For decades, Windows has served as an open and flexible foundation for PC gaming. This ending year marked a notable shift in the Microsoft ecosystem, caused by establishing versatility across portable consoles and Arm-based hardware.
Advertisеment
Portable Windows Gaming
2025 saw the debut of the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, portable consoles developed through a collaboration among Microsoft, ASUS, and AMD. These devices feature the latest AMD Ryzen Z2 processors. There is also the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE), a gamepad-optimized interface designed to address longstanding usability issues on Windows-based handhelds.
FSE transforms the Windows environment into a console-like experience. The system minimizes background processes and defers non-essential tasks automatically, conserving power and maximizing performance. This results in improved frame rate stability and enhanced visual quality. Both are critical attributes for portable gaming where thermal and power constraints are significant.
Advanced Shader Delivery Cuts Load Times Dramatically
Microsoft launched Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD), a technology that ships pre-compiled shaders alongside game installations. This eliminates the performance hitches traditionally associated with on-the-fly shader compilation during a game’s first launch.
Early results demonstrate substantial gains. First-load times in Avowed dropped by over 80%, while Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 saw improvements exceeding 95%. Dozens of titles in the Xbox app for PC already support ASD, and developers can integrate the feature using Microsoft’s Agility SDK tools.
Gaming Devices with ARM Chips
Once considered suitable for gaming, Windows on ARM has undergone significant enhancements. Microsoft upgraded the Prism emulator to support AVX and AVX2 instruction sets, greatly expanding compatibility and performance. These are common requirements in modern games.
Anti-cheat support has also improved. Easy Anti-Cheat now runs natively on Windows on Arm through joint efforts by Epic, Qualcomm, and Microsoft. BattlEye, Denuvo, and XIGNCODE3 already operate on the platform.
DirectX Raytracing 1.2 Delivers Major Performance Gains
Microsoft introduced DirectX Raytracing 1.2 (DXR 1.2), featuring two key innovations: Opacity Micromaps (OMM) and Shader Order Optimization.
OMM improves rendering efficiency for alpha-tested geometry, delivering up to 2.3x performance gains in path-traced games by reducing redundant shader calls. Shader Order Optimization boosts rendering performance by as much as 2x in select scenarios, enhancing GPU utilization and frame rates through smarter shader execution scheduling.
Neural Rendering Enters Preview
Microsoft unveiled a preview of neural rendering capabilities, which embed machine learning models directly into the graphics pipeline. This technology will support functions such as intelligent image upscaling, noise reduction, and material enhancement, aligning Windows with industry trends in AI-accelerated graphics.
Bluetooth LE Audio Enhances Wireless Gaming Experience
The adoption of Bluetooth LE Audio brings high-quality stereo sound to Windows gaming, even during simultaneous voice chat. Compared to the legacy Bluetooth Classic A2DP standard, LE Audio significantly reduces audio latency, which is a crucial improvement for competitive and fast-paced games.
The Remond firm promises to reveal more improvements in the upcoming year 2026, with FSE coming to more devices and form factors, ASD expansion, Auto Super Resolution (Auto SR) preview, and notable performance improvements.
You'll find the official announcement here.
Support us
Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options:
