If you normally use a laptop computer, you may not think much about its performance, but if you switch between a laptop and a desktop computer, you may find that the laptop seems like a very slow computer, indeed. I’m often asked about the performance of laptops and why they seem so slow in comparison to desktop computers.

Why Laptops Can Seem So Slow

Although laptops perform the same functions and for the most part run the same software that desktop computers do, they’re actually very different machines. The laptop computer probably has a processor that is one or perhaps two revisions behind its beefier desktop cousin. In addition, the processor is “underpowered” in terms of its clock speed.

This is largely due to design compromises that laptops require to maintain a decent battery life. Fast processors take a great deal of power and battery technology – while it has improved tremendously in the last decade – isn’t good enough to allow laptops to use the latest (fastest) processors and huge amounts of memory, two things that directly govern the performance of a computer.

Many modern processors need additional cooling to ensure the performance of the CPU. Laptop case designs are very small and don’t afford the kind of ventilation the latest processors need to operate as designed. In addition, the power requirements for external cooling devices (like processor fans) would eat up the battery life of a laptop in short order.

Computer memory requires power to operate, and the more memory you have, the more power you need. Consequently, laptops don’t carry a large complement of RAM. The limit on RAM for laptops means that information must be paged in and out of disk-based memory, a comparatively slow process. This can make applications and other ordinary operations seem deadly slow.

To improve the performance of your laptop, pare down your operating system and ask it to do as little as absolutely necessary to get your work done. Keep in mind that convenience features like wireless connectivity will slow the performance of the laptop. If you connect primarily to wireless networks, try to upgrade your installed memory as much as possible.

Skip the fancy themes and desktop backgrounds. Turn off any services that you don’t absolutely require, and limit the application on your computer to the bare essentials. Consider your startup items very carefully. Anti-virus and anti-malware protection should be on all the time, but forget about the extras if you don’t expressly need them to get your work done.

Photo Credit: Declan Jewell

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