My Lenovo Omen laptop has an Intel Core i7-8750H, 32GB of RAM, a GTX 1060 6GB, Windows 11 Home 64-bit, and about 4.55TB of storage with roughly 813GB used. I upgraded the memory and storage for animation projects, but the system is still sluggish. Blender and Toon Boom run, though slowly, and Minecraft drops to around 6 FPS with simple shaders before crashing after a few minutes. The laptop also becomes extremely hot, especially while gaming, and even browsing with two tabs open makes it noticeably warmer than expected. The fans seem to work, I regularly open the laptop and clean it, and I avoid soft surfaces. I am trying to determine whether this is a software problem, overheating, or failing hardware, and what steps I should take to improve performance.
3 Answers
Before changing Windows editions or BIOS settings, make sure important animation files are backed up. Windows 11 Home versus Pro is unlikely to explain severe heat and single-digit game performance. A clean startup or reinstalling the graphics driver can help rule out software, but persistent heat even during light browsing points more toward cooling, power-management, or hardware trouble. If temperatures are abnormal at idle, have the cooling system and thermal paste inspected rather than relying only on an external cooling pad.
The extra RAM and storage mainly increase capacity; they do not make an older laptop's CPU or GPU substantially faster. A GTX 1060 laptop can handle Minecraft, but shaders can be very demanding, especially if the machine is overheating. Test the game without shaders, lower render and simulation distance, enable a performance-focused shader preset, and confirm the laptop is plugged in and using its high-performance power mode. Also check Task Manager for programs using significant CPU, GPU, or disk resources when you are doing nothing.
This sounds more like thermal throttling or a cooling problem than a lack of RAM. Monitor CPU and GPU temperatures, clock speeds, and usage while the system is idle and while Minecraft is running. If the CPU or GPU quickly reaches its thermal limit and the clock speeds drop, the laptop is protecting itself by slowing down. Check that the game is using the GTX 1060 rather than integrated graphics, reinstall or update the NVIDIA driver, and use Lenovo's performance or thermal-control settings. If temperatures are still excessive after cleaning, the thermal paste or heatsink contact may need attention, and a failing fan or heat pipe is also possible.
I have cleaned inside the laptop several times already, so I am mainly trying to figure out whether the temperatures, drivers, or some other hardware issue are causing it.