Microsoft: Windows 10 Game Mode is All About Performance

Microsoft: Windows 10 Game Mode is All About Performance

There’s been a lot of speculation about a coming Windows 10 feature called Game Mode. Not surprisingly, it’s not that complicated.

“Our goal is to make Windows 10 the best Windows ever for gaming,” Microsoft’s Mike Ybarra writes in a new post to the Xbox Wire blog. “With the Creators Update, we’re introducing a new feature called Game Mode. Windows Insiders will start seeing some of the visual elements for Game Mode this week, with the feature being fully operational in builds shortly thereafter.”

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So. What is Game Mode, exactly? Well, it’s exactly what you think it is.

“Our vision is for Game Mode to optimize your Windows 10 PC for increased performance in gaming,” Ybarra writes.

And that’s it. That is literally the only concrete sentence in that post about Game Mode. Sorry.

“We’re looking forward to Insiders getting their hands on this new feature for further testing, and we’ll have much more to share on what it is and how it works soon, so stayed tuned,” he adds.

Sigh. Shortest. Blog. Post. Ever.

 

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Conversation 22 comments

  • 217

    13 January, 2017 - 3:19 pm

    <p>Wouldn’t it be great if there were built-in performance profiles for Windows 10? Like Gaming, Development, Media Creation, etc. Not only make it performance based but also on context and content. A writing profile loads your writing apps, contacts, etc. And a work vs personal profile. Load up my work profile, loads up my work apps, etc.</p>

    • 5234

      13 January, 2017 - 4:07 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#36271">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/dcdevito">dcdevito</a><a href="#36271">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>You mean like an embedded mode?</p>

  • 2706

    13 January, 2017 - 3:22 pm

    <p>I would think it turns off certain services, makes sure your video drivers are the latest, etc. Shit most gamers do anyway.&nbsp;</p>

  • 127

    Premium Member
    13 January, 2017 - 3:59 pm

    <p>Could make life easier for gamers, not having to delve into the nitty-gritty&nbsp;to optimize the OS. So good addition IMHO</p>

  • 5530

    13 January, 2017 - 4:11 pm

    <p>Careful Paul, the shorter their blog post, the shorter your post is too :)</p>

  • 5234

    13 January, 2017 - 4:27 pm

    <p>The biggest hurdle facing gaming PC’s is striking the right balance between power management and performance settings.</p>
    <p>You can turn on all kinds of options for things like Active State Power Management (ASPM) for different busses, including PCIe, drive controllers, and even drives themselves. &nbsp;But you have to wonder if all games report back to the system correctly that they want to have higher levels of performance to disable component low-power states to eliminate wake-up transition times, or to enable a CPU or GPU to run at the highest possible level.</p>
    <p>And that’s not even taking into account automatic (boosted) performance modes for increased clock speeds, or manual overclocking.</p>
    <p>I don’t typically overclock machines that I build (I sell and service systems for a living), but I will include higher-end options like unlocked CPU’s with liquid cooling, and use motherboards that include overclocking options, like on the Asus ROG boards with AI Suite software. &nbsp;If a user wants to overclock the machine, I leave that to them with the knowledge that if they damage something due to overclocking, it voids the warranty. &nbsp;I usually enable most power management options except EU/EC-certified "deep sleep" which turns off Wake-on-LAN on most boards. &nbsp;At least then, Windows on the "Balanced" power management setting is a pretty good compromise. &nbsp;If the user really wants maximum performance, setting power management to "High Performance" will disable ASPM settings on MOST (but not all) motherboards where it was previously enabled in the UEFI. &nbsp;This gives you the flexibility of adjusting performance/power settings on the fly with a single click, that isn’t overclocking anything.</p>
    <p>Windows 10 does this well already, so I dunno how Game Mode improves this much.</p>

  • 5530

    13 January, 2017 - 4:38 pm

    <p>MSPowerUser has more on this, including screenshots and their tip-off that the settings will be in both the Xbox app and Settings app. <a href="https://mspoweruser.com/windows-10s-game-mode-shows-latest-insider-preview-release/">https://mspoweruser.com/windows-10s-game-mode-shows-latest-insider-preview-release/</a></p&gt;

    • 5553

      13 January, 2017 - 5:32 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#36288">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/FalseAgent">FalseAgent</a><a href="#36288">:</a>Good catch.</em></blockquote>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>

    • 5496

      16 January, 2017 - 2:22 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#36288">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/FalseAgent">FalseAgent</a><a href="#36288">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Guess some people are just getting lazy to find out what it means.</p>

  • 5394

    13 January, 2017 - 4:48 pm

    <p>How is this a real problem? My PC seldom ever uses all its resources yet it still crashes, freezes, and locks up when the CPU is showing usage as low as 1% via task manager. Windows&nbsp;is&nbsp;defective for almost forever.</p>
    <p>I’m not a developer, but Windows should tell itself to don’t wait for&nbsp;a process to complete if it&nbsp;can’t get it quickly. The No Response warning is annoying.</p>

  • 326

    13 January, 2017 - 6:55 pm

    <p>They could’nt prevent the kindle bug because nobody ever plug one on their test machines and they think they will play games on it ???</p>

  • 5553

    14 January, 2017 - 3:38 am

    <p>WinVidiaTel &nbsp;4 life ?</p>

  • 397

    14 January, 2017 - 5:27 am

    <p>Well…………..Builds 15002 and 15007 have caused a major problem with TrainSim in Steam using full screen mode. &nbsp;Just crashes it. &nbsp;I sometimes think that there are getting to be too many changes too fast in the Creators Update.</p>

  • 442

    14 January, 2017 - 11:24 pm

    <p>Make my SP3 game better?&nbsp; I’m waiting….&nbsp; (I know, keep waiting.)</p>

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