It is irritating yet unfortunately common to find your computer freezing or lagging while playing a demanding game. Here are some ways you can solve the problem.
We will be focusing on fixes that actually work – things like clearing temporary files or Windows Updates have minimal impact on your gaming experience, and shall not be discovered as solutions here.
Reduce Temperature
Thermal throttling is the most common reason for a computer freezing during intense gaming sessions, especially if you game on a laptop. Poor thermals can push CPU temperatures to dangerous limits, forcing the system to reduce its performance to stay safe.
How can you fix it though? Your PC might be overheating due to a variety of factors, so there is no single hack we can suggest. Instead, here are a bunch of ways you can reduce computer temperatures:
- Turn down the graphical settings. It is tempting to play video games at the highest setting possible, but if your PC cannot handle it smoothly, it is better to turn it down. Often even the recommended settings are not well optimized, and you will get smoother performance at lower settings.
- Enable Vsync. Your GPU might be trying to render more frames than your monitor can even display, wasting performance for absolutely no reason. Simply enabling Vsync (either from the game settings or GPU settings) can make a game run smoother.
- Lower the framerate. Many displays these days are capable of rendering graphics at more than 60FPS, which your system is not always able to output. For any game where freezing becomes an issue (or even stuttering) , reducing this framerate to 60FPS (or even lower in some games) can let you play smoothly.
- Get a cooling pad. This obviously only applies to laptops, but a cooling pad can decrease temps by 10-15 degrees, which is often enough to bring it back to the safe zone and prevent throttling, thereby getting rid of the freezing problem.
- Use Nvidia Whisper mode, if you have a compatible GPU. This will automatically tone down the power consumption (and thus the heat production) of the GPU, letting your system run cooler.
- Clean your PC and repaste the processor. The accumulation of dust and degrading of the thermal paste can make it heat up more easily. This holds for both laptops and desktops, though laptops are of course more susceptible to getting clogged by dust.
Check If You Have Enough Free Memory
After overheating, the second most common reason for a computer freezing during a game is a lack of memory. Either you just don’t have enough RAM to handle the game’s demands, or not enough of this memory is available for use.
Check Memory Requirements of the Game
To rule out the first possibility, check the game’s system requirements. Does your PC hardware meet its recommended needs? Keep in mind that the minimum requirements are only for running the game at its lowest settings, and even then it is not always a smooth ride.
Look for Background Processes Eating Up Memory
For the second problem, you need to keep an eye on the Task Manager. Use the Ctrl + Shift + Esc hotkey to open the Task Manager (you can do this in the middle of a game as well).
The Task Manager lists all running programs and processes alongside their memory and CPU usage. Clicking on the memory tab sorts them by that metric, letting you quickly spot the biggest guzzlers.
If you notice any programs other than your game taking up too much memory, that might be what’s causing your computer to freeze. This can be an unnecessary program running in the background or an app you left minimized. Closing these will free up that memory for usage.
Some apps might also be starting up without your knowledge and running in the background. You can disable these by switching to the Startup tab and unchecking the option. You can also remove some of them with a dedicated bloatware removal tool.
Switch to an SSD
Because of their inexpensive costs, a lot of people still use traditional hard disk drives for storage. But the tradeoff is that these drives are slow, and can cause freezing in applications that need to read a lot of data quickly, like video games.
This is why it is always recommended to use a Solid State Drive (SSD) for gaming. Chances are that your system already uses one, but in case it doesn’t, replacing the hard drive (or installing an additional SSD) is an easy way to boost performance.
Almost all modern games will benefit from this change, as they have to keep loading chunks of the game world into memory.
Update Graphics Drivers
Windows automatically updates many drivers, but your GPU’s drivers are generally not on this list. For that, you need to manually download the right drivers from the manufacturer’s website, or use the graphic card’s dedicated utility.
People generally forget this step, so it is very likely you are running your system with outdated GPU drivers. This can lead to problems with some games that are poorly optimized or have bugs that could be patched up by the latest drivers.
- To update your GPU drivers, you first need to determine which GPU you have. If you already know, then great, you can move on to step 4. But if you don’t, you can easily find it out from the Task Manager. Open the Task Manager by hitting Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard.
- Switch to the Performance tab (the third tab on the left). This lists the performance of the main components of your PC, from the Processor to the Memory and of course, the GPU.
- Select the GPU from this list – you might see two entries, one for the discrete graphics card, and the other for the integrated graphics that are baked into the processor. This will display its full name on the right.
- Now just search for the drivers of this GPU in your web browser.
- Download the latest update package from the official website of the manufacturer (Nvidia in our case).
- When you run this installer, it automatically checks if your device is compatible with the update, and proceeds if it matches up.
Fix Internet Issues
Most modern video games are very reliant on your internet connectivity. Even games that lack a multiplayer mode often require an uninterrupted connection with the game servers.
This means internet issues can cause your games to freeze as well, even when there are no graphical problems. And this doesn’t necessarily happen only with slow internet connections – a sudden drop in network quality can cause a freeze as well.
Switch to a Stable Connection
For browsing the internet you can get by with a mobile hotspot, but online gaming requires more consistency. You should be using broadband to ensure internet fluctuations don’t impact your gaming experience.
Even with broadband, how you connect your PC to the router can make a difference. 5 GHz WiFi is significantly faster than 2.4GHz, and a wired Ethernet connection is better than either. With WiFi, the distance from the router matters too, as you might not be able to get a stable connection in a far-off room.
Restart Your Router
Temporary internet issues can plague your gaming experience too, due to errors in the router’s cache. Simply restarting your router from time to time can refresh its cache, letting the internet connection run smoothly again.
Upgrade your Hardware
If you have tried out all of these fixes and nothing is working, your hardware just might not be up to the mark. Maybe you have insufficient RAM, an aging processor, or a weak GPU. Ultimately the only real fix is to upgrade these things.
RAM
The RAM is usually the easiest upgrade if you have any spare slots on your PC’s motherboard. Most budget gaming laptops, for example, possess two slots but only come with one stick installed. You can easily buy a compatible RAM module and just slot it in.
Even when both slots are occupied, it does not take much work or technical knowledge to replace them with better memory sticks. Not only can you upgrade the capacity like this, but also the speed as well, provided the motherboard supports it.
CPU
The processor is a trickier upgrade, especially if you have a laptop, since that would require you to first remove the heatsink. It is also generally not worth it since CPUs tend to be tied to the motherboard chipsets, making any big leap impossible.
GPU
The GPU, on the other hand, is a straightforward – if expensive – upgrade. As GPUs only require a compatible PCIe slot, you can easily get the latest GPU and install it on your older motherboard. Do keep in mind though that an aging processor and chipset will slow down the graphics card.
Ultimately, the entire motherboard has to be upgraded to allow your PC to move on to newer technologies.
What’s the Best Way to Fix a Computer that Freezes When Playing Games?
As with most PC issues, it is hard to nail down the exact cause of why your computer freezes up while playing a demanding game. This makes it impossible for us to recommend a single best fix that is guaranteed to solve your problem.
What you instead need to do is to go through the fixes outlined above one by one, until you find the one that actually lets you play smoothly. It could be updating your GPU drivers, shutting down background programs, or improving the thermals of your PC.
If nothing else works, you might even have to consider upgrading your PC or just lowering the game’s settings to the point where it can handle it without freezing.
