Months ago, Microsoft announced that it would include a Game Mode in Windows 10: a mode that would improve the gaming performance by a few percent compared to a normal performance. Eric Walston of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group gave at the Game Developers Conference last week a few more details:
[Game Mode] focus the existing hardware on providing the best possible gaming experience.
On Windows, currently, a videogame works like any other software process within your system. With Game Mode, Windows 10 will be able to channel CPU resources and use them entirely for the game process, and optimize GPU resources, for it will offer the game a “fast track”. A CPU level, Game Mode allocates most of the power of the processor to the videogame: for example, a system can dedicate six to eight cores to the game and the remaining to the other activities in the background. In doing so, it will improve the game performance, and it will also reduce stress on the remaining processes.
At the CPU level, Windows already provides most of the resources to the window/application currently running. During Game Mode, the system offers the most GPU cycles to the game, reducing the time granted to another. While the user can choose whether or not to activate this mode, developers can use an internal policy to check system performance and determine whether it is suitable to suggest the Game Mode by default in their app.