Tuesday, September 12th 2017
Microsoft Acknowledges Gaming Performance Issues Under Win 10 Creators Update
Microsoft made considerable noise on their vaulted Game Mode, a Windows feature which made its appearance in their latest Creators Update version of Windows 10. Game Mode was one of the foremost features in the latest Windows update, which was supposed to deliver improved performance in gaming or other full-screen 3D applications, by enabling more of the available CPU and GPU resources to be tapped into by specific applications. Specific CPU (through winding down of non-crucial processes) and GPU (through prioritization of game-related graphics memory allocation) improvements were baked into this latest version; supposedly, only performance improvements should result from this effort on Microsoft's part.
However, things are not as rosy as they should be, and users soon started reporting performance issues with stuttering and lower than expected frame-rates under the latest version of Windows - which didn't occur prior to the Creators Update. Microsoft has been mum on the issue; until now. The company has now officially acknowledged that there are indeed situations where gamers could experience frame-rate and stuttering issues, and has even issued a fix for one such situation with the latest, fast-ring build 16273 and above versions of Windows. However, this has fixed only one of multiple origin points for the reported issues.
Some users are reporting that disabling the Xbox Game DVR feature eliminates the issues, but this isn't working for every user that remains affected. Likely, the issue lies with Microsoft's Game Mode interface and Xbox interface additions to Windows 10 with the Creators Update. It's somewhat of a paradox: at the same time that Microsoft introduces specific CPU and GPU workload optimizations for full-screen applications, they introduce an additional interface layer on top of your 3D application, enabling additional Xbox-based functionality (such as the aforementioned DVR capability). Likely, that's the culprit of the whole performance issues; it remains to be seen whether all sources of the performance issues will be fixed through windows updates, or if users will have to wait until the Fall Creators Update for a fully resolved scenario.
Sources:
MS PowerUser, Windows Feedback Hub, via Neowin
Some users are reporting that disabling the Xbox Game DVR feature eliminates the issues, but this isn't working for every user that remains affected. Likely, the issue lies with Microsoft's Game Mode interface and Xbox interface additions to Windows 10 with the Creators Update. It's somewhat of a paradox: at the same time that Microsoft introduces specific CPU and GPU workload optimizations for full-screen applications, they introduce an additional interface layer on top of your 3D application, enabling additional Xbox-based functionality (such as the aforementioned DVR capability). Likely, that's the culprit of the whole performance issues; it remains to be seen whether all sources of the performance issues will be fixed through windows updates, or if users will have to wait until the Fall Creators Update for a fully resolved scenario.
31 Comments on Microsoft Acknowledges Gaming Performance Issues Under Win 10 Creators Update
I use a 7600K, All you have to do is find the update that microsoft uses to peg you, and erase it.
And... People, please stop blocking updates. WannaCry was supposed to be a good teacher...
Hell, I've grown fond of the Movies app anyways..in addition to some other things. Built a small library on it at this point.....they got me in their grips. :p
* USB3 ports do not work during installation = USB3 drivers must be integrated into install media or you must use a DVD writer and a PS/2 keyboard. Installing win7 on another system and then moving the drive also works but is more messy.
* Integrated graphics does not work on Kaby Lake = You must use a dedicated graphics card.
* Windows refuses to install updates = You need to patch wuaueng.dll file. Updates are still being made. MS has just blocked them.
So a bit of tinkering to integrate USB3 drivers, install a cheap dedicated graphics card and tinker a bit with the DLL file and you have fully functional system. Nothing extremely complex. There's even an update that can be integrated and 3rd party drivers to install to NVME SSD directly.
The only things you really lose compared to Win10 are DX12 and some Win10 specific GUI updates to Task Manager, Windows Explorer etc.
Saw absolutely no performance gain or saw a slight decrease in performance in certain benchmarks. Futuremark's Fire Strike is notorious for running about 3% to 5% worse with Game Mode turned on. And so is their [Futuremark] Time Spy (which is somewhat expected considering it is a DirectX 12-based benchmark). Most games at lower resolutions will not see a difference; however, at the 4 to 5 million pixel resolution, you'll see an ever so slight decline in average fps (and, yeah, I tested this with my UWQHD monitor or UHD monitor set to lower resolutions).
So, yeah, placebo update for me except that I had a good hypothesis that it would amount to nothing and, indeed, my own testing confirmed my hypothesis. I do say "for me" because, well, others will argue to no end that it did do something positive.