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If you've recently bought a new gaming laptop, you're probably wondering how to get the most out of it. While you can choose to leave things as is, there are many things you can do after buying a gaming laptop to improve your overall gaming experience. In this article, we will cover a range of tips from performance improvements to laptop customization to help you get the best gaming experience from your laptop.
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.
What to do after buying a new gaming laptop?
1) Update Windows
Updating Windows is often one of the most overlooked yet simple tweaks to boost performance. Windows updates bring crucial system and performance optimizations that not only enhance your gaming laptop’s performance but also include bug fixes and better compatibility support for newer games.
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Follow these steps to update the Windows version on your laptop:
- Open the Start menu and navigate to the Settings app.
- Select "Update & Security."
- Click on "Check for updates" and then click “Install”.
2) Update graphic drivers
Old GPU drivers can cause glitches, stutters, and crashes so, keeping your GPU drivers updated is a good habit for ensuring optimal performance. If you're facing performance issues on your new gaming laptop, generally updating your GPU drivers to the latest ones will fix most of the problems.
Here’s how you to update your GPU drivers:
- Check your GPU. You can also check what GPU you have by navigating to “System settings” inside the “Settings” app and navigating to the “About PC” option.
- Visit the graphics drivers page of your GPU manufacturer.
- Select your GPU and click download.
3) Uninstall unnecessary software
Most Windows gaming PCs often come pre-loaded with a lot of unnecessary software. These unnecessary software include trial versions of anti-virus, media players, or manufacturer-specific tools that no one probably uses. It not only eats your storage space but can also consume system resources by running in the background even when not in use.
Thankfully, you can remove most of this junk through a simple process:
- Open the Settings app and select Apps and then the Installed Apps menu to see a list of all the applications on your system.
- You will see a list of software and how much space they are consuming.
- Simply click the three dots next to the name of the app and click the “Uninstall” button to finish app removal.
Removing all the unnecessary apps will free up your system, making it perform better in games and daily use.
4) Installing necessary software
Now that you’ve removed the unnecessary apps from your gaming laptop, it is time to install useful applications that you will actually need. While there are a lot of applications, downloading them one by one can be difficult. In that case, Try using a little tool like Ninite. This is a safe tool that allows you to install multiple applications at once.
It is a great tool to grab necessary software like web browsers, video and audio players, zip extraction utilities, and more without the need to click through multiple websites and pages.
5) Adjust your gaming laptop’s display
Sometimes the colors on your laptop display may not appear according to your taste. In such a case, you can manually calibrate your gaming laptop’s display using Windows' built-in "Display color calibration tool."
Simply search in settings for "Color Calibration Tool” to find it. Upon opening the tool, it will guide you through the whole process to tweak the color settings to your desire.
6) Set your laptop to performance mode
By default, Windows sets your laptop to use "balanced performance" mode all the time. As the name suggests, you get a balance of performance and battery life while in this mode. However, it doesn't let you fully utilize your laptop's capabilities.
However, a small tweak under battery settings can result in a noticeable difference in performance. Simply set your laptop to performance mode to unlock its full power.
Here are the steps for enabling performance mode on your gaming laptop:
- Head to “Settings” then “System” and then “Power”.
- Here you will see an option called “Power mode” and a drop-down menu next to it.
- Simply select “Best performance” in the menu to enable performance mode.
While this mode reduces battery life, the performance difference is generally significant enough to justify the costs.
7) Get a cooling pad
Gaming laptops are packed with powerful hardware inside a small body. Long gaming sessions on them can cause high temperatures while gaming. This heat results in FPS drops and can also reduce the lifespan of your gaming laptop.
If heat is a problem you're facing, consider investing in a cooling pad to cool down your laptop's temperature. Cooling pads help in heat circulation and keep your CPU and GPU cool to prevent thermal throttling, leading to better long-term performance.
8) Personalize your laptop setup
Most gaming laptops have RGB keyboards, logos, and light strips which you can customize to add more personality to your setup. Try changing default icons, hiding unnecessary widgets, and rearranging icons to give a unique look to your laptop.
Additionally, you can get an external gaming monitor, gaming mouse, and a mechanical keyboard to have a laptop-centric gaming setup.
9) Benchmarking your gaming laptop
A fun thing you can try to test your gaming laptop's performance is to run benchmarks on it. There are tools like Cinebench or 3DMark that run several heavy tests and score your laptop based on the performance.
Running these benchmarks periodically can also help you track your laptop’s performance over time to help identify any performance degradation.
10) Downloading games safely
You've bought a gaming laptop for gaming, right? A safe way to purchase and download brand-new games is to purchase them on platforms like Steam, Epic Games, and GOG. These platforms offer regular sales and discounts for purchasing games and provide friendly refund policies.
Once you’ve purchased your games, simply start the download process. The launcher will then handle the installation process and allow you to enter the world of your favorite game with a simple click.
Check out more laptop articles here:
5 must-have accessories for your gaming laptop || Mechanical vs membrane keyboards || 10 must-have accessories for PC gaming
