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
