Further details about Windows 10 Game Mode emerge

[HEXUS]

Its more than just prioritisation, processor cores will be directly allocated to gaming.

Read more.

[Corky34]

From the Ars Technica article...

Overall, though, Walston said that the long-term goals continues to be bringing Windows and Xbox together as a single platform. "When we add new features to Windows, they transfer to Xbox," he said. "[In 2017], the line between console and PC is continuing to blur... The line dividing Windows and Xbox continues to become more of a gradient of features and functionality."

I don't particularly like the idea of blurring the line between console and PC, people don't spend hundreds of pounds on a gaming PC just to have Microsoft gimp it so games can run on their £250 console, then again maybe blurring the lines will cut down on the amount of shoddy PC/console ports and they won't reduce things to the lowest common denominator.

[Pleiades]

From the Ars Technica article...

I don't particularly like the idea of blurring the line between console and PC, people don't spend hundreds of pounds on a gaming PC just to have Microsoft gimp it so games can run on their £250 console, then again maybe blurring the lines will cut down on the amount of shoddy PC/console ports and they won't reduce things to the lowest common denominator.

Not really a game player anymore and don't own a console but I agree with the sentiment. I'm sure MS will at least give PC users more advanced options. If 'Scorpio' uses Ryzen/Vega (unlikely I know) maybe optimisation for multiple cores/threads & HBC will alleviate that (1st World LOL) anxiety?

[Ozaron]

I don't particularly like the idea of blurring the line between console and PC, people don't spend hundreds of pounds on a gaming PC just to have Microsoft gimp it so games can run on their £250 console, then again maybe blurring the lines will cut down on the amount of shoddy PC/console ports and they won't reduce things to the lowest common denominator.

Excuse me, um, yes, I'd like my lines professionally blurred please. Can I get them just blurry enough for access to all console titles and better porting, but not quite so blurry as to require branded controllers, locked environments and games that are only tech demoes on rails? That's great, thank you.

[Rubarb]

Iv'e lost all faith in the Microsoft team working on windows 10.

You do know game mode will also be dumbed down so it helps people play games on a phone or tablet too right?

[Corky34]

Excuse me, um, yes, I'd like my lines professionally blurred please.

I think a optometrist can help you with that.

[LSG501]

ok... why are games the only thing being focused on with the cpu code.... there's plenty of software out there that would benefit from this 'prioritisation' or automatic allocationof cpu cores too. Some single threaded apps work better if you assign it to a single core which is not the primary core which is being used by windows etc.

It also looks like its been stuck behind the 'xbox' overlay which most people I know have disabled because it impacts performance...

[Macman]

Surely MS will give us a choice if we want to use this feature or not, right?

[kalniel]

Surely MS will give us a choice if we want to use this feature or not, right?

Yes. You enable it on a per game basis if you want it using the win+G control panel.

[Rubarb]

Not sure how many people here are on the windows insider group but check out the feedback hub and it's full of problems with game mode.

[Ozaron]

Not sure how many people here are on the windows insider group but check out the feedback hub and it's full of problems with game mode.

Are any of them about it stopping critical Windows services or turning off something that wasn't designed to be turned off? Because general bugs with a new piece of software neither surprise nor amuse me, but those in particular, definitely would.

[CyberScooby]

A game requires a lot more than just CPU power. Hopefully they have more planned for Game mode, otherwise this is doomed to failure before it even starts.

[kalniel]

A game requires a lot more than just CPU power. Hopefully they have more planned for Game mode, otherwise this is doomed to failure before it even starts.

What else do you suggest they do in Game mode?

[globalwarning]

I'm going to call Hexus out for being slow on the ball for this one... Arstechnica reported on this March 2nd, and it's a more thorough article. This title (Further details about Windows 10 Game Mode emerge) a week later makes me think you had something new. This is a total click bait waste of everyone's time...

[globalwarning]

What else do you suggest they do in Game mode?

I would hope they'd be working with CPU and GPU manufacturers, are well as game makers, to find ways to optimize games.

[CAPTAIN_ALLCAPS]

ok... why are games the only thing being focused on with the cpu code.... there's plenty of software out there that would benefit from this 'prioritisation' or automatic allocationof cpu cores too. Some single threaded apps work better if you assign it to a single core which is not the primary core which is being used by windows etc.

It also looks like its been stuck behind the 'xbox' overlay which most people I know have disabled because it impacts performance...

I often get the impression that task schedulers are too clever for their own good, shuffling tasks hither and thither for a few milliseconds of gain on all tasks from all programs at the cost of the one program that is actually important.

Personally I think that this behaviour they have outlined for game mode should be roughly how high priority threads are executed in general. Additionally (as I have said before) there should be an option along the lines of "disable SMT for this program" since plenty of software is negatively affected by SMT.