AMD’s Ryzen 9000 (Zen 5) processors and some previous Ryzen generations will receive a performance boost in the near future with an update to Windows 11.
An optional patch that Microsoft says AMD will release “soon” will deliver faster frame rates in games (and overall better performance elsewhere) on the Ryzen 9000, 7000 and 5000 processors – but the biggest improvements will come to the new Zen 5 CPUs.
This news was shared via a blog post AMD published about the discrepancies between its internal Ryzen 9000 benchmarking and the results of many gaming benchmark testers – and that is the main reason for implementing this patch.
AMD’s internal testing showed a 9% generational increase for Ryzen 9000 CPUs compared to Ryzen 7000 CPUs when gaming at 1080p resolution, but testers found smaller percentage increases (more like 5% than 10%).
AMD explains the reasons for this in its post, citing differences in PC and Windows configurations and, in particular, the use of a “hidden administrator account” in internal testing, which Team Red has already discussed (at least indirectly).
AMD tells us in the post: “The Zen 5 architecture has greater branch prediction capability than previous Zen generations. Our automated testing methodology was run in ‘admin’ mode, which produced results that reflect branch prediction code optimizations that were not present in the version of Windows that testers used to test the Ryzen 9000 series.”
AMD notes that this “optimized AMD-specific branch prediction code” will be delivered as part of the upcoming Windows 11 24H2 update. However, since Ryzen processor owners will likely be interested in this speed boost, as mentioned at the beginning, AMD is working with Microsoft to release an optional Windows 11 update soon that will include the aforementioned performance improvements.
Analysis: Don’t forget the nature of optional updates
Note that as an optional update, this performance improvement comes with its own risks – these updates to Windows 11 are previews and still being tested, so unexpected side effects may occur.
Whatever the case, all Windows 11 users will get the fully-finished patch to boost Ryzen CPUs in the 24H2 update, which could theoretically arrive as early as September—but probably won’t arrive until later in 2024. (And when you think about it, the fact that an optional patch is being provided here—to tide Ryzen gamers over—strongly suggests that 24H2 is still a while away.)
It’s also important to stress that while Ryzen 9000 processors will get the biggest boost, the update will also improve the performance of Ryzen 7000 and 5000 chips – just not as much. However, Hardware Unboxed’s previous testing suggests that Ryzen 7000 CPUs will get pretty much the same benefit as Ryzen 9000 (based on just entering Administrator mode in Windows 11 right now – something we don’t recommend you do for the security reasons discussed earlier, we should hasten to add).
AMD provides some numbers in the post comparing Windows 11 24H2 (preview) with the current release version 23H2. In fact, there is a considerable difference in the frame rates achieved with a Ryzen 9 9950X in some games – up to 13% in Far Cry 6 and 7% in Cyberpunk 2077. (In the latter case, this was the same percentage increase that Hardware Unboxed found.)
However, some games saw little to no change (3% for Hitman 3 and no difference at all for Watch Dogs: Legion), so this isn’t a silver bullet for noticeably better frame rates overall – but some titles will definitely see an increase and the average gains we’re looking at here are definitely worth it.
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