Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Microsoft is making its Edge browser a little more gamer-friendly today thanks to some Xbox and PC gaming improvements. Alongside a new gaming-focused homepage and casual games integration, Edge is also getting a Clarity Boost to improve Xbox Cloud Gaming streams and an efficiency mode to prevent Edge from taking PC resources when a game is being played.
The new efficiency mode is the most interesting addition for PC gamers. Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 users will be able to benefit from enabling this efficiency mode in Edge, and it will stop the browser from taking resources when a game is opened. “With this feature, you do not need to close the browser to play and reopen it when you are done. As soon as you close the game, Microsoft Edge will exit Efficiency mode and get you right back to where you left off,” explains Liat Ben-Zur, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s consumer services and software products.
Image: Microsoft
Microsoft Edge now has an efficiency mode setting.
Microsoft is also adding a Clarity Boost feature for Xbox Cloud Gaming. It’s a spatial upscaling feature designed to make Xbox streamed games much clearer and sharper. Microsoft has been testing this feature over the past six months, and the improvement is noticeable thanks to a bunch of client-side scaling improvements that will boost the visual quality of Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Microsoft has also created a gaming homepage for Edge, which includes gaming news, livestreams, Xbox content, and quick access to Xbox Cloud Gaming. There’s even a new games menu inside Edge that includes free-to-play casual and arcade games like Microsoft Solitaire.
All of Microsoft’s new gaming features are available today in the latest version of Edge, version 103.