So, Is cooling pad necessary for gaming laptops? i know that you have a lot of questions and queries.
Don’t worry! in this post I’ll tell you whether it’s a good idea to invest in a cooling laptop or not.
But first, What Exactly Are Cooling Pads?
The name speaks for itself, a laptop cooling pad is an electronic device with fan / fans inside it that serve the purpose of “cooling” your hot gaming laptop.
weighing around 300 to 400g, and an average length of 11 inches, a laptop cooling pad is placed underneath your gaming laptop and connected through a 2way USB cable.
Some cooling pads allow you to control the fan speed, while others have a standard operating speed of 500rpm or less.
Some cooling pads adjust the fan speed according to the laptop fan speed. More on that later.
Now you know what exactly cooling pads are and how they work, but do you really need a laptop cooling pad?
Are Cooling Pads Worth It For Gaming Laptops?
Does your gaming laptop need a cooling pad? and are they worth it? It depends upon your use and what kind of cooling pad you buy, there are a lot of good options out there that help in reducing the temperature of your laptop/
Apart from that, how do you really use your gaming laptop? do you use it primarily for gaming? do you use it for work and school/college?
How long do you usually use your laptop? five hours? ten hours? three hours?, you need to ask yourself these questions first before evaluating whether you need one or not.
But generally, in my experience, every laptop needs a cooling pad whether they run hot or not because they keep temperatures under control.
How do i say this? check this out
I think the graph speaks for itself, we can see the Idle CPU temperature drop by about 5-6 degrees which still holds a lot of value.
On a hot day you can expect a temperature difference of 2-3 degrees , but on a cold day i.e winters the temperature difference can be as huge as 10-12 degrees.
So , conclusion? Cooling pads are necessary for gaming laptops and definitely worth it!
Is A Cooling Pad Good For Your Gaming Laptop?
Definitely! while the temperature difference in summers isn’t much , but even a 2-3 degree difference can have a marginal impact on the temperature of your gaming laptop.
Investing in a good cooling pad might even reduce game lag and improve hardware performance by as little as 5-10%.
But in the long run , the most special thing about them is that they prolong your machines life.
Yes! using a cooling pad regularly will ensure that your laptop temperatures remain normal and as a result will prolong your gaming laptops’ life by as much as 2 years, causing minimum load on the stock laptop fans.
Does Cooling Pad Increase FPS?
It’s all correlated. Let me explain that in very simple words.
First you purchase a cooling pad for your gaming laptop, then you plug it in, you start to do gaming. When you’re gaming on your laptop, naturally, the temperatures of your Graphics Card, CPU, and Harddrive/ SSD will increase.
Once the temperatures of your core components increase while gaming, in response to that your laptop fans will slowly start to spin faster , reaching speeds of up to 1500rpm, depending upon your laptop model.
The result of that? Your laptop fans will work harder and harder to keep your core components cool, and your core components will either maintain their temperature or will slowly and gradually keep increasing their temperatures.
And that is where a cooling pad accels. When you use a cooling pad while gaming, your laptop fans will work hard to keep your core components cool , but in addition to that there will be a cooling pad working alongside your laptop fans as well.
Reducing the entire load from your laptop fans and dividing it into among itself , as a result of that the core components will start to get cooler by 5 – 6 degrees depending upon the weather.
Your core components will cool down and thus focus more on delivering performance rather than keeping themselves cool and a result of that? increase in FPS.
Don’t expect the FPS to rise by a significant margin, there will only be an increase of 5-10 Frames if you buy the right type of cooling pad.
Are Cooling Pads Bad For Laptops?
They’re beneficial for your laptop in the long run. But the concern is that yes, they do actually put a slight strain on your battery.
For example, if your battery lasts 5 hours on average, then with a cooling pad connected, it’ll last for around 4 hours and 30 minutes, so there is a bit of stress placed on your battery.
But a good solution for that is to keep your gaming laptop on battery saver mode , and use a cooling pad then.
Another solution for that is you could simply connect your cooling pad only when you want to play games on your laptop.
And the final solution is to keep your laptop on charge 24/7. That way you’re getting maximum performance.
The best solution among these is to just keep your laptop on charge whenever you want to do gaming on it, and remove the cooling pad once you’ve played your games.
Does Cooling Pad Drain Battery?
The only disadvantage of a cooling pad is that it does drain a bit of battery but it’s worth it in the long run.
Can A Cooling Pad Damage Your Laptop?
No, it doesn’t damage your laptop, the only thing that’s really concerning is that it puts a little stress on your battery and there are numerous ways to fix that as stated above.
Will Cooling A Laptop Improve Performance?
Technically it will, but not so much. If you’re expecting that cooling a laptop will give you an FPS boost of 30 – 40 and will make your gaming experience very smooth, then sorry to break it to you but it won’t.
Under appropriate conditions, cooling your laptop will give you a small performance boost, make your applications run faster , your games load faster, and best case scenario, increase your ingame FPS by 5-10 Frames.
And that’s the max a cooling pad can do, the main purpose of a cooling pad is to keep your laptop temperatures in check and reduce some load from the stock laptop fans.
How Hot Is Too Hot For A Gaming Laptop?
Gaming Laptops have different temperatures set for them. And they have different thresholds for being temperature tolerant.
But in most cases if your gaming laptop is going past 80 Degrees (Celsius) then its a cause for concern, and if not taken care of immediately, can be detrimental to your laptops’ health and components.
But what causes your gaming laptop to get hot?
- The number one thing that causes gaming laptops to get too hot is running unnecessary applications in the background. Stop all unneccesary applications and only run your game while gaming.
- The 2nd thing that really causes your gaming laptop to get hot is the use of old thermal paste, from time to time you need to change your thermal paste, preferably after every year or so to keep laptop from getting too hot.
- The 3rd thing and the most obvious one is dust. Yes. Alot of dust accumulates in gaming laptops naturally and this is one of the most common problems in overheating laptops.
- Overclocking. Many gamers aren’t satisfied with the existing performance of their gaming laptop so they resort to overclocking, you should definitely stay away from overclocking if you want to improve the lifespan of your gaming laptop.
There are many other things that cause your gaming laptop to get too hot, but you should monitor your laptop temperatures frequently, a free tool you could use is core temp to monitor CPU temperatures and GPU temp to monitor Graphics Card temperatures.
Make sure that temperatures of both of these components remain below 80degrees, if they’re not then get your laptop checked, because then a cooling pad will be necessary for your gaming laptop.
How Can I Cool My Laptop For Gaming?
There are many ways to cool a laptop for gaming.
- Build a diy laptop cooler. Using a shoebox and placing ice and a fan inside it serves as one of the best ways to cool your laptop while gaming. In some cases, even better than a branded cooler master cooling pad.
- Use a traditional Laptop cooling pad. There are many awesome options to choose from when buying a cooling pad for your gaming laptop, but when you do, make sure that the cooling pad is large enough to house your gaming laptop, has a high fan speed, and has at least 2 big fans.
- Place Your Laptop On A Flat Surface. This is the most simple of these tricks, all you have to do is use your laptop on a flat , wooden surface, that way your laptop will have enough space between it to keep itself cool.
- Use a Laptop Stand. A laptop stand is one of the best things after a cooling pad, because it elevates your laptop to 10-20cm above ground and helps the bottom fans of your laptop to suck the maximum amount of air.
- Use your laptop in a well ventilated room. This may come as a surprise but using your laptop in a congested room contributes quite alot to overheating laptops. So make sure that you use your laptop where there is good airflow. An air conditioned room would be a plus point.
- Turn off all other applications while gaming. This technique only applies to your laptop while gaming, so what you have to do is just turn off all applications that are using your CPU, for e.g antivirus and all other secondary programs. Only keep your game on and that will also help you to keep your laptop cool.
These are some of the many ways that you can keep your laptop cool while gaming. There are many other tips but these are some of the best ones and will definitely help reduce heat while gaming.
Does Cooling Pad Help A Laptop?
A cooling pad is one of the greatest laptop inventions ever made. Like we’ve discussed above, a cooling pad will help keep temperatures in check and will enable you to game for longer periods without putting stress on your laptop.
Furthermore, a cooling pad will also prolong your laptop life by 2-3 years, if you invested in the right kind of cooling pad.
Benefits Of Cooling Pad For Laptop
There are many benefits of a laptop cooling pad:
- It regulates temperatures: A cooling pad can help your laptop to regulate its temperature and thus, reduce it in the process.
- Lifts Up Your Laptop: A cooling pad can also lift your laptop 3-4cms above surface and it’ll help to keep the temperatures normal by giving both benefits.
- Better CPU & GPU : When your CPU and GPU cool down as a result of the cooling pad, they will give you a slight boost in performance and might increase FPS.
- More flexible Use: When using a cooling pad, you can even keep it on your lap, since your laptop will be placed on a flat surface.
- Low Average Temperatures: Using a cooling pad will keep the overall temperature of your laptop low.
Laptop Stand Vs Laptop Cooling Pad, Which Is Better?
A laptop stand acts as something that essentially elevates your laptop above the surface, whereas a cooling pad acts as something that marginally elevates your laptop, and throws in air as well at the same time.
Making it count for both of the things and providing 2 benefits instead of one.
Conclusion
In the long run, a cooling pad can be one of the best things that you can invest in for your gaming laptop.
It might only reduce the average temperatures by 3-4 degrees, but it still works and it still gives you a slight performance boost.
You might have a little trouble managing battery life with the cooling pad since it draws in a little extra power, but it’s definitely worth it.
