You know that thing on your anti-virus that you probably forget to enable every time you fire up a game? Well, it looks like Microsoft is bringing something similar to Windows 10.
Late last night user h0x0d spotted something intriguing in a leaked Insider build of Windows 10: a DLL file called “gamemode.dll”.
.@h0x0d looks like Windows will adjust its resource allocation logic (for CPU/Gfx etc.) to prioritize the “Game” when running in “Game Mode”
— WalkingCat (@h0x0d) December 28, 2016
Windows Central has since reported that the feature will be bundled in with the Creators Update, and will function similar to how the Xbox One does when running a game.
Xbox OS, when a game is launched, will allocate resources to make sure the game is running the best it possibly can. Up until now, Windows hasn’t had a built-in option for this that benefits games directly, but with the Creators Update that will be changing.
The real kicker here is whether Game Mode will function with just UWP apps (games running through the Windows 10 Store) or games through other services, like Steam and Origin. My suspicion is that it would probably be a feature rolled into the same framework as the Game DVR recording tool. That’s not perfect, but it is designed to be platform-agnostic. It makes sense that a feature designed to reduce system resources for the benefit of game performance follows suit, but we won’t know for sure until the new year.