When you unbox a brand-new gaming laptop, the first thing you want to do is jump straight into action: test the latest demanding games, bet on your favorite team after entering your 22Bet login, or watch your beloved Netflix show in the highest quality. But it’s best to take a few preparatory steps to make sure your hardware is performing at 100% beforehand.
Here’s how to optimize your laptop for maximum performance from updating drivers to disabling background processes.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Update Your Graphics Card Drivers
When you power on your new gaming laptop for the first time, it’s running drivers that were installed at the factory — these are most likely outdated. Driver updates are released frequently and almost always improve graphics performance, so don’t skip this step.
The update process is nearly the same for owners of NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards.
For NVIDIA, go to the official website and navigate to the “Drivers” section. Enter the type, series, and model number of your GPU, select your operating system and installer language, and click “Search.”
You’ll see two driver packages: Studio and Game Ready. For gaming, choose Game Ready. Studio drivers are better suited for professional tasks like video editing or animation.
Download the appropriate drivers, run the installer, and follow the on-screen instructions. You can install just the drivers or also include NVIDIA’s software suite if it’s not pre-installed on your system.
To update an AMD graphics card, go to the AMD website and select your model under the “Drivers” section. You’ll be shown the most current driver package for your OS. There’s no split between gaming and workstation drivers here. Regular updates are highly recommended for overall system stability.
Step 2: Disable Windows Visual Effects
By default, Windows enables dozens of effects like transparency, font smoothing, and shadows. These look nice but add extra load to the system; even powerful laptops can lose performance due to these cosmetic details. If you want to maximize FPS, it’s better not to waste resources on them.
You can disable only specific effects, like the animations used when windows open and close. But for best results, it’s smarter to turn them all off — it won’t harm your system.
To do this, go to Settings, then navigate to Accessibility. On the right panel, you’ll find Visual Effects. There, you can toggle Animation Effects and Transparency Effects using sliders.
In Windows 10, the process is slightly different. Go to System → About, then click Advanced System Settings. In the window that opens, click Settings under Performance. Uncheck the visual effects you want to disable and save your changes.
Step 3: Enable Game Mode
This is a built-in Windows feature designed to optimize system performance when playing games. It pauses unnecessary background services, reduces CPU load from non-essential tasks, and allocates more RAM for game files.
To enable it, go to Settings, then open the Gaming menu. On the left panel, you’ll find the Game Mode tab.
Game Mode is helpful, but don’t expect massive performance boosts in demanding games. For maximum efficiency, consider using specialized optimization software.
Step 4: Stop Unnecessary Background Processes
After installing game launchers, messengers, and work-related software, your laptop starts running a bunch of background tasks that consume valuable resources and interfere with gaming performance.
Don’t close all background processes — some are necessary for the stable operation of system components. But others are clearly non-essential and can be closed without harm.
Open Task Manager and go to the Processes tab. It’s easy to spot programs that are using the most resources. If you’re sure they’re not needed, select them and click End Task. For example, if Adobe software isn’t in use right now, you can close its processes.
Remember that these programs may restart when you reboot your laptop, so it’s a good habit to shut them down before gaming. You can also go to the Startup tab and disable rarely used programs from auto-launching.