We opened an auto-playing YouTube playlist in Edge, started cranking tunes in Spotify, and activated AVG’s antivirus software-a reasonable simulation of what real-world gamers might run while playing-then retested each game with Game Mode both on and off.
If you don’t have any programs running in the background competing for precious CPU threads, Game Mode offers practically no value.Īfter that, it was time to muddy the waters with background processes. Brad Chacos/IDGĪs you can see, Game Mode made almost no difference in the trio of games we tested. But what if you’re not?įirst, each benchmark was run with nothing extra running in the background except Nvidia’s GeForce Experience software. If you’re running a relatively modern gaming rig with a desktop-caliber graphics card, don’t expect much out of Game Mode. Heck, PC Gamer saw a sizable performance decrease in Hitman with Game Mode enabled.
Early Game Mode testing by PC Gamer, PCGamesN, and Laptop Mag on gaming-focused systems saw little to no performance increase. This is a shifting of Windows resources, not a miracle. Microsoft downplayed the feature’s effect on raw frame rates when it revealed how Game Mode works, telling reviewers to expect a 2- to 5-percent performance increase. There’s no need to restart your game for Game Mode to take effect, though you do need to manually enable the feature for each and every game you want to use it with.īut how does it feel? That’s where things get interesting. Once you’ve done so, simply close the dialog box and Game Bar to get going. Check the box next to Use Game Mode for this game near the top. Click the Settings cog on the right side of the bar to bring up a bunch of options. To activate Game Mode, open your game, then press Windows key + G to bring up the Windows 10 Game Bar. (Click on any image in this article to enlarge it.) The option to activate Game Mode is at the top of the Game Bar’s settings. Unfortunately it’s not immediately clear how to enable Game Mode manually, as the new Creators Update feature is hidden in a particularly dark corner of the Game Bar. Microsoft says some whitelisted games will enable Game Mode automatically, but we’ve yet to see that happen, even with Microsoft-published Windows Store games like Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3. (Adios, unexpected antivirus scans!) Game Mode grants games more GPU cycles and a set number of CPU threads, though the exact details vary depending on your system configuration.įortunately, Game Mode can work with all games, not just Windows Store games.
It does so by dedicating a big chunk of your system’s resources to the game you’re playing, which prevents background processes from muscling in and potentially disrupting your experience. Game Mode is designed to improve the performance of your PC games, both raw frame-rate speeds and overall smoothness (which Microsoft calls consistency).
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