Diagnose & fix
How to increase FPS on a gaming laptop (real fixes)
Reviewed July 2026
Gaming laptops have their own quirks: battery limits, thermal throttling and two GPUs. Here are the honest, laptop-specific steps to raise your FPS — what to do first, the tradeoff of each, and how to revert. No invented numbers, no magic promises.
Step by step
01 Plug in the charger and switch to max performance
The number-one way to increase FPS on a gaming laptop is to plug it into the wall. On battery, almost every laptop deliberately throttles the CPU and GPU to save power, and FPS collapse. Connect the original charger (low-watt USB-C bricks aren't enough), then in Windows set Settings → System → Power to “Best performance”. If your laptop has a vendor app (Armoury Crate, Lenovo Vantage, MSI Center, Omen, Alienware Command Center), pick its highest power or “Turbo” profile there too.
02 Beat thermal throttling: cooling and cleaning
Laptops are thin and heat up fast. When the CPU or GPU hits its temperature limit, the system lowers clock speeds to stay safe (thermal throttling) and your FPS drop mid-match. Put the laptop on a hard, flat surface (never a bed or couch — that blocks the vents), lift the rear with a stand or a cooling pad, and if it's a few months old, blowing dust out of the vents with compressed air often recovers several degrees. Repasting the thermal compound helps on older units, but that's an advanced step.
03 Make sure you're using the dGPU, not the iGPU
Nearly every gaming laptop has two GPUs: the integrated one in the processor (Intel/AMD, low power) and the dedicated one (NVIDIA GeForce or AMD Radeon, the powerful one). If a game runs on the integrated GPU by mistake, FPS will be terrible. In NVIDIA Control Panel → “Manage 3D settings” → “Preferred graphics processor”, choose “High-performance NVIDIA processor”. On AMD use Radeon Software. And in Windows: Settings → System → Display → Graphics, add the game's .exe and set it to “High performance”.
04 Understand the MUX switch and Optimus (the display path)
Even when you're using the dedicated GPU, on many laptops the image still passes through the integrated GPU before reaching the screen (that's Optimus). That detour costs a little performance. A MUX switch wires the display straight to the dedicated GPU and usually gives extra FPS, especially in demanding games. If your laptop has one, it's in the vendor app as “Discrete GPU mode”, “Ultimate” or “Dedicated”. Note: enabling it kills battery saving and usually needs a reboot. Modern laptops with “Advanced Optimus” switch automatically.
05 Lower the right in-game settings and turn on upscaling
The biggest FPS eaters are usually shadows, ambient occlusion, reflections and draw/view distance — not textures (if you have the VRAM, textures barely affect FPS). Drop those first. Then enable upscaling: DLSS (NVIDIA RTX), FSR (AMD and almost any GPU) or XeSS (Intel). These render the game at a lower resolution and reconstruct it, giving a solid FPS boost with little visible loss. If it's still tight, skip ray tracing on a laptop — it's one of the most expensive options for performance.
06 Update your GPU drivers
New drivers often include real optimizations for recent games. Get the driver straight from NVIDIA (GeForce Experience app or nvidia.com) or AMD (Adrenalin), not from Windows Update, which usually lags behind. If you started getting odd stutters after an update, a clean driver install wipes old leftovers. We have a dedicated guide on doing it properly.
07 Set the display resolution and refresh rate
Always play at the panel's native resolution (scaling looks blurry); to gain FPS, prefer the upscaling from the previous step over lowering the global resolution. Confirm the screen is running its full Hz: Settings → System → Display → Advanced display, and pick the highest refresh rate. Many laptops ship at 60 Hz even when the panel is 144 or 165 Hz. More Hz doesn't “create” FPS, but it makes the FPS you already have look far smoother.
08 Close background apps and check your storage
Overlays, browsers with many tabs, recorders and RGB apps steal CPU and RAM while you game. Close them before launching the game. If your games live on a mechanical drive (HDD), loading hitches and micro-stutters improve a lot by moving them to an SSD. Also keep some free space on the system drive.
09 Where Neon fits in (honest)
Every step above works without any app — they're yours and reversible. Neon doesn't overclock, touch your BIOS, or force hardware. What it does is measure real numbers (temperatures, which GPU is active, power profile, drivers, which apps eat resources) and explain them plainly, so you can tell whether throttling or the integrated GPU is holding you back. The Windows-side changes it applies are safe and reversible, and each one is logged so you can undo it with one click. Hardware decisions (MUX, cooling) stay with you.
Where to start (highest to lowest impact)
| Fix | Effort | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| Plug in + max performance | Trivial | More heat and fan noise |
| Cooling / anti-throttling | Low | Needs a stand or cooling pad |
| Force the dGPU | Low | Higher battery drain |
| MUX switch | Medium | Disables battery saving + reboot |
| Upscaling (DLSS/FSR/XeSS) | Low | Slight loss of sharpness |
Where Neon helps
The most important laptop decisions (cooling, MUX, which GPU to use) are manual and should stay under your control. What Neon does is measure what's actually happening and translate it — not force your hardware.
- Reads real temperatures and your power profile, so you know if thermal throttling or battery mode is holding you back.
- Shows which background apps eat CPU and RAM while you game — without killing anything on its own.
- It never overclocks, touches your BIOS or changes the MUX. You take those steps yourself, with full control.
- The Windows-side wins it does automate are safe and reversible, and every change is logged so you can undo it with one click.
Getting stutter as well as low FPS? See how to fix FPS drops and stutter, and if you updated drivers, the clean GPU driver install.