PC gaming. - The Bear and Badger

JonB

Does anyone use a cooling pad for their gaming laptop? I feel like this Dell runs a little too hot, and apparently it's a common issue. Wondered if it was worth getting something like that.

Tempy

My partner uses one yep.

GurtTractor

You can use HWiNFO or similar to check if parts are actually getting too hot and throttling, which takes the guesswork and worry out of it. I'm pretty dubious about the real efficacy of laptop cooling pads, it likely depends on where exactly the vents and heatsinks are in the machine. Replacing thermal paste and cleaning dust out of heatsink fins will probably yield more of an improvement.

AndCallMeCharlie

JonB wrote:

Does anyone use a cooling pad for their gaming laptop? I feel like this Dell runs a little too hot, and apparently it's a common issue. Wondered if it was worth getting something like that.

Yeah I’ve got one, works great and is very light

JonB

I'll see what I can get round here then.

I think it's normal for these laptops from what I've read, but the top of the keyboard does get quite hot during games, so probably worth having something.

JonB

GurtTractor wrote:

You can use HWiNFO or similar to check if parts are actually getting too hot and throttling, which takes the guesswork and worry out of it. I'm pretty dubious about the real efficacy of laptop cooling pads, it likely depends on where exactly the vents and heatsinks are in the machine. Replacing thermal paste and cleaning dust out of heatsink fins will probably yield more of an improvement.

I'll take a look at HWiNFO. I doubt I'll be doing any paste replacing or stuff like that though.

yourfavouriteuncle

Play it in the fridge.

JonB

I'll need to put the food on a cooling pad then.

Facewon

If you got the G5 then yeah same here. And yes I use a pad. Mainly so I'm not resting it directly on couch/bed etc when playing. The extra fans are a bonus.

I don't know if it's recommended but I use one of those cold spray cleaner things to get dust out of the bottom occasionally. (you'll see to clear circles of dust on the bottom after a while, real obvious.)

Facewon

(I also recommend actually using the monthly dell check up thing it does. Works well, and keeps it running pretty well.) Between that and the scans and clean ups that Bitdefender does, mine has been running pretty quick and almost faultless for a while.

stonechalice

I can't imagine how anyone could play a videogame on their gaming laptop on their actual lap??? Madness. I want that noisy hot fucker as far away from me as possible. I've got mine hooked up to my monitor buried in a box under the desk. Really portable.

Facewon

Slay the spire doesn't exactly tax it.

If I'm playing a game with pad that will warm it up, it's in front of me. NC headphones do the rest.

Ed_Flanders

I'd try undervolting. It's generally quite effective and has no real downsides.

hunk

Repasting worked for my overheating laptop. Undervolting should work too.

GurtTractor

I'd be cautious of CPU undervolting on any system where you can't easily reset the BIOS, as if you go too far the system might not boot and might not reset itself, it depends on the specific motherboard. For desktop systems it's generally fine as you can easily access the CMOS batter or hit a BIOS reset switch on nicer mobos, I would check the procedure for your device before diving into it.

Actually these days there's probably some Intel/AMD utility that lets you tweak voltages etc in software in the OS, that might be safe though read up on it.

Undervolting the GPU with MSI Afterburner or similar should be totally safe as all you should have to do is reset the system and not apply the same profile if it locks up.

But basically chipmakers tend to set the voltage to safe margin for stability to cover all the chips for a SKU, it's common that you might have a better binned bit of silicon that can run stable at lower voltages, which reduces heat and can allow the chip to maintain higher clockspeeds. AMD GPUs in particular are known for having higher voltages than is usually necessary.

Kow

Bah, Epic's surprise free game turned out to be NBA21K. There's another mystery game next week, hope it's something decent.

Ed_Flanders

Right, it's software undervolting that's safe; I have no experience with the hardware type.

Kow

Picked up Unexplored 2 for a few quid on Epic using the ten quid voucher. Seems like a very good rogue type rpg. Nice art style and a mixture of mechanics. Has me hooked enough to want to keep playing anyway.

stellavista

How much RAM do I need for a top end gaming laptop? Is 16GB sufficient or do I need 30GB? Looking at the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14.

Kow

16gb is enough. But hey, you can never have too much.

GooberTheHat

Yeah, 16 is fine but 32 is better.

b0r1s

You don’t need 32gb but I got it just in case.

handsofblue

Kow wrote:

Bah, Epic's surprise free game turned out to be NBA21K. There's another mystery game next week, hope it's something decent.

I also found this disappointing.

Facewon

16 is doing me fine for 95% of stuff.

Tbh, the only game I've seen that could do with infinite amounts of ram is cities skylines if you're doing crazy stuff with mods. Some of the load times the youtubers talk about for their mental creations, even on monster rigs, is nuts. Hours to load.

acemuzzy

handsofblue wrote:

Kow wrote:

Bah, Epic's surprise free game turned out to be NBA21K. There's another mystery game next week, hope it's something decent.

I also found this disappointing.

You'll be delighted with this week's then...

Among Us - which is kinda normally free anyway (on phones, anyway...).

Frosty

Facewon wrote:

16 is doing me fine for 95% of stuff. Tbh, the only game I've seen that could do with infinite amounts of ram is cities skylines if you're doing crazy stuff with mods. Some of the load times the youtubers talk about for their mental creations, even on monster rigs, is nuts. Hours to load.

I'd go 32GB these days. I'm wildly speculating but I imagine RAM requirements may go up for PC games due to the super fast hard drives in the new consoles and the inability for devs to rely that being present on the installed HDD or SSD in a PC.

Kow

acemuzzy wrote:

handsofblue wrote:

Kow wrote:

Bah, Epic's surprise free game turned out to be NBA21K. There's another mystery game next week, hope it's something decent.

I also found this disappointing.

You'll be delighted with this week's then... Among Us - which is kinda normally free anyway (on phones, anyway...).

And which they have already given away free, without any big mystery.

handsofblue

acemuzzy wrote:

handsofblue wrote:

Kow wrote:

Bah, Epic's surprise free game turned out to be NBA21K. There's another mystery game next week, hope it's something decent.

I also found this disappointing.

You'll be delighted with this week's then... Among Us - which is kinda normally free anyway (on phones, anyway...).

Ah. Yes, I was on my way here to express my further disappointment but you already know about that.

I've got it so it's in the library anyway but now it's added in some captcha shite.

Next week's mystery game: Fortnite

b0r1s

This is nice. Metro Exodus has added haptic feedback and adaptive trigger dual sense support using the Steam API. Could be a great way to make the tech more mainstream. I really think it’s great advancement in controller tech, with Returnal being the high point.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/24/22450915/metro-exodus-ps5-dualsense-controller-adaptive-triggers-pc

acemuzzy

Ooh. Interesting. How do I use my ps5 pad on my PC - I have recently installed metro exodus so kinda interested to try this...

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