If you’re reading PC tech blogs like Fix My PC Free, then I assume you’re interested in making your computer run faster.
Well, thanks to Windows 10’s new Game Mode, your PC games should run faster and smoother – with minimal hassle on your side.
Microsoft has been teasing Game Mode for months without revealing much information about it. Now, we’re finally getting further details about how the program works and what it will do to your PC games.
Game Mode will be released as part of the upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update, scheduled for release later this spring. However, thanks to a new Developer’s Preview, we know specific details about Game Mode – and as PC gamers, we’re excited.
How Game Mode Will Boost PC Gaming Performance
Game Mode is a mode you can trigger on your PC. Just like you have “Power Saving Mode” and “Performance Mode”, Game Mode will adjust settings on your PC to achieve certain targeted benefits.
After activating Game Mode, your PC will go through the following processes:
- Game Mode forces Windows to devote more of your GPU’s processing cycles to your game, switching them away from background processes that aren’t immediately important
- The exact split will differ between systems, depending on the hardware and software you’re running
- Xbox program manager Kevin Gammill revealed in a series of interviews that Game Mode will “definitely reduce the graphics performance of background operations”, as reported by PCWorld
- Realistically, that means if you’re running a major Adobe Photoshop task in the background while you’re playing Fallout 4 with Game Mode enabled (I’m not sure why you’d do that), then Photoshop’s performance will suffer
- What about people who like to watch Netflix or YouTube while gaming? If your GPU is maxed out, and you have Game Mode enabled, then you might notice the video playback becomes choppier, while your gameplay becomes smoother
- Game Mode is more than just about optimizing GPU cycles. The mode will also optimize how your CPU behaves while gaming. Just like GPU optimization, this CPU optimization devotes a certain number of CPU cycles to the game while letting the rest of your computer’s processes fight over the scraps
- This will have an important benefit on gameplay. Your game will take more CPU cycles than it needs, which means that during particularly intense portions of the game, which demand more CPU cycles, your framerate won’t suffer because the CPU cycles will already be devoted to that game.
- Game Mode will work particularly well with Windows Store games (games designed as universal Windows apps), although it will also work with traditional Win32 games
- Ultimately, Game Mode’s speed boost may not be as dramatic as you think: Microsoft claims that it has led to an approximately 2.5% performance boost in early testing – so it won’t dramatically speed up your PC. Microsoft does plan to tweak and improve Game Mode over time, however, and some games will benefit from it more than others.
Xbox released a video showing how Game Mode will work here:
Stay tuned for Game Mode to appear via a Windows 10 update later this spring.
When Game Mode is released, you’ll be able to activate it or deactivate it at any time simply by pressing Windows Key + G, which opens up the Windows Game Bar, and then going to Settings > Game Mode. However, Microsoft is building a white list of games that will work out of the gate with Game Mode, and Game Mode will be enabled for these games by default.
