When I got my first gaming laptop I got worried when I booted up a game and noticed the loud noise coming from my machine. But after I did some digging I found out the simple truth behind the noise.
Are gaming laptops supposed to be loud? Gaming laptops are supposed to be loud because the fans inside of your laptop need to run faster to cool down your computer which also makes it louder.
Unfortunately, this is just part of owning a gaming laptop at the moment. However, there are ways you may be able to lower the temperatures and therefore allow your fans to run less intensely and quieter.
Are Gaming Laptops Supposed To Be Loud?
Gaming laptops are known to be loud because of the cooling system trying to keep your temperatures lower in such a tight space.
A loud gaming laptop is more likely if you have high-end parts like an RTX graphics card in your laptop as it is a very powerful component trying to stay cool in a space with not a lot of air flow.
Also, since gaming laptops have less room in them to fit all these components they arent able to take advantage of as many cooling solutions as desktop PCs.
This is a picture of the CPU fan I have and my graphics card is plenty large as well. A gaming laptop has to fit all these components into a smaller case and still keep it cool.
Thats why gaming laptops will utilize a couple of powerful fans, which will likely get quite loud if they are effectively cooling your system. In a way, this noise is a good indicator of how hard your fans are working.
As your temperature rises your fans will begin to run more intensely, your fans most likely have something called a fan curve which will increase your fan RPM as the temperature of your laptop increases.
Although this process is crucial and your fans will be as loud as they need to be to cool your PC, it is possible that once you lower your temperatures you might also make your laptop quieter by allowing your fans to run less.
How To Measure The Temperature Of Your Gaming Laptop
There are quite a few different programs you can use to measure temps, but the most popular of these is MSI Afterburner.
After installing it you can set it up to display both CPU and GPU temps as well as FPS in the corner of your screen so you can monitor your temps under load.
Here is a great tutorial on setting up MSI Afterburners on-screen temperature measurement tools:
This tool is also used for overclocking your system, but unless you know what you are doing I wouldnt change any of the values you see in the tool.
If you notice that your temperatures are surpassing 80 degrees Celsius then you are definitely overheating and you might begin to experience thermal throttling.
This is an automatic process most gaming laptops will have in order to ensure your gaming laptop doesnt overheat to the point where it is unsafe.
There is a noticeable drop in performance as your gaming laptop is beginning to limit its capabilities in order to cool down the system.
While doing intense gaming it is common to see temperatures between 70 80 degrees Celsius. Only above 80 degrees is your gaming laptop beginning to overheat to the point it might start throttling.
Not to mention at this point your computer will probably be quite loud as your fans should be running at high speeds to keep it cool.
To keep your laptop cooler and allow your fans to run less intensely, we have a couple of tips below that might help.
How To Lower Your Gaming Laptop Temperature
An Easier Way To Lower Temps!
Before we get into the scary, very technical way to lower temps let me offer an option that might work well enough to avoid the technical stuff.
Cooling pads! They are a little tray you can set your gaming laptop on that have built-in fans that will blow air onto the bottom of your laptop providing extra cooling.
As well as, an extra buffer between you and the computer for the times you may be laying in bed gaming or browsing the internet.
This is better for people who are only looking for a small decrease in temps.
A cooling pad might only bring down the temps by 1 10 degrees Celsius, which is a broad range based on different peoples experiences.
The problem with this tip is that youre going to be adding more noise to reduce your temperatures. The fans on the cooling pad wont be completely silent which is something I figured I should mention.
Our favorite cooling pad is the TopMate gaming laptop cooling pad because it has 5 built-in fans with six different speeds and three different modes.
The four smaller fans can reach up to 2400 RPM and the one big fan can reach up to 1200 RPM while not getting too loud while doing it.
Although I dont have a gaming laptop now, I used to have one with a cooling pad just like this that kept it quite cool.
If you want to check out the latest pricing as well as more information about this product, check out the TopMate Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad on Amazon.
A Much More Technical Way To Lower Temps
You can undervolt your gaming laptop, which in turn lowers the temperatures of your laptop and prevents thermal throttling.
Depending on how much it lowers temps and your fan curve, it might also be able to reduce the noise that your gaming laptop puts out.
The noise reduction isnt guaranteed but it is possible that once you reduce the temperature that the fans can run less intensely and more quietly.
Rather than explaining the process to you myself here is a great video by The Tech Chap showing you the easy way to undervolt and even improve performance at the same time.
Other Less Technical Ways Of Avoiding The Noise
Not everyone wants to follow all of those intimidating steps using those highly technical programs, which I completely understand!
As long as your temperatures are within reason, then there is no reason you shouldnt look for solutions where you get to avoid the loud noise of your fans.
Method #1: Creating Distance Between You And The Computer
If you are trying not to hear your computer you can always set it across the room next to the TV and plug an HDMI from the laptop into the TV.
You could also try putting the laptop outside of your room and leading the cable in, but at that point there are many more factors to consider.
At least with the gaming laptop across the room the noise may sound a little quieter.
Method #2: Having The Right Headphones For The Situation
If you dont want to hear something the best solution is to get a good pair of noise-canceling headphones.
They dont have to be too expensive either just a simple pair that keeps the noise out will suffice. Considering that is the most important feature though I recommend you do some digging for a pair that does it well.
In Summary
Yes, gaming laptops are supposed to be loud because your fans are running very quickly in order to cool your system down.
If you feel the temperatures may be too high or are experiencing a performance impact in game I recommend that you measure the temps to verify any concerns.
If you notice you are running hotter than 80 degrees Celsius and are seeing a performance impact, you might want to begin evaluating the best cooling solution for you.
In this article, we mentioned getting a cooling pad which is good if you are looking for a small decrease in your temps.
Then, we also mentioned throttling your CPU and GPU usage in order to reduce how hard your gaming laptop works therefore reducing the temps.
Whichever way you decide, the goal is to cool your computer down more so that your fans are able to run less and therefore run more quietly.