The battery life of gaming laptops is always a big concern for all gamers like you who need the flexibility to play games by sitting anywhere you want without any worry about plugging the laptop charger continuously into the power socket.
Actually, this is a major concern for gamers who travel frequently and those who are in college. Let’s take an example, as a student, if you have a gaming laptop with long battery life then it would help you to take notes in your college, and also during free classes you can enjoy gaming with your friends without worrying about dying your laptop battery.
Many of you are thinking that why gaming laptops’ battery is short. So, the reason is that gaming laptops come with a powerful processor, RAM, graphics card, dedicated cooling system, and backlit keyboard, which consumes a lot of power compared to normal laptops and thus battery drains very quickly.
So, here in this article, we will discuss about that in detail. Let’s get started.
Also, check our – Top 10 Tips To Improve Battery Life On Windows 10 Laptop
Contents
- Why Do Gaming Laptops Have Bad Battery Life?
- 1. Dedicated Graphics Card:
- 2. High Speed Processor:
- 3. Multiple High-speed Fans:
- 4. RGB Backlit Keyboard:
- 5. Speakers:
- 6. Screen Resolution & Size Of The Display:
- 7. Connect External Gaming Peripherals:
- 8. Multitasking And Games or Apps Running In The Background:
- 9. Battery Life Of Gaming Laptop When Not Doing Gaming:
- Final Verdict
Why Do Gaming Laptops Have Bad Battery Life?
At first glance, gaming laptops and normal laptops both look similar from the outside but there are lots of differences in terms of the hardware components available inside.
As per the name suggest, gaming laptops are built especially for gamers with powerful specs inside while normal regular laptops are built for using normal regular tasks in mind and also for power efficiency. The gaming laptop can be your portable gaming rig.
To provide powerful gaming performance, the hardware components available inside gaming laptops tend to be more powerful and intensive compared to regular laptops.
On top of that, it also has some additional components like a dedicated graphics card, and multiple high speed fans which are usually not getting in normal laptops and it consume a lot of battery and as result, get bad battery life.
Ok, so now we’ll take a look at gaming laptop’s hardware components and features which consumes a lot of power and provides short battery life:
1. Dedicated Graphics Card:
Let’s talk about what comes with a regular laptop first, so it comes with integrated graphics which is built into the processor and it works the same as a video card.
Well, it works similarly to a video card it doesn’t mean it can handle heavy graphics games but it can only be able to handle some basic graphics-related images, videos, etc.
Most importantly integrated graphics are not expensive, consume less power, and generate less heat as compared to the dedicated graphics card. All in all, it provides a long battery backup on regular laptops.
The drawback of integrated graphics is that it can’t be able to handle graphics intensive tasks like high graphics gaming, 3D modeling/rendering, graphics design, etc.
But when it comes to gaming laptops, it comes with a dedicated graphics card or GPU. It helps to process detailed images and complex graphics textures which are most common in the latest high graphics games like Metro Exodus, Far Cry 5, and many more.
Having a dedicated graphics card gives a much smoother gaming experience, without any frame rate drops, lagging, or freezing. On top of that with a dedicated graphics card and its graphics processor power capability, it is also possible to take VR gaming and 4K gaming experience on a gaming laptop.
Even though dedicated graphics provide amazing graphics visuals, still, they are also notorious for their bad battery life and overheating issues.
2. High Speed Processor:
Speaking about normal laptops first, it comes with either a U (ultra-low power) series processor which is used for basic tasks like internet browsing, checking email, etc., while a P series processor is used for some high-end tasks.
For instance, in a normal laptop, you’ll get a CPU like an intel core i5-1245U or i5-1250P processor.
Generally, these processors are built to keep in mind power efficiency and not performance. Due to power restrictions in these processors, it provides long battery backup in normal regular laptops but on the other side, they can’t be able to handle CPU-intensive tasks and multitasking.
When it comes to gaming laptops, it is equipped with an H (High performance graphics) series processor which is used for heavy tasks like gaming, video editing, 3D modeling/rendering, etc. The H series processors are less power restricted.
High end processors have higher clock speed with turbo boost technology and it provides lag-free gaming experience. Regarding the disadvantages of the high-performance processor, this results in using more power, generating more heat, and consequently short battery life.
Besides this, high-end CPU has more cores like 6 to 8 cores which are powerful enough for gaming and multitasking. Let’s take an example, you can game and stream on twitch at a time without experiencing any lagging or freezing.
CPUs with more cores required extra power to work as compared to those CPUs which has fewer cores. Ultimately, it eats up more power and provides bad battery backup to gaming laptops.
3. Multiple High-speed Fans:
Due to portability, laptops have compact chassis in which all components pack inside like the motherboard, CPU, RAM, heat pipes, etc.
Cramming all the hardware components inside the small chassis restricts airflow which makes it difficult to dissipate heat generated by the CPU and GPU.
This is the reason why fans or cooling systems need to be added inside the chassis for better air circulation.
Regular or everyday laptops need a single fan because it has a single component that generates heat which is a CPU. Also, this single fan spins slowly and also often eats up less power, and hereby it provides a long battery backup in regular laptops.
But this is not the case with gaming laptops. In gaming laptops, fans need to dissipate the heat from the inside chassis which is generated by the CPU and GPU both to prevent from overheating.
So, to improve air circulation and gaming performance, the gaming laptop company adds two or more fast-spinning fans. Due to providing power to two fast-spinning fans the battery life of gaming laptops is bad.
4. RGB Backlit Keyboard:
There are many of you who like to play games in low light or in dark conditions.
So, to take your gaming experience to the next level these days most of the high-end laptops have an RGB backlit keyboard. It helps to find the keys very easily without moving your eyes from the screen during gaming.
This backlit keyboard is not that much power intensive like CPU and GPU but still, it consumes little power which is directly impact on gaming laptop’s battery life.
5. Speakers:
The sound quality of a gaming laptop also plays a major role to get an immersive gaming experience.
Also, having good quality speakers that throw all kinds of sounds which are added in the game to make it more interesting and exciting while playing.
But when it comes to regular laptops then they usually come with average sound quality speakers which are not that much loud and clear. However, this kind of speaker are okay for a normal laptop but not for gaming laptops.
Generally, gamers need speakers which are louder and also it can be able to produce different kinds of crisp tones, base, and frequencies. If speaker sounds are louder then it also helps in covering fan noise which comes during a heavy gaming session.
So, louder and bigger speakers mean consuming more power and this is how it affects reducing battery life. Well, this is not a big issue with speakers because you can save battery by using a good gaming headphones.
6. Screen Resolution & Size Of The Display:
Generally, all gaming laptops have a 1080p screen resolution with 15.6 inches of display.
But the thing is that, this is not the same with high-end gaming laptops because they come with a 1440p or 4K resolution with a big 17.3 inches screen size.
The screen which has high resolution offers more crisp and clear visuals as compared to the low screen resolution displays. When it comes to the size of the display then a big display size offers a good gaming experience and also reduces eye strain and fatigue.
If we compare which screen resolution consumes more power 1080p or 4K then 4K screen consumes more power because it has more pixels. Also, a 17.3 inches gaming laptop display with 1080p screen resolution eats up more battery power as compared to 15.6 inches display because it needs to light up extra space.
However, a gaming laptop which has a big display size and high resolution then it consumes more power and gives less battery backup.
7. Connect External Gaming Peripherals:
Gaming laptops come with more number of ports to connect external gaming peripherals like a gaming keyboard, gaming mouse, external monitor, VR headsets, cooling pad, etc.
Connecting these devices improves performance and gives a better gaming experience but at the same time, it consumes battery and provides less battery backup. On top of that, the peripherals also add stress on the CPU and GPU, this is how it generated heat and consumes power too.
8. Multitasking And Games or Apps Running In The Background:
Actually, multitasking is a CPU-intensive task that uses more power and hence generates a lot of heat. Actually, multitasking is a CPU-intensive task which uses more power and hence generates a lot of heat.
During multitasking, it is good to close the apps from the task manager which you are not currently using, so that it can help to lessen the stress on the CPU and also better the battery life.
If any of the above reasons not covering why your laptop battery is draining so fast then another reason is many applications might be running in the background.
9. Battery Life Of Gaming Laptop When Not Doing Gaming:
When we use gaming laptops for regular daily tasks like browsing the web, MS Office, video conferencing, etc, then it can give you around 4-5 hours of battery backup. But during gaming or doing CPU & GPU-intensive tasks the battery drains very fast.
Final Verdict
After going through this article I hope now you know that, why gaming laptops have bad battery life. So, all the components of a gaming laptop consume a battery such as a powerful CPU, GPU, high-resolution screen, RGB backlit keyboard, and louder speaker.
During gaming or doing heavy CPU and GPU-intensive tasks, it is good to plug the gaming laptop into the power socket will get a smooth gaming experience. The reason behind this is that while the laptop running on the battery it is power restricted but not when it is plugged in.
All in all, if you like to play games on the go then a gaming laptop is the only option that you need to go for without thinking about its short battery life. Because a normal laptop can provide better battery life but can’t be able to handle gaming.
Hello! I am Robbin Simmond a senior editor & writer of this blog. By profession, I am a computer hardware engineer with a passion for gaming and technology. With a deep understanding of the intricate workings of computers, I have spent years researching and testing the latest advancements in gaming laptops.