Find the Game Mode and GPU scheduling switches — via Microsoft Learn
Hidden settinglow riskWindows 11
Game Mode (on by default) tells Windows to favour the game you're playing, and Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling lets the graphics card manage its own memory queue. Both are worth trying on and off if a game stutters — results depend on the hardware and driver.
Restart the computer
How to do it
- Game Mode: Settings → Gaming → Game Mode (or run
ms-settings:gaming-gamemode). - GPU scheduling: Settings → System → Display → Graphics → default/advanced graphics settings → Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling. It only appears if your GPU and driver support it, and needs a restart.
- Per-app GPU choice (laptops with two GPUs): on the same Graphics page, pick the app and set GPU preference to High performance.
Game Mode is stored per user asAutoGameModeEnabledunderHKCU\Software\Microsoft\GameBar. If the GPU scheduling toggle is missing, update the graphics driver first.
Sources
- Reference for Windows 11 settings — Gaming — by Microsoft Learn
- Launch Windows Settings — ms-settings URIs — by Microsoft Learn
- Windows 11 stutters under load — GPU scheduling location — by Microsoft Q&A
- Source reviewed
- 2026-11-02
- Link checked
- 2026-11-02
- Tested hands-on
- Not by Oddbyte.Me
Oddbyte.Me hasn't tried this on every Windows build, so keep the undo handy.