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peapickerlast Sunday at 11:14 PM3 repliesview on HN

Yes. On Apple Silicon Macs (w/ macOS Sonoma or later), native fullscreen automatically triggers Game Mode. This feature slashes input lag by prioritizing CPU/GPU resources and doubling the Bluetooth polling rate to 240 Hz for wireless accessories. Gaming works very well in this mode, even with PC titles played thru crossover.

Conversely, using borderless windowed mode instead of native fullscreen on macOS adds rendering latency due to the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) compositor. The latter is 'doing it wrong' and has the lag people don't like.


Replies

mh-yesterday at 2:50 AM

I didn't know that part about the bluetooth polling rate. That's clever.

mort96yesterday at 1:42 PM

Game mode also breaks background audio playback through Bluetooth. And it's hard to turn off with no global setting. I hate it.

LoganDarkyesterday at 10:46 PM

macOS doesn't have Desktop Window Manager, it has WindowServer.