Keeping your laptop cool while gaming doesn't just improve its performance; It also extends the life of its components and helps to avoid battery bloatAn affliction that becomes more common with age. Razer says its $150 laptop cooling pad Works with any size laptop and will reduce CPU and GPU temperatures by up to 18 percent. (This also, naturally, has an RGB strip.)
With some Razer gaming laptops, this can go even further. When the cooling pad is connected to A via USB 2023 or the 2024 Razer Blade 16, a feature called hyperboost Automatically adjusts fan speed and cooling mode and allocates up to 20 additional watts each to the laptop's CPU and GPU. (Razer is bringing HyperBoost to more models in the coming months.)
I've played around with Razer laptop cooling pads for the past few weeks, before and after the HyperBoost update. And while it's not quite as impressive as Razer claims, I did notice a significant improvement in 1080p performance in games that were previously held back due to a lack of power for the CPU.
I tested the Razer Laptop Cooling Pad with a mobile Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card and Intel Core I9-14900HX CPU, as well as a top-of-the-line 2024 Razer Blade 16. 2024 ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS G16 (AMD EDITION)It's possible to cycle through preset fan speeds and RGB lighting configurations using the buttons on the side, but fine-tuning controls requires Razer Synapse to be installed, which may be a deal-breaker for some people, regardless. No price.
Let's address the elephant in the room first: Razer's cooling pad gets loud140mm fan spinning with full bore, I measured 62 decibels Right next to the laptop and around 56 to 58 decibels is what I would consider a realistic gaming situation. (My apartment has a noise floor of about 40 decibels.) It's not ear-splitting, but the constant volume of the fan and mechanical timbre are distracting—it sounds close to a vacuum cleaner, to begin with, to my cat. For comparison, the built-in fans on both laptops I tested output at less than 50 decibels using their Turbo power profiles.
Razer's quest to create a laptop cooling pad that can fit any device also means it's larger than necessary. Not only does it take up more space on the desk than my laptop alone, but it also requires external power and uses a bulky adapter that crowds out the plug next to it on the power strip. It comes with three separate top plates that snap onto the pads magnetically. The plate for laptops up to 14 to 16 inches and uses memory foam strips to create an airtight seal between a fan chamber and the intake vent on the bottom of the laptop for up to 18 inches. The third, for fanless or ventless devices like the MacBook Air, is completely flat. The back has three USB-A 2.0 ports on top no matter the size of the laptop.
It's a good thing that HyperBoost works, at least under some circumstances. In my review of the 2024 Razer Blade 16YouTuber Jarrod'Stech said that both it and the 2023 model underperform at 1080p. This is because, by default, they allocate more of their total power allowance to the GPU, but at lower resolutions, most games are held back by the CPU.
Hyperboost blew past parts. With more power for the CPU, the 2024 Blade 16 put out 123 frames per second cyberpunk 2077 At 1080p with every setting maxed out (except ray tracing), that's 90fps compared to what I measured without HyperBoost. shadow of the tomb Was similar: At 1080p maximum settings, I measured 204fps with HyperBoost on and 185 with it disabled.
Once you leave 1080p, the benefits evaporate
Once you leave 1080p, the benefits evaporate; The GPU becomes the limiting factor, and pumping more power into it has diminishing returns. At the Blade 16's native 1600p resolution (and above, if you're using an external monitor), I measured about the same frame rates with or without HyperBoost, taking a frame or two. Temperatures are still quite low, with the power-hungry Intel Core I9-14900HX staying below 90 degrees Celsius and the RTX 4090 keeping under 70 degrees under torture testing, but the 2024 Blade 16 already has a reputation for its thickness. Had great cooling system. Thermal throttling was never a concern.
The Razer Laptop Cooling Pad will do a good job of cooling non-Razer gaming laptops, with or without a fan as well. It stopped the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor from inside Asus Rose Zephyrus G16 Reaching its 95°C ceiling during benchmarking, which it usually hits fairly quickly. Even the bar above the keyboard, which often hits 115 degrees Fahrenheit, tops out at a comparatively balmy 90 degrees under full load.
Unfortunately, I couldn't achieve statistically significant frame rate improvements in games or synthetic tests on the ROG Zephyrus G16, even after taking advantage of thermal headroom to overclock the CPU and GPU.
This is the biggest problem with the Razer laptop cooling pad. It certainly pushes air around, but only for people with a HyperBoost-compatible Razer Blade 16-A. Very Smaller segments of the overall gaming population will see a difference in performance, and even then, only in CPU-limited games.
Of course, it's possible that HyperBoost will make more of a difference in other Razer laptops, like The slimmer Blade 16 that Razer announced at CES On the same day it released HyperBoost. The new Blade is as thick as the ROG Zephyrus G16, which uses strict power and temperature limits to keep heat under control in its thin chassis. Maybe the new Blade 16 will manage heat just as well as the 2024 model, but perhaps the timing isn't entirely coincidental.
Finally, as Reddit user That said, Razer's $150 cooling pad has a lot in common with a similar cooling stand llano Or iets: All require external power, use an adjustable-speed 140mm fan, have RGB and a USB hub, and are sealed to the laptop with memory foam, but the Llano and IETS coolers cost closer to $100. Is. Many of them also have adjustable tilt levels, which the Razer cooling pads lack. We haven't tested them, but unless you have a compatible Razer Blade or In fact Want the RGB lights on your laptop cooling pad to sync with Chroma, something more basic will do the trick for $50 less.
Photography by Jonathan Hilberg The verge.