Microsoft has promised hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling for WDDM 2.7 and has been testing it in preview. For some reason, the option is not enabled on the release of Windows Display Driver Model 2.7 that ships with Windows 10 May 2020 Update. If you’re unfamiliar with the tool, it allows both dedicated and integrated graphics cards (GPUs) to manage video RAM individually. This allows PCs to have better performance including improved framerates, smoother playback, and reduced latency. For some reason Microsoft has not added the new feature to WDDM at launch. It is not available for any GPU type despite both Intel and AMD drivers already supporting WDDM 2.7. Intel has not said when it expects the feature to be available, but Nvidia and AMD has said they expect hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling to arrive soon.
Coming Soon?
Intel’s lack of communication on when it expects support to arrive could be what’s holding up Microsoft. The chip giant is Microsoft’s largest Windows cip parnets. AMD and Nvidia are already prepping their support. However, at the moment even if the feature is built into GPU drivers, it won’t be officially supported. Microsoft has not explained why it has left the tool off WDDM 2.7. The most likely explanation is the company is waiting for all major chipmakers to update drivers with support before launching the ability.
