I'm trying to figure out why my Lenovo gaming laptop performs so poorly despite having upgraded hardware. It 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 mainly use it for hobbyist animation in Blender and Toon Boom, as well as Minecraft. Both animation programs run slowly, and Minecraft crashes after a few minutes when I enable even simple shaders, sometimes dropping to around 6 FPS. The laptop becomes extremely hot very quickly, and the keyboard can become uncomfortable to touch. Even light web browsing with only a couple of tabs causes noticeable heat. The fans appear to be working, I regularly open the laptop and clean it, and I avoid using it on soft surfaces. I'm also considering an IETS GT500 cooling pad. Could this be a software problem, a hardware failure, or thermal throttling? What should I check first, and what changes would actually improve performance?
2 Answers
Before changing Windows editions or BIOS settings, update the Lenovo firmware, chipset drivers, NVIDIA driver, and Windows itself, then check Task Manager for a process constantly using CPU, disk, or GPU in the background. For Minecraft, try running without shaders first, reduce render and simulation distance, and verify that it is assigned to the GTX 1060. Windows 11 Pro by itself usually will not solve severe overheating or very low frame rates, so I’d diagnose temperatures and hardware first rather than reinstalling immediately.
The symptoms sound more like overheating and thermal throttling than a lack of RAM or storage. Check CPU and GPU temperatures while the laptop is idle and while Minecraft is running with a hardware-monitoring tool. If the CPU or GPU quickly reaches the high 90s °C and clocks drop, the system is slowing itself down to prevent damage. Cleaning the fans is good, but an older gaming laptop may also need fresh thermal paste, properly seated heatsinks, and confirmation that both fans are actually reaching full speed. Also make sure the laptop is plugged in and using the dedicated NVIDIA GPU rather than integrated graphics.
I’m not attached to Windows, so I’m willing to change operating systems if that would genuinely help. I just need the safest order of steps because I’m not very experienced with computer repairs.