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Windows 10 Game Mode, what it does, how it works

SOR5

Member
Source: http://m.windowscentral.com/windows-10-game-mode

The goal behind Game Mode is consistency, rather than flat performance boosts (although it will bring some of that too). Game Mode will prevent system tasks from stealing resources from your games, making frame rates and performance generally more consistent. You should see fewer dropped frames as a result of Game Mode, specifically during scenes and situations that are more intensive on your system's hardware. Game Mode will also limit CPU thread contention between your games and existing system processes, helping to speed things up even further. The concepts behind Game Mode are already available on Xbox One, which gives games priority access to system resources.

Enabling Game Mode will be as simple as flipping a switch via the Xbox Game Bar, found on Windows 10 by pressing the Windows key and G. Windows 10 will remember which games have Game Mode enabled until you turn it off.

Microsoft told me that while Win32 PC games (typical of Steam) will see some benefits from Game Mode, it will be UWP games (typical of the Windows 10 Store) that see the biggest improvements. This is because the UWP environment is a little more standardized than Win32, and Microsoft can more easily optimize the feature as a result. Microsoft is working with their hardware partners, including Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA, to make sure Game Mode is as good as it can be, optimizing for the most popular hardware configurations available

More details in the source, looks like a nice feature
 

Theorry

Member
Enabling Game Mode will be as simple as flipping a switch via the Xbox Game Bar, found on Windows 10 by pressing the Windows key and G. Windows 10 will remember which games have Game Mode enabled until you turn it off.

Thats nice.
 
So they are fighting against non existing problem ?

Windows is a generalist OS that some people use for gaming. Providing an optimized Game Mode is a very real and tangible benefit for users of Windows who prefer to use it for gaming as opposed to general multitasking.
 

jmga

Member
Microsoft told me that while Win32 PC games (typical of Steam) will see some benefits from Game Mode, it will be UWP games (typical of the Windows 10 Store) that see the biggest improvements.

So they basically needed this to make UWAs run on par to Win32 apps because of the limitations of UWP.
 

nynt9

Member
They've really embraced PC gaming with their UWP initiative, and now they're extending it by making UWPs better than real PC games. I wonder what they're going to do next?!
 

Durante

Member
I don't believe that the issues this is designed to prevent actually occur on decently configured PCs.

Then again, not every PC has a decent software setup so it might help in those cases.
 

Tecnniqe

Banned
Which says nothing about how it could run being a Win32 app.

giphy.gif


I find this a dumb what if argument.

It works great as it is, say what you want.
Win32 don't magically make games run great.


Regardless of peoples snappy jokes about it, it's a great addition for people. In the end it may improve peoples experience and I'm all for it.
 
Uhm, it's called enhancing an experience.

Windows is a generalist OS that some people use for gaming. Providing an optimized Game Mode is a very real and tangible benefit for users of Windows who prefer to use it for gaming as opposed to general multitasking.

See guys that's where actually being PC gamer helps (I've checked your post history and couldn't find anything about pc that wasn't related to UWP and Microsoft for some weird reason).

I've played on pcs with windows 95, 98SE, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and haven't noticed problems with consistency of performance on any of them.
 
I hope this turns out and works well. I hope as well that there's an allowance for white-listing certain things like OCing programs.
 
I'm going to keep an open mind about things like this. No need to shit on it because it's Microsoft and UWP. I'll give them another year or two of improvements and go from there.
 
See guys that's where actually being PC gamer helps (I've checked your post history and couldn't find anything about pc that wasn't related to UWP and Microsoft for some weird reason).

I've played on pcs with windows 95, 98SE, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and haven't noticed problems with consistency of performance on any of them.

cringe
 

Trup1aya

Member
See guys that's where actually being PC gamer helps (I've checked your post history and couldn't find anything about pc that wasn't related to UWP and Microsoft for some weird reason).

I've played on pcs with windows 95, 98SE, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and haven't noticed problems with consistency of performance on any of them.

I dunno man it seems to me that PC gaming is growing in popularity, and with that growth will inevitably be more and more people who's pc's are not setup ideally.

There's nothing WRONG with trying to provide a better experience to those who could use the assistance. Of all the things to bash about MS' pc attempts, this one is at worst, harmless.
 
So they are fighting against non existing problem ?
It allows you to maximize performance without having to close the games yourself, not to mention stop unwanted notifications from getting into the way of your game.

It's a nice feature to have on a multi tasking os, even if it doesn't set the world on fire.
 

Arulan

Member
game-booster-13.jpg


This continues to sound like another of the dozens of Game Booster gimmicks. Disabling system and background processes is nothing new, and likely only helpful if your PC is misconfigured and bloated with malware and other nonsense.
 

Eridani

Member
I don't believe that the issues this is designed to prevent actually occur on decently configured PCs.

Then again, not every PC has a decent software setup so it might help in those cases.

I've had cases (on my pretty weak laptop) where some processes would occasionally cause stuttering in games. I mean, I can sort of solve it by disabling a whole bunch of services, but some of those services are actually nice to have (like update services, search indexing, services I use for programming like postgresql etc.), so it would be nice if those services turned themselves back on after I'm done gaming, which this sounds like it does.

I doubt it will matter on dedicated gaming PCs though.
 
I'm going to get all the terminology here wrong but bear with me...

Someone a while back said that full screen windowed mode can get more frame pacing issues due to the window compositor... Something like that... Wonder if this addresses that ?
 

Durante

Member
I dunno man it seems to me that PC gaming is growing in popularity, and with that growth will inevitably be more and more people who's pc's are not setup ideally.

There's nothing WRONG with trying to provide a better experience to those who could use the assistance. Of all the things to bash about MS' pc attempts, this one is at worth, harmless.
I actually agree, wow!
As I said above, I very much doubt its efficacy for me and most PC gamers, but it also seems very far from the worst thing MS has done recently.

Of course, this is only true under the tacit assumption that it's not equipped with some UWP-specific hooks that are only UWP-specific in order to push the platform rather than for any real technical reason.

It allows you to maximize performance without having to close the games yourself, not to mention stop unwanted notifications from getting into the way of your game.
Since you brought this up though I can't help but note that Win32 games have access to something called exclusive fullscreen mode which inherently prevents unwanted desktop notifications from bothering you, and the compositor from interfering :p
 

Gren

Member
Even though it may not provide as many gains to Win32 programs, I'll try it since it's free & part of the OS. Might become the first Win 10 feature I actually like.
 

cakely

Member
This seems like a completely usable and reasonable feature, and it's optional. And it works with win32 applications!

No complaints here.
 

SOR5

Member
They've really embraced PC gaming with their UWP initiative, and now they're extending it by making UWPs better than real PC games. I wonder what they're going to do next?!

I seriously think concerns about EEE are baseless at most unless you were the worlds biggest Netscape fan, its become almost a buzzword criticism
 

Arulan

Member
I'm going to get all the terminology here wrong but bear with me...

Someone a while back said that full screen windowed mode can get more frame pacing issues due to the window compositor... Something like that... Wonder if this addresses that ?

No. The Windows' compositor just uses real triple-buffered Vsync, which is sometimes desirable. It would only be better for frame pacing if you're continuously falling below your target refresh rate with wildly fluctuating frame rates. Normally your best and first option should be full screen double-buffed Vsync, assuming you can maintain your target.
 
I don't believe that the issues this is designed to prevent actually occur on decently configured PCs.

Then again, not every PC has a decent software setup so it might help in those cases.

Well that's the point of this, isn't it? To make it easier for the average guy. It's about lowering the barrier of entry.

Not everything MS does is good but I'm on board with this at least conceptually.
 
FYI, you can get all the benefits of Game Mode today, simply by disabling Game DVR and using whatever alternative comes with your graphics card drivers.
 
game-booster-13.jpg


This continues to sound like another of the dozens of Game Booster gimmicks. Disabling system and background processes is nothing new, and likely only helpful if your PC is misconfigured and bloated with malware and other nonsense.

It doesn't seem to target bloatware, but rather stuff you want to run. It sounds more like a convenience to not having to close even the most demanding applications while gaming, and once you are done they are right where you left them.
 
I actually agree, wow!
As I said above, I very much doubt its efficacy for me and most PC gamers, but it also seems very far from the worst thing MS has done recently.

Of course, this is only true under the tacit assumption that it's not equipped with some UWP-specific hooks that are only UWP-specific in order to push the platform rather than for any real technical reason.

Since you brought this up though I can't help but note that Win32 games have access to something called exclusive fullscreen mode which inherently prevents unwanted desktop notifications from bothering you, and the compositor from interfering :p

I also know for a fact that win32 applications can bypass that, sometimes even windows itself. And since exclusive fullscreen applications are not expected to lose focus that can cause all sorts of problems with you accidently hit that notification for example.

But hey, that's easily solvable, you can just stop using the applications that cause these custom popups to show up, or you can use this free feature that's added to the system and might help dealing with the problem.
 

MaxiLive

Member

Hitting the preview build of Windows 10 in the next few days/months by the time it is optimised. Then it will be live with the creator update whenever that hits.


As for the performance gains, if you on a decent gaming rig (high end i5/i7 CPU with a 900 series or above Nvidia GPU and an SSD) I bet there is going to be very minor changes apart from maybe UWP apps might gain like 5% is specifically coded for Win 10 and its features.

For lower end machines you may see a larger increase in performance as it will kill random HDD background tasks and free up some CPU bottleneck.

It's a good option to add but for people with gaming rigs this is by no means going to be a game changer. Overtime it will hopefully get better as more people code applications with it in mind.
 

Nzyme32

Member
Enabling Game Mode will be as simple as flipping a switch via the Xbox Game Bar, found on Windows 10 by pressing the Windows key and G. Windows 10 will remember which games have Game Mode enabled until you turn it off.

So if I'm reading this correctly, you have to have access to the Game Bar to switch it on, but if you have had performance issues due to Game DVR and have disabled it, you won't be able to access this anyway... or does the game bar still work even with that disabled?

FYI, you can get all the benefits of Game Mode today, simply by disabling Game DVR and using whatever alternative comes with your graphics card drivers.

Kind of what I expect, but still curious. Seems silly to lock it to the Game Bar
 

Trup1aya

Member
I actually agree, wow!
As I said above, I very much doubt its efficacy for me and most PC gamers, but it also seems very far from the worst thing MS has done recently.

Of course, this is only true under the tacit assumption that it's not equipped with some UWP-specific hooks that are only UWP-specific in order to push the platform rather than for any real technical reason.

Since you brought this up though I can't help but note that Win32 games have access to something called exclusive fullscreen mode which inherently prevents unwanted desktop notifications from bothering you, and the compositor from interfering :p

Yeah, the extent of this remains to be seen, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that the contained nature of UWP does provide effeciencies when it comes to managing resources.

It would suck to see Win32 games getting a shorter stick for no reason other than to bolster the position of UWP, but I do believe the benefits will be minor enough on average, to not be a big deal either way. As has been mentioned before, there ARE ways to get the same benefits w/o MS.
 
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