I recently purchased a used gaming laptop from Facebook Marketplace because I wanted to dive into the Resident Evil games without straining my HP computer that I use for school and work. After downloading Steam and my games, I noticed that they run choppier and laggier on this new laptop than on my HP, which has a much weaker graphics card. I'm also experiencing lag and crashing while streaming content on both YouTube and other sites, which might be linked to the same issue. The laptop is an MSI model featuring an Intel Core i5 processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 graphics, and it runs on Windows 11. I'm looking for suggestions on how to improve its performance without breaking the bank.
1 Answer
Hey! It sounds like a decent setup on paper, so I get why the lag is frustrating. Here are a few quick things you can check that might help:
- Make sure your NVIDIA drivers are installed and updated. Sometimes, a new Windows install defaults to using Intel graphics over the RTX 3060.
- Head into the NVIDIA Control Panel and set the RTX 3060 as the default graphics processor.
- Check for overheating; dusty fans or dried-out thermal paste can throttle performance, especially when gaming or streaming.
- Use Task Manager while you're experiencing lag to see if your CPU, RAM, or disk usage is spiking. It could point to the bottleneck.
Just so you know, the laptop version of the RTX 3060 is a bit less powerful than the desktop version, but once configured correctly, it should handle Resident Evil nicely! If you want more detailed tips on optimizing your gaming rig, I've got a guide that might help: [How to Fix and Speed Up a Used Gaming PC ](https://pcwizardhub.com/great-tips-to-fix-your-crashing-gaming-pc-in-2025/). Let me know how it goes or if you find anything interesting in Task Manager!
Thanks a lot! I reinstalled the NVIDIA drivers, and that helped a bit. When I checked Task Manager during gameplay, it looks like RAM might be the issue; it was using 63% just after 5-6 minutes of playing RE4 remake. What should I do next?