Windows 10’s DVR on the Game feature can slow down your gaming performance by recording videos in the background. If you are not interested in registering your game, please disable Game DVR for performance reasons.
This also turns off the “Game Bar”, which usually appears when you start playing a game. It’s only useful if you want to capture screenshots or record gameplay.
What is Game DVR and Game Bar?
The game’s DVR feature in Windows 10 is part of the Xbox app, and it’s modeled on a similar feature on Xbox One. Game DVR can automatically record your PC gameplay videos in the background with “background recording”, saving this video to a file as you choose. If you don’t choose to save, Game DVR will discard the video and continue recording in the background. This allows you to play the game usually and then decide to keep the last five minutes of gameplay to a file when something cool happens.
Unfortunately, Game DVR loses system resources. On slower computers – or if you want the maximum graphics horsepower for your games – it can dramatically slow down your in-game performance and decrease your FPS. If you are not interested in recording your game, you will want to disable this feature.
Game Bar is a graphical interface that allows you to record gameplay, save clips, and capture screenshots with the Game DVR feature. It doesn’t necessarily reduce your system performance, but it might disappoint you.
Even after disabling Game DVR and Game Bar, the standard in-game screen shortcuts and NVIDIA’s game recording feature, formerly known as ShadowPlay, will remain active. Game DVR is just one of the many options for recording gameplay and screen capture.
How to Turn Off Game DVR (and Game Bar)
Unlike most Windows 10 features, which can be configured in the Settings app, the Game DVR and Game Bar parts are buried in the Xbox app.
Launch the Xbox app from your Start menu. You need to sign in with a Microsoft account if you aren’t already signed in.
Once you’re logged into the Xbox app, click the Gear Settings button in the bottom left corner of the app and then click “Game DVR”.
Turn off “ Record game clips and take screenshots using Game DVR ” at the top of the screen. This will turn off background recording, Game Bar, and other Game DVR features.
Game DVR, which includes background recording and Game Bar, will remain disabled unless you return to the Xbox app and turn it on.
