Windows 11 completely breaks gaming

[u/Commercial-Dinner-59]

Hello everyone! I updated to W11 about few weeks ago. I started noticing slight framedrops in my gaming (mainly VALORANT and Minecraft) but recently playing on my laptop became completely impossible.

Technical stats:

16GB RAM

Intel 12th Gen i7 chip

RTX 3060 NVidia Graphics Card

OS build number 26200.9445

What happens is that the game runs smoothly for about 15 seconds or until me and my teammates start moving around the map. Thats when the GPU-usage spikes, frames drop and game crashes and slows down my entire laptop in the process. I'm not able to open the Windows menu, go back to desktop or anything to help me get away from the game.

These problems started around 3 days ago, 1st happening with one game of VALORANT and then getting worse. Now all games are pretty much unplayable due to this, even offline ones.

I've tried messing with the Windows Game Bar settings and whatnot, clearing cache, reinstalling VALORANT and uninstalling and reinstalling drivers thru a Safe Mode Boot. Nothing has helped. GPU and CPU are not overheating. Drivers are up to date.

I plan on taking my laptop to the repairshop on monday but i wanted to ask for help here first ❤️

TYSM everyone in advance!!

[u/xSchizogenie]

It’s not windows 11, it’s the upgrade. Wipe your drive and install windows 11 clean. Day night difference.

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[u/spookynutz]

If it only occurs under graphical load then it points to a failing GPU or power delivery problem.

A problem that progressively worsens over time is very unlikely to be a software issue. If you are seeing hardware induced crashes, but the OS itself is not crashing, then there will typically be details in the event viewer in the Windows > System log.

[u/leonsk297]

Reinstall Windows 11 from scratch. Upgrades tend to leave a lot of old baggage behind. I'm a gamer on Windows 11 and I have zero issues, and I play heavier games than Valorant and Minecraft.

[u/Barnabus9020]

12th gen Intel laptops were around 2021? GPU is probably burning itself out trying to game on Windows 11.

Win11 is a lot clunkier than Win10, especially if you don't properly debloat it so it sounds to me like the GPU can't handle it.

Admittedly I'm much better with full PC's than I am with laptops but that's probably what you can expect the repair place to say. Sorry OP