Game Mode in Windows 10 - Biggest Mistery

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forii
Posts: 218
Joined: 29 Jan 2020, 18:23

Game Mode in Windows 10 - Biggest Mistery

Post by forii » 21 Nov 2020, 09:55

Does it actually help?

Some people says it doesnt do anything, some says it fix framerate and 1% low fps.

Do you guys use it or no?

I have RTX 3080 + 8700k

Windows 10/2009 /20H2

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TTT
Posts: 253
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Re: Game Mode in Windows 10 - Biggest Mistery

Post by TTT » 21 Nov 2020, 10:21

Its basically for people who don't know how to optimise their PC.

If some pc 'noob' has loads of stuff open and they suddenly want to play a game and leave everything open, it will just send all assets to the game instead of the other programs that are open, that you should have closed anyway.

Most tests seem to be either no noticable improvement or on a decent rig it actually hinders it, I guess its because it isn't really a performance boosting thing, its just for what I said above.

Originally it even stopped OBS working in the background but they patched that, but you're better off just leaving it off.

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jorimt
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Re: Game Mode in Windows 10 - Biggest Mistery

Post by jorimt » 21 Nov 2020, 11:37

forii wrote:
21 Nov 2020, 09:55
Does it actually help?
If you're not multitasking on your computer while gaming, probably not much from a performance perspective, no, but it does do one thing that might warrant enabling it; it prevents Windows from performing some update downloads/installations and sending notifications when a game is running:
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/gam ... ming-on-pc

I don't know about you, but with it off, I have experienced stutter out of nowhere when gaming only to find when I alt+tab, Windows is installing an update.

For that reason, I personally leave it on.
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drjackmann
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Re: Game Mode in Windows 10 - Biggest Mistery

Post by drjackmann » 21 Nov 2020, 20:29

at this point there really isn't much of a reason to turn it off - it's been stripped down so that all it currently does is stop background apps from running and pauses windows updates / system scans while you have a game open. at the moment I think the bigger mystery is if the new w10 gpu scheduling option is helpful or hurtful.

MT_
Posts: 113
Joined: 17 Jan 2017, 15:39

Re: Game Mode in Windows 10 - Biggest Mistery

Post by MT_ » 21 Nov 2020, 21:20

JohnMSFT on reddit said that since 180x (i think) game mode no longer prioritizes anything and just does regular stuff like block windows updates and other silliness. Also incredibly unclear how game mode applies to certain games. Is it a list? Is it automatically updated through cumulative updates?

One person once 'tested' that it magically shaved off roughly 5~ms but I think this was either in error of margin, or simply running on a stock, unoptimized Windows. I have never seen this behavior in either 170x or 180x branch. You cant 'magically' shave off 5ms somewhere without things already going wrong somewhere down the line.



Either way it doesn't really matter, can't hurt to leave it enabled.
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TTT
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Re: Game Mode in Windows 10 - Biggest Mistery

Post by TTT » 22 Nov 2020, 09:31

Fair one, I'll leave it on and see if I notice any difference.

ffs_
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Joined: 24 Jul 2020, 00:57

Re: Game Mode in Windows 10 - Biggest Mistery

Post by ffs_ » 22 Nov 2020, 09:58

I don't use it. Actually I don't even have this setting since I always remove some useless stuff from ISO before install. I don't have anything in background during playing, and Windows Update is always off.

timecard
Posts: 66
Joined: 25 Jan 2020, 01:10

Re: Game Mode in Windows 10 - Biggest Mistery

Post by timecard » 22 Nov 2020, 22:39

I believe this is the interface for developers to integrate it, if I understood correctly it won't be used unless the game supports it?
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previo ... ode-portal

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