If you are a gamer, the built-in Game Mode feature in Windows 10 can improve the overall game performance by prioritizing the game over other background processes. Depending on your system configuration and the game, it can even improve FPS and reduce stuttering.
In this tutorial, I will show you how to enable or disable Game Mode in Windows 10. Additionally, we’ll also discuss what Game Mode does in the background and what kind of improvement you can expect when Game Mode is enabled. Let’s get started.
How to Enable Game Mode on Windows 10
On Windows 10, Game Mode is enabled by default. However, if you’ve disabled it or want to verify, follow the below steps. It shows the simplest way to turn on Game Mode.
1. Open the Start menu and click the Gear icon to open the Settings window.
2. In the Settings window, click on the Gaming option.
3. Go to the Game Mode tab on the sidebar.
4. Turn on the Game Mode toggle on the right page.
As soon as you do that, the Game Mode feature is turned on in Windows 10.
From this point forward, whenever you launch a game, Windows will automatically detect the game and make the necessary changes to improve the game’s performance.
How to Disable Game Mode in Windows 10
If the Game Mode feature is negatively impacting your gaming sessions, random crashes, for example, then you can disable it. Follow the below steps.
1. Open the Settings window by pressing the Windows key + I shortcut.
2. Go to the Gaming > Game Mode page in the Settings window.
3. Turn off the Game Mode toggle.
As soon as you do that, the Game Mode feature in Windows 10 is completely disabled.
What Does Game Mode Do?
By default, Windows 10 runs in Balanced mode. It tries to balance both performance and power consumption. To do this, Windows might limit certain applications, background processes, and application behaviors. For general usage, the Balanced mode works great.
However, when gaming, you need that extra boost so that your game runs at 100%. That’s where the Game Mode comes into play. When enabled, Game Mode will automatically detect when you launch a game and prioritize it over other processes and applications. It also restricts the number of background processes and activities such as updating, printing, etc.
All this leads to an overall improvement in the game’s performance.
What About the High-Performance Power Plan?
For those of you wondering, Windows already has a high-performance mode that can be enabled in Control Panel or Settings. The high-performance setting removes the power consumption limits. However, it doesn’t optimize the system for gaming. That’s the reason why Microsoft introduced the Game Mode feature.
Benchmarks and Performance Improvements
Game Mode is not a magic pill and don’t expect a dramatic improvement.
That being said, the effectiveness of Game Mode depends entirely on your PC’s hardware and the game. For example, on systems with high-end hardware, the performance improvements are minimal at best. On the other hand, you will see a marked improvement in systems with low-end hardware, especially those without dedicated graphics cards or with entry-level GPUs.
Wrapping Up – Improve Your Game’s Performance with Game Mode
It is that simple to enable or disable the Game Mode feature in Windows 10. Since it’s such a useful feature, having Game Mode enabled and letting it optimize the system for your gaming session is very useful. Additionally, you can also enable Ultimate Performance mode in Windows 10 to squeeze a bit more performance out of your computer hardware.
Using Windows 11? Here are the steps to enable or disable Game Mode in Windows 11.
If you have any questions, comment below and I will answer.
