programs’
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Tweak mouse acceleration
If you are playing a game like Call of Duty, then you should turn off mouse acceleration because the setting may mess with your accuracy since it makes your mouse move based on detection of movements and speed (not good).
- Press ‘Windows + I’
- Type ‘mouse pointer’ in the search bar
- Select ‘choose the mouse pointer display or speed’
- Go to the ‘Pointer Options’ tab and uncheck ‘Enhance pointer precision’.
Read also: Best Laptops for Gaming and Programming
Disable notifications
The ‘Focus Assist feature’ of Windows 10 lets you specify when you want to receive notifications and how. When playing a game, notification bells and popups can be very distracting, so what you can do is to:
- Press ‘Windows + I’
- Click ‘System’ and then ‘Focus Assist’
- Select ‘Alarms only’ and this will hide other notifications
Read more: Best Cheap Laptops for High School Students
Upgrade online gaming
You can also improve gaming performance on a Windows 10 laptop, even if it’s online. To reduce network traffic problems, you can upgrade to something faster.
- Press ‘Windows + I’
- Select ‘Network and Internet’ then ‘Change Adapter settings’
- Right-click on wireless network
- Choose ‘Properties’
- Highlight ‘Internet Protocol Version 4’
- Note down the two DNS entries for later
- Replace them with ‘1.1.1.1’ and ‘1.0.0.1’
- Click ‘ok’ and close
- Restart your default browser
Get an SSD
Switch from an HDD to an SDD and save yourself the loading time. It can be quite expensive but it is worth the investment as it can cut downloading time from 30 seconds to 3. Not bad, huh?
Read more: Best Chromebooks and Laptops with Detachable Keyboard and Screen
Ensure your GPU drivers are updated
When your driver is out-of-date, you battle bugs and glitches. We advise that you do not ignore your notifications to update and you can update directly from Windows Properties but it is best to do it from the manufacturer’s website and choose your GPU model.
If you do not know the model,
- Right-click on your ‘Desktop’
- Select ‘Display settings’
- Choose ‘Advanced display settings’
- Click on ‘Display Adapter Properties’ and there will find out the specs of your GPU, which you can then use to update it on the manufacturer’s website.
Many other tweaks can improve gaming performance on a Windows 10 laptop, such as managing steam auto-updates and disabling Nagle’s Algorithm but try these out and let us know the improvement you notice!
Read more: Best Laptops with Nvidia Graphics Card
