Windows 10 Is Adding a New Mode to Boost PC Game Performance

Hints have surfaced online that Windows 10 may soon introduce a feature that will improve the OS’s performance when playing games. The only hard proof so far has been the discovery of a special dll file called “gamemode” in the latest build of Windows 10 (version 14997), which supposedly would prioritize game performance.

Twitter user WalkingCat was the one who discovered the file and took a closer look at a leaked version of the new build. According to WindowsCentral, the way that the new mode would function is very similar to the way the Xbox One runs a game, and should boost performance by allocating resources specifically for gaming. The specifics are pretty vague, but an algorithm would be used to feed power specifically to the CPU and GPU to handle the strain that games put on computer systems.

“Gamemode” as it’s called, will most likely ship together with the Creators update, which will be available sometime this spring to Windows Insiders, before becoming available for free to all Windows 10 users. Details are still a bit vague on this particular update as well, but it will most likely feature Xbox-style enhanced streaming for Windows 10 as well as improvements to tournament play.

What’s unclear is exactly which games this is compatible with. It is possible that it could be limited only to those downloaded from the Windows Store, or it might be much more far-reaching.