Many users report problems with Windows 10's Game Mode: PC performance has worsened and some games crash
Few people know about it, but it has existed since 2017: it's the "Game Mode" and it's a feature introduced by Microsoft in Windows 10 starting with the Creator Update to increase the performance of computers during video games, temporarily disabling many background services to focus available resources (RAM, CPU and hard drive) on running the game. But, apparently, in recent times instead of increasing performance this feature decreases it.
Many hardcore gamers, in fact, are complaining about it on Reddit: with Game Mode enabled some very popular games, such as Call of Duty: Warzone and League of Legends not only have a lower framerate but sometimes freeze completely. So much so that most of them have decided to disable Game Mode to get back to being able to play with acceptable performance. Some users initially assumed that the problems were caused by the latest version of the AMD Radeon video card drivers, but then it became apparent that the same problems were occurring with Nvidia cards. Microsoft is currently silent on the matter.
Game Mode: which video cards have problems
The first reports of problems with Windows 10's active Game Mode came from users with AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, RX 570, RX 480 and R9 290 video cards. Then reports also came in from users with Nvidia Geforce GTX 980 and Geforce GTX 1080 Ti cards. The Geforce GTX 1080 Ti, for example, costs more than 400 euros, and this also explains why users are furious.
Game Mode: how to deactivate it
The solution chosen by many gamers, while waiting for Microsoft to pronounce on the slowdown due to its Game Mode, was to disable Game Mode altogether. Also because, to tell the truth, very few have seen better performance with Game Mode On and YouTube is full of videos comparing the performance of video games with this mode on and off. And, in most cases, the performance is identical. To disable Game Mode just go to Settings > Games and click on "Game Mode" in the left column, then disable it in the right screen.