Lenovo has sponsored this video for me to show you what I think are the
top 3 features that make Windows 11 the best version of Windows ever for gaming.
I’ll be using Lenovo’s Legion 7 which is powered by AMD’s Ryzen 7 processor and
Nvidia RTX graphics to show you these features.
Combined with high GPU power limits, a MUX switch,
and of course all that RGB lighting, this is Lenovo’s best gaming laptop right now!
The first feature I want to cover is Auto HDR,
which has made its way from Xbox over to the PC in Windows 11. Many modern gaming laptops,
such as the Legion 7 I’ve got here, have screens that have HDR support.
HDR means high dynamic range. Put simply,
this means that the screen can get both brighter highlights and darker shadows,
resulting in a nicer looking image with better contrast rather than a washed-out picture.
In order to get the most out of this though,
you need to view HDR supported content. Unfortunately this is still relatively new,
and many games don’t have HDR support built in, especially older titles.
This is where auto HDR steps in to save the day.
Basically, the idea is you just press a button to turn it on and games that don’t have their
own HDR implementation simply look better. Auto HDR takes regular SDR content and makes
images look more detailed, thereby enhancing the gaming experience. Let's have a look!
I’ve got a side-by-side demonstration here running the game Control,
one of my favourites. The game with auto HDR enabled on the left has more contrast as expected
and just looks objectively better. The screen brightness was the same in both tests. We can
adjust the intensity of Auto HDR through the Game Bar, and with it turned all the way down
it looks the same as running with Auto HDR off, so you’re able to customize it how you like.
If I just drag the slider around, you can see how the contrast is being affected in
the background in that bright white space near the tree in the center of the screen.
When I opened my test game for the first time before enabling Auto HDR,
Windows actually gave me this message asking if I wanted to turn it on,
and based on the differences we’ve just seen I’ll definitely be gaming with it enabled.
The fastest way to turn on Auto HDR in Windows 11 is to press the Windows key plus G shortcut to
bring up the Xbox game bar. Go to settings, select gaming features, make sure Use HDR is selected and
then enable Auto HDR. That’s it, just load up your game after turning it on and you’re good to go.
Just before we get to the second feature, Windows 11 also has the Xbox app integrated
and ready to go, so you don’t have to install it yourself like in Windows 10.
This is used to access PC Game Pass, and Lenovo’s Legion 7 comes with three free months,
so you can start gaming with more than 100 titles straight away.
Alright the second feature I want to cover is DirectStorage,
and this is one future games will benefit greatly from.
Basically, the goal of DirectStorage is to significantly improve game load times
and other loading activities. It can be a bit jarring when game
assets suddenly pop into view as they’re loaded from storage.
This is how content gets from your SSD to the GPU
in current games right now without DirectStorage. Files are read into
system memory or RAM and the CPU decompresses them before they end up available to the GPU.
With DirectStorage, the CPU step can be skipped,
freeing it up for other tasks like focusing on running the rest of the game. GPU decompression
is faster than using the CPU, and it’s this new solution for loading content
straight from storage to the GPU that will make gaming a better experience.
Direct Storage requires a high performance NVMe SSD, but thankfully modern gaming
laptops like those from Lenovo’s Legion series have come with these by default for years now.
Now features like DirectStorage will also be available in Windows 10, however Microsoft have
said that the newer Windows 11 has an upgraded storage stack which will unlock the full potential
of DirectStorage, so better performance in future games that support the feature.
The third way Windows 11 will improve gaming is with better CPU scheduling support.
Now although the Legion 7 I’ve got here has AMD’s Ryzen 7 processor,
Lenovo also offers the same laptop with an Intel processor, known as the Legion 7i.
This isn’t my main point, but I just want to stop here for a second and
acknowledge how cool it is that Lenovo offers both Intel and AMD options in their laptops.
I always say that user choice is best and it’s great that we’ve got these options
when picking from either their Legion 5, Legion 5 Pro or Legion 7 gaming laptops.
Alright back to the main point - Intel’s new 12th gen hybrid architecture
introduces the concept of P and E cores to the processor. The P cores, or performance cores,
are basically the traditional CPU cores we’ve always had with hyperthreading,
while E cores, or efficient cores, are designed to run lighter background tasks.
Intel recommends using Windows 11 for the best experience with these new processors,
as they’ve worked closely with Microsoft to tune the operating system for this new architecture.
Basically, for optimal performance with Intel’s latest 12th gen processors,
both in and out of gaming, Windows 11 is absolutely what I would be using.
With all these great features,
Windows powered PCs and laptops are clearly the optimal choice for gamers.
Lenovo and all gaming laptop makers for that matter are shipping their
laptops with Windows 11 this year, so I’ll be using it throughout all of my future content.
You can experience Windows 11 now! As mentioned,
it’s available on all Lenovo Legion devices this year, but if you’ve already got an
existing machine then updating for free through Windows update is a simple process.
Let me know which of these three new features you’re most interested to try out in the comments!
Personally, I think Auto HDR will be most useful for most people,
as it just makes games look better and all you have to do is enable one simple setting,
but I'm really keen to hear what you think!