Windows 10 Game Mode appears – what is it?

At the end of last year the new Game Mode was spotted. Now, it appears that Microsoft has started officially testing  this new Windows 10 feature.

It is expected that this feature will allow PCs to act more like consoles when you’re using it to get your game on.

Eagle-eyed users of a Windows 10 beta discovered traces of the new Game Mode last year.

.@h0x0d 14997 has a new dll “gamemode.dll”, so it looks like Game Mode is a thing

— WalkingCat (@h0x0d) 28 December 2016

Although it wasn’t fully working at the time, this was enough to show what Microsoft was planning

Improve PC gaming performance

Now, with the most recent test build of Windows 10 (15007) cropping up, users have spotted the Game Mode in the Xbox app.

MSPoweruser has supplied some screenshots of how you can enable the option.

Please keep in mind though, Microsoft has not yet officially unveiled Game Mode for everyone to test.

Microsoft’s description lists the feature as a mode to let a PC make gaming the “top priority to improve your game’s quality.”

It is still not wholly clear what this mode does, or how it does it though.

I think the most logical assumption is that it will shut things down. In essence, flicking over to this mode will suppress system processes and other apps not required for gaming.

This should free up your CPU, GPU, and RAM to throw everything they have at your gaming experience.

Beam

Microsoft is also testing a game broadcasting feature in the Xbox app, thanks to its acquisition of Beam last year.

While the feature is currently disabled, Windows 10 users will be able to easily stream game play to the Beam service with just the Xbox app. This should be available once the Windows 10 Creators Update is released in April.