Thursday, December 29th 2016
Upcoming Windows 10 Build to Feature a "Game Mode"
An upcoming build of Windows 10 operating system, build 14997, reportedly features a component ominously named "gamemode.dll." This sparked off speculation of the operating system featuring a special runlevel that's optimized for PC gaming. It's likely that in game mode, the operating system prioritizes CPU, memory, and GPU allocation to games being run, and sheds unwanted processes to free up memory.
Sources tell "Windows Central" that the game mode could allocate hardware resources to a game with the efficiency of an Xbox One console, which means only the bare minimum services needed to correctly play the game will be enabled. At this point it's unclear if the Game Mode will benefit only games built on the UWP, or even the vast Win32 ecosystem of games distributed by Steam, Origin, and UPlay.
Source:
Windows Central
Sources tell "Windows Central" that the game mode could allocate hardware resources to a game with the efficiency of an Xbox One console, which means only the bare minimum services needed to correctly play the game will be enabled. At this point it's unclear if the Game Mode will benefit only games built on the UWP, or even the vast Win32 ecosystem of games distributed by Steam, Origin, and UPlay.
31 Comments on Upcoming Windows 10 Build to Feature a "Game Mode"
Regardless, target UWP exclusively would be pretty dumb at this point. UWP doesn't have traction and probably never will.
Edit: Shortly after posting this, I almost got killed in Rebel Galaxy because while firing Flaks (shift key), the screen started to flicker because Windows decided it was time to ask me whether I want to enable Sticky Keys...
We have such powerful hardware around nowadays and it is really underused. Because we totally need abstraction layers, stopgaps, DRM and all that good ****.
It might have a modicum of sense in the era of single core CPUs but it's long gone.
Even if at least two of the cores of the i5-2400 are OC'ed to 3.9GHz (No BCLK)? That does well up until the point I try a game that doesn't benefit from OC'ing any further. The CPU could get past 4GHz but only on one core would that clock speed stick.
My 4.2 GHz i5 (ivy bridge) never goes above 60-70% load, even with stuff running in the background while playing GTA online, which is rather CPU heavy. running GTA only it hits about 50-55% usage.
BF1 is no challenge.
Deux Ex is no challenge
and so on.
Also, nehalem can still run modern games. I've seen them driving 1080 SLI setups, and chugging along quite nicely.
The system did well enough for only 110 euros spent in total for MB and CPU, but I'm glad I sold it, if Zen doesn't do anything to impress me, I'll just get a 3570K and call it a day.
I guess the unlocked nature of CPU's really helps their longevity, more than I imagined. I'm never buying a locked CPU for myself again, ever, the mild overclocks only gets them so far. Just shows how Intel aren't even trying with their new generations.
OT: Microsoft will find a way to f*** this up as well, or it will be exclusive to Windows store apps, just to try convince Steam users to switch, which just simply won't happen with the state of things surrounding UWP and Windows Store. Microsoft never tells anyone what they remove (anyone remember DX9 4GB VRAM limit they put on Win 10? I 'member), all I see is more PR from them than anything that's actually good for the average gamer.
Makes me wish I was a programmer so I could go help Linux with their DirectX wrappers, just to pi** off MS. Well we have Vulkan, but only a single digit amount of games support that. So...
Not saying that this mode wouldn't be pointless though...
The i5-2400 barely reaches 70% usage on Fallout 4 and the R9 380 4GB (DX11 titles isn't AMD's strong point, well until now) is always maxed out. Same with Skyrim (non-special edition) 65% CPU usage and GPU is always maxed. And those results are from 900p, oh and stutters all around in cities dipping to 30fps which is just horrible and unplayable on Ultra minus the Nvidia Gameworks stuff enabled.