Up For Debate - Microsofts Support Of Gaming In Windows 10

Written by Jon Sutton on Sat, Aug 1, 2015 4:00 PM

For all the bravado of Microsoft’s games chatter with Windows 10, how much is it actually doing to encourage gaming within the most profitable sector of its business? Not much as it turns out. When the likes of Phil Spencer big up Windows 10 gaming, it inevitably centres around the ability to stream from an Xbox One to a PC. This is up there with powdered water as one of the most fruitless inventions of all time.

The Xbox One has been out for close to two years. The exclusive games we can generally agree are worth playing, that aren’t on PC, are Forza Horizon 2, Forza Motorsport 5, Sunset Overdrive, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It’s hardly a list to write home about is it? And certainly not a great advertisement for picking up a £300 Xbox One if you already have a gaming PC.

So the only conceivable benefit I can see to this scenario for PC gamers is that they can stream these four games to their PC. But you’d potentially be making a mistake if you splashed out on an Xbox One to accomplish this. Sunset Overdrive and Halo: The Master Chief Collection are almost nailed on to reach PC in due course.

We’ve been thrown a few bones from the Xbone, naturally. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is coming to PC (eventually), while we’ll also be getting cross-platform play for Fable Legends. Microsoft has also laid out its intentions to enable streaming from a PC to an Xbox One. This seems a more plausible option. You can leave your gaming rig in the office and settle down on the couch for some gaming through your Xbox One. Why you would want to leave your sofa to play Sunset Overdrive at a desk is beyond me.

To help make all this possible, we’ve got the Xbox app for Windows 10. Poke around this for a while and you’ll find precious little to do for PC gamers. You can find a freemium version of Solitaire, however, for which you need to pay a monthly subscription to remove ads. Bar a few hastily prepared mobile ports, this is firmly the domain of Xbox One users. You can chat to your Xbox buddies, view your achievements, or check out your library.

For PC gamers, the biggest reason to upgrade to Windows 10 is the DirectX 12 support. This is all well and good, but out of the box there isn’t actually anything that can put it to the test. It could be well into 2016 until we get our hands on DirectX 12-compatible games.

We’d normally give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, but it’s track record in this area speaks volumes. Since the advent of the original Xbox, it’s support for PC gaming has dwindled. Like a broken record we’ve been promised more, and been given less.

Anyway, my opinion is but a drop in the option. We want to know what you think of Microsoft's approach to gaming on PC. Are you pleased with the progress made? Or do you still feel like you're playing second fiddle to the Xbox One?

How pleased are you with Microsoft's PC gaming support?

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21:11 Aug-09-2015

i cant belive that many people are having issues with games my system in win10 is work perfectly not one issue other then having hack my audio putput registry other then that most game work smoothly and window 10 i sweet looking

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05:13 Aug-03-2015

There should have been a "Windows 10 Gaming" like "Windows 10 Home" & "Windows 10 PRO"....

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06:46 Aug-03-2015

No that would confuse the general consumer overall

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17:58 Aug-09-2015

Why?


Which kind of additional features you would want in it?

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04:54 Aug-10-2015

It would be limited like Steam OS and an addition of windows made solely for gaming and noithing else

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09:42 Aug-10-2015

i want it to be optimized for gaming some demands are:....
I would want that no download starts when i m playing games online.
game must get all power of my system not the background app etc...

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22:40 Aug-02-2015

Well Nobody needs all this bugs and issues I will say this to early adopters that's what you get for drawing out your card early there will be a victor at the end the last to laugh

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08:40 Aug-04-2015

most people laughing are the ones one didn't take the "free" lunch
yeah it aint free if it includes a tracking chip(data collection)

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15:40 Aug-02-2015

Is anyone even surprised at this point. There was no doubt this would happen.

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05:08 Aug-03-2015

nope.... not surprised at all

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11:14 Aug-02-2015

I've just downgraded from windows 10 to 7. Games which played fluidly on windows 7 were now lagging and shuttering on windows 10, eventhough I installed the latest windows 10 graphic drivers. Moreover, before upgrading to windows 10, the app said that all my softwares were compatible, but unfortunately, after installing windows 10, many app crashed, even my antivirus was not running due to compability issues !

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11:32 Aug-02-2015

Did you also have problems with resolutions? Nvidia's Win 10 driver is a ****ing joke. In some games it's not possible to play at higher than 720p. Not even DSR works for me.

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15:34 Aug-02-2015

Luckily I did not have any resolution problem, maybe its because I am using an AMD video card/driver. As what I am seeing is that, mostly people with Nvidia cards are getting those resolution problems you've mentioned.
I am not saying that windows 10 is crap, 8 was :P but I prefer for now to stick to windows 7 due to compability issues and performance drops of windows 10. But anyhow, windows 10 is better than 8. (but not 7 :P )

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13:23 Aug-02-2015

same problem , i run AC unity on win 10 , the performance is worse than on win 7 .... gotta go back to win 7 ... few days later , i will come back to 10

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15:39 Aug-02-2015

For example, I am playing Mafia 2 again, as Mafia 3 will be officially annonced on August 5. I am playing it at a resolution of 1920x1080, and all graphic options to highest; on widows 7, it ran smoothly at +60fps. Upon upgrading to windows 10, I was getting fps drops to even 10-15 ! The game didnt run smooth at all...

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05:11 Aug-03-2015

strange.... some people are claiming that they are getting 6-8 more FPS in witchers 3 with win10

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12:25 Aug-03-2015

this new driver was a failure .... that's why i go back to Win 7 Os .... most gaming performance has decreased .....

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21:07 Aug-09-2015

im sorry to all you people but i really do belive you imaging all this your you yourself cause the problem so far all my game work floorlessly on window 10 the only problem id had was with my audio set-up which took only 15mins to fix

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11:03 Aug-02-2015

I'm only seeing negative feedback here, hasn't anyone seen any kind of performance improvement instead, or is it complete crap for now?

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11:32 Aug-02-2015

No it's just crap, sorry.

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11:38 Aug-02-2015

It isn't crap for me i haven't had problems ... my games work just as well or better.. it is just navidia drivers for win 10 are crap

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19:48 Aug-02-2015

Hmm i see, just have to wait some months then

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10:17 Aug-02-2015

Win 10 is a joke. Custom resolution not working and in some games I can't even played in higher than 720p. Yes I have done everything I can like re-install drivers etc. etc.

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10:47 Aug-02-2015

Wait for an update... Since it has been tested by millions during a full year, keep in mind that games developpers have to do their job too, and lot of errors comes from them not working on compatibility updates.

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10:50 Aug-02-2015

But custom resolution doesnt work at all in any games nor in Win, so I doubt it has anything to do with the games themselves. But yeah, I hope Nvidia(or Microsoft whoever is responsible) fix this issue soon... I shouldn't have "upgraded"...

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18:37 Aug-02-2015

Yeah, I can understand that :/ Either nothing works or everything is fine. I was one of the lucky ones I guess. Although, if everything works for some, it should mean that all hope is not lost ;)

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05:58 Aug-02-2015

The one regret I have about switching to PC is leaving behind Halo. That is the series that got me into gaming in the first place.

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05:59 Aug-02-2015

you know what a sacrificed?Uncharted and Gears

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03:54 Aug-02-2015

I had read on GD itself that witcher III would have DX12 support!!!
Has anyone tried it out and if yes what is impact on performance?


PS.I haven't yet downloaded win 10 so cant do it myself

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08:34 Aug-02-2015

I think it doesn't have DX12 support just yet. But devs are going to add it now after the release. But i can't say exactly when.

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03:09 Aug-02-2015

the poll is only one option...
so far the only dx12 vs dx11 is king of wushu which is a cryengine game
and like ACU neither seem to run anywhere near aswell as other games to begin with...
i think in openworld games you will be fine with

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03:12 Aug-02-2015

dx11 but maybe if you have 500000 people in wow or 500000 spawned objects in gta it might help...
as for KOW dx 12 gives 25% more characters and +10% frame rate (still 30 tho) atm but the density looks silly high anyways
as for games i am

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03:15 Aug-02-2015

sure someone is already on making the console exclusive stuff work on pc
AFTERALL some E3 demos in the day did run on pcs
(stupid word limit)

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02:41 Aug-02-2015

my gaming performance in windows 10 has decreased a lot .... why ?

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03:36 Aug-02-2015

I'm not sure but my initial guess would be that you don't have the latest NVidia drivers. My performance hasn't decreased in the slightest.

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04:15 Aug-02-2015

Same here i have seen no performance issues and i am on Windows 10

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19:03 Aug-02-2015

Im using windows 10 10240 with latest nVidia Driver, and i dont have any problem. and I've been using it since build 10074 and even then it was fine expect some minor bugs.

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02:11 Aug-02-2015

hey... my copy of windows 10 is slower to boot than windows 8.1(i dual boot)... any tips to make it faster? plus.. when play dota 2 or any other game actually...it shuts down sometime mid game... with my led indicators on my case still on fans are on...any suggestions???...

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02:16 Aug-02-2015

update the drivers for your gpu and also download more ram

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05:22 Aug-02-2015

yeah... i feel like it has something to do with my GPU... i installed their latest driver....will wait for the new one nad try it. and if the problem still occurs.. i might stick with 8.1 =)

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05:39 Aug-02-2015

Did this guy just tell you to download more ram. LOL
Ram is hardware bro if you can't download it , if you did I suggest you run a virus scan.

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05:55 Aug-02-2015
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07:54 Aug-02-2015

DesktopElitist Go back to Consoles!!!

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07:55 Aug-02-2015

My dota 2 even wont start at all

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07:57 Aug-02-2015

Tecedu I won't go back into that stone age machine

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13:25 Aug-02-2015

Lol I just told that so it would be funny

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06:12 Aug-02-2015

Do you actually think you think you use this for games ,even if it is legit its just cloud enabled ram which is useless for gaming, oh and btw your pc already uses hdd/ssd storage as ram when your normal ram is full anyway everyone's does.

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06:29 Aug-02-2015

Yeah I already meet the minimum requirements but that's another story

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02:19 Aug-02-2015

got the same problem too.. now considering changing hdd to ssd to boost the speed

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02:25 Aug-02-2015

ssds have higher failure rate compared to hdds also to boost you performance try to delete some files

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05:24 Aug-02-2015

i'll try deleting some files plus disable some startup items...

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03:02 Aug-03-2015

try to delete some files? is it going to affect hdd access speed?
i did delete some games in my laptop after installing win 10

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02:30 Aug-02-2015

Mine was slower too but I noticed the upgrade changed back some settings i took off on Windows 8.1 like services from MSconfig take off some services you do not need in start up like google updates and adobe updates. also try to let your boot use more cores or ram during boot by going ms config boot advance boot

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05:26 Aug-02-2015

i'll try snooping around msconfig, and turn off some services as you suggested.... and i haven't actually tried going in advance boot in msconfig.. will try that aswell.

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08:08 Aug-02-2015

Did you made a clean install of your windows after installing windows 10? I have another q. If i upg to windows 10 there'll be windows.old. If i clean install my pc after installing w10 will i be able to see windows.old?

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01:06 Aug-02-2015

mine installed fine but autocad 2014 won't work even autocad 2016 not working :/, and i need it so badly for work

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22:02 Aug-01-2015

a little out of topic but, is anyone having a problem with SCM on win10 (system control manager) with MSI laptops ? it's the program that allows you to eject the drive, dim screen and add a favorite program (P1) on "the touch bar" of the GT series..
had to rollback for the moment because it didn't work anymore =(

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21:33 Aug-01-2015

Gave me 60fps constant on dying light after installing windows 10 but now i cant play nba 2k15 online anymore :(

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19:50 Aug-01-2015

I want this OS to be fixed in a month and a half

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21:15 Aug-01-2015

And here comes the part when I ask: What's wrong with it? just as you expect people to, am i right?

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22:17 Aug-01-2015

People who reserved it can't install W10 with their laptops even some laptops force restore the previous OS

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19:23 Aug-01-2015

Up for debate but only given one option lol

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19:36 Aug-01-2015

Lol it's not at all, abit, quite, very in 1 option xD

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18:27 Aug-01-2015

I'm Not at allA bitQuiteVery pleased with Microsoft's PC gaming support (everybody seems to like this choice for some reason), please share your opinions too!

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18:13 Aug-01-2015

Does my card support DX12? :P

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18:24 Aug-01-2015

Yes, it does.

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04:17 Aug-02-2015

I think most cards that are GTX 600 series up support it so just compare them to AMD versions

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18:03 Aug-01-2015

Does anyone have the same problem as i do?I can't seem to connect to xbox live on any game with xbox app support.Even though the xbox app is open and i'm connected to it, in any game i tried it just won't connect.

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Can They Run... |

| 60FPS, Ultra, 1440p
Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core 3.8GHz GeForce RTX 3090 Zotac Gaming Trinity 24GB 32GB
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
| 30FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 5 2600 GeForce GTX 1660 Gigabyte OC 6GB 16GB
| 60FPS, Low, 1080p
Ryzen 5 5500U 6-Core 2.1GHz GeForce GTX 1650 16GB
| 60FPS, High, 1440p
Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core 3.8GHz Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB 32GB
| 60FPS, Medium, 720p
Core i5-10300H 4-Core 2.50GHz GeForce GTX 1650 8GB
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Core i9-9900K 8-Core 3.6GHz GeForce GTX 1060 Gigabyte Mini ITX OC 6GB 32GB
0% No [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core 3.6GHz Radeon RX 5700 PowerColor Red Dragon 8GB 16GB
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
0% No [1 votes]
| 60FPS, Ultra, 4k
Core i9-9900K 8-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Asus ROG Strix OC 11GB 32GB
| 30FPS, Ultra, 1440p
Ryzen 5 2600X 6-Core 3.6GHz GeForce GTX 1080 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
0% No [1 votes]
| 60FPS, Ultra, 1080p
Ryzen 5 5600X 6-Core 3.7GHz Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB 32GB
| 30FPS, Low, 720p
Core i3-2367M 1.4GHz Intel HD Graphics 3000 Desktop 4GB
| High, 1080p
Ryzen 5 2600 GeForce GTX 1070 Ti MSI Gaming 8GB 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
Core i7-7700K 4-Core 4.2GHz Intel HD Graphics 630 Mobile 24GB
0% No [1 votes]
| 30FPS, Low, 1080p
Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz GeForce GTX 970 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition 16GB
100% Yes [2 votes]