Wednesday, January 25th 2017
Microsoft Confirms Upcoming "Game Mode" on Windows 10 "Creators" Update
In a bid to improve overall gaming experience on their Windows 10 operating system, Microsoft will introduce a new feature on their next big OS update. "Game Mode" is Microsoft's take on a modern, console-like take on the CPU and GPU of any given user system, so long as they are running the as of yet upcoming "Creators" update for Windows 10.
Essentially, "Game Mode" is an optional setting which dedicates more of the available CPU and GPU resources to a given gaming application - whether on Windows' new UWP or the good-old Win32 games (though Microsoft was clear in that they expect the feature to have more of an impact on UWP games simply because "Game Mode" then has more information on the game's requirements and performance profiles). This means that less of your system's resources will be available to and used by background tasks, and should make itself visible not so much on peak frame-rates, but on a arguably more important metric: a more consistent, less "stuttery" frame-rate.
"Game Mode" will automatically set CPU core affinity and thread priority, thus reducing thread and performance contention from otherwise non-essential background apps and processes; on the GPU side, more time slices. "Game Mode" will play along with other technologies, such as NVIDIA's GeForce Experience and, one expects, AMD's ReLive, though the interaction between the upcoming game mode and, for example, AMD's Chill features are still to be completely clarified.
Microsoft has been heavily updating the gaming capabilities of Windows, pushing it closer and closer to the gaming environment on their Xbox One console. Game Mode appears to be another nice addition to Microsoft's gaming approach, though, and it should be available tomorrow in the next Fast Ring build of the Windows Insider Preview.
Essentially, "Game Mode" is an optional setting which dedicates more of the available CPU and GPU resources to a given gaming application - whether on Windows' new UWP or the good-old Win32 games (though Microsoft was clear in that they expect the feature to have more of an impact on UWP games simply because "Game Mode" then has more information on the game's requirements and performance profiles). This means that less of your system's resources will be available to and used by background tasks, and should make itself visible not so much on peak frame-rates, but on a arguably more important metric: a more consistent, less "stuttery" frame-rate.
Microsoft has been heavily updating the gaming capabilities of Windows, pushing it closer and closer to the gaming environment on their Xbox One console. Game Mode appears to be another nice addition to Microsoft's gaming approach, though, and it should be available tomorrow in the next Fast Ring build of the Windows Insider Preview.
77 Comments on Microsoft Confirms Upcoming "Game Mode" on Windows 10 "Creators" Update
I really do not think it should be necessary to take such extreme action, but I have had other problems with updates, too, such as breaking my shared WiFi, breaking automatic hibernation, over-writing a registry entry that I customized to enable caller ID, and a few other things, too.
I also know a co-worker who has, multiple times, spent several days undoing updates. This is not the way for M$ to win business customers especially if an update brings down all the PCs in a company.
If M$' updates become reliable again, I'll turn automatic updates back on.
I also know what it is like to be on an extended service OS as I have one PC still running XP x64 - that computer is fast becoming obsolete to me more so because of hardware, but it still gives me the impression that it runs far faster than any succeeding OS - in part, because it does not have all the cutesy stuff that is useless, IMO.
M$ has really got to do something about the reliability of their updates for 10. It is as bad as it was back in the days of Windows 3.1, and Windows NT when updates could reliably be counted on to make PCs unusable.