PC gamers are the most die-hard of gamers, yet some of them shun Windows 10 for a perceived drop off in performance compared to Windows 7. Now Microsoft is promising to optimize gameplay with a new ‘Game Mode’ in its upcoming Creators Update.
It’s extremely light on details, but a blog post by the Xbox team suggests Game Mode will “optimize your Windows 10 PC for increased performance in gaming….” And that’s about all it says. Still, Windows Insiders will start to see some of the ‘visual elements’ show up on builds this week – which hopefully includes a description, with the feature being fully available in builds “shortly thereafter.”
It’s hard to say exactly how Microsoft will be improving performance – or to what degree – without more concrete details, but there are a few things we can surmise.
I, for one, have always thought Microsoft could make everyone’s lives a bit easier by introducing a mode where it monitors services and apps that are using too many resources, and pauses them temporarily while a game is running.
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In fact, the company already does something similar with its ‘Battery Saver’ mode, which prevents data pulls in the background. It’s also likely the mode could monitor network-hungry apps to reduce latency during online sessions.
(Bonus: the company has also addressed that issue where you icons get thrown to odd places after changing your resolution – such as when jumping in an out of a game at non-native resolution – in an Insider build earlier this week.)
On the other hand, it’s not likely the mode will provide much improvement for power users who have already heavily optimized every aspect of their OS; it’s probably to make life easier for the n00bs out there. Still, the company is calling it a “big update.” Here’s to hoping for some real performance gains.
Via Ars Technica
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