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Make no mistake: your PC heats up like crazy while you're gaming - that's just a hard, unavoidable fact. And, really, for most of the year, this barely matters at all. Now, however, with the ongoing heatwave rampaging about, it's time to learn how to keep your gaming PC cool without having to stop gaming outright.
Now, some of the things we're about to suggest, you may well end up scoffing at. We do, however, have sources for our claims, and our advice will unavoidably help you keep your GPU temps as low as humanly possible. The caveats might not be worth it for your particular use case, but that's the best part of this guide: it's just advice. Take it or leave it, we'll just inform you and give you some game recommendations that won't burn your motherboard along the way.
To that end, this article is organized into three major sections. The first is the hardline explanation bit. Here, we go over some basic thermodynamics and explain why your PC is heating up and what that means for you, your PC, and your room in general. It's important, don't skip it! The second part relates to PC and game optimization. Best practices and the like, for the most part. Finally, the third part is all about game recommendations.
With that all out of the way, let's get to it!
Keep Your Gaming PC Cool: A Comprehensive Guide For The Summer Gamer
In this day and age, even the most value-minded consumer has access to the sort of PC hardware the previous generation would've drooled over. The contemporary selection of processors and graphics cards is incredibly versatile, and with our software having matured reasonably well, the vast majority of games will run on the humblest of CPU/GPU combinations. Naturally, poorly. But boy will it run.
The important part is that we've come a long way since the days of 3DFX Voodoo graphics processors. Some may recall the days when some games only worked on some GPUs, and even then, those very same GPUs would become obsolete in mere months as new hardware came about.
Either way, the hardware's become massively more competent for gamers, but with that came about a higher power draw, and with a higher power draw comes substantially higher heat generation. Depending on how powerful your PC is, you may well be drawing hundreds of watts to run the latest and greatest games at high visual fidelity. As we said, this is a huge problem for those who might wish to game on during summertime. Here's just a few problems you're bound to encounter:
- hardware throttling, resulting in reduced gaming performance
- massive increase in noise generation, as your fans ramp up to keep up with your hardware
- substantial room temperature increases (your computer dumps hot air... where?)
These are rather self-explanatory, considering the context. Thankfully, there are ways to adapt and overcome most of these issues. They do call for compromises, but said compromises do work.
On Your PC Heating Up
It's important that we establish a baseline of causality between gaming and power draw right off the bat. There are a few steps to consider here, but they're self-explanatory when you really think about them, even from a layperson's perspective.
Naturally, the harder a game is to run, the more taxing it is on your hardware. The more taxing a game is on your hardware, the more power will your hardware draw. With a higher power draw comes potentially massively increased heat output. This output, then, ends up heating up your room in return, as your PC dumps the hot air out of the chassis.
Simple stuff, right? It goes without saying that you cannot affect the laws of thermodynamics, which means you can't get more performance out of lesser power draw (unless you follow our low-spec optimization guide and undervolt your hardware, that is).
Instead, the thing that we can - and should - affect is how taxing a game is on your hardware. There are several different ways you can go about doing this, and it's unlikely you'll be a huge fan of any of them - especially if you game on a hugely overpowered PC. Still, if heat management is a concern, the next section is absolutely crucial for you.
How To Keep Your Gaming PC Cool While Gaming
By now, we've established the fact that your PC is, effectively, a space heater. Almost all the power your PC draws is eventually turned into heat, quite simply, and there's no magical way to prevent this from happening. You could, of course, go the hardcore Linus Tech Tips route and create a super ultra gaming server somewhere in your basement. Coincidentally, LTT also worked on creative PC venting systems in the past.
Realistically, however, it's recommended that you choose the path of least resistance. Your options, in that case, are to keep your gaming PC cool by either reducing your graphics settings or capping your maximum framerate.
#1: Reduce Graphics Settings
We know, we know. Both of these options are effectively heresy for some gamers - and that's fine. The beauty of PC gaming is that you can crank your graphics settings sky-high once more as soon as the temperatures drop! In the interim, however, you may wanna consider turning off raytracing, disabling supersampling, and generally just running the games at reasonably sane settings.
What you want to do is to stop choking your GPU. By reducing the sheer load on your graphics card, you're also minimizing its power draw. This, in return, leads to more manageable room temperatures. If you're based in Europe, where air conditioning isn't a given, these options may well be a friggin' godsend. But, settings alone might not make that big of a difference. That's what brings us to our main point of contention...
#2: Cap Your Framerate
No, really, do it. As long as your monitor's maximum refresh rate is divisible by your framerate cap, and your PC can maintain a stable gaming experience at all times, you're golden. Steam Deck has shown just how important a good framerate cap is, and you can accomplish a similar end result on Windows OS by using the RivaTuner utility.
We cannot overstate just how much more taxing on your GPU it is to run a game at a stable 120 FPS than it is to do the same thing at 60 FPS. And, for sure, you're losing out on image flawlessness and general smoothness of gameplay, but are these worth the 34 Celsius your room might reach this summer season? It's a give-and-take here, no matter what we do.
And, really, there's nothing stopping you from cranking up your FPS cap to the max once the scorching heat goes away. In the meantime, however, this is our key recommendation, and it may well make summer gaming manageable for you, too!
Top Game Recommendations That Won't Cook Your PC This Summer
Finally, you may be wondering if there are games you could play without worrying about most anything mentioned above. And, indeed, that is the case. The rule of thumb is that you should be gunning for low-spec titles, generally speaking. To that end, virtually any of our existing summaries, guides, and featurettes tackling this topic will suffice! Check out the following:
If you're in need of more game recommendations still, however, we've got one more shortlist for you to check out. Down below, we've picked out 10 downright incredible releases that will hardly affect your PC's heat output at all. Playing these titles should keep your fans from spinning hard, and shouldn't warm up your room much at all.
It goes without saying, however, that the techniques and best practices we described in the previous sections ought to help you run anything you want. Of course, your mileage may vary, but there's really nothing to lose by giving it a shot.
Doraemon: Story of Seasons
Moonlighter
Monster Hunter: Rise
Children of Morta
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
Monster Sanctuary
Rayman Legends
Football Manager 2022
Persona 4 Golden
Crusader Kings 3
Get in the Game ! 
