AMD reveals up to 13% Ryzen 9000 boost with new Windows version
Upcoming Windows update will boost the performance of Zen 3, 4, and 5
AMD has released a “Community Update” to address the gaming performance of their newly release Ryzen 9000 series CPUs. Specifically, they are addressing reports that reviewer data did not match the data provided by AMD in their review guides.
Simply put, AMD’s provided data showcased higher performance levels than what reviewers could replicate. Since then, it has been uncovered that a bug in Windows has effectively nerfed the performance of Ryzen CPUs in games and other applications. AMD was not impacted by this bug as their internal tests were conducted in “Admin” mode, something that is now known to be a workaround for this specific Windows bug.
How did Windows nerf Ryzen?
AMD has stated that Microsoft’s Windows bug has prevented modern AMD CPUs from making use of the “branch prediction code optimizations” that are present in modern AMD CPUs. Since AMD’s Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” CPUs feature a wider branch prediction capacity than older Zen CPUs, Zen 5 CPU models are most affected by this bug.
Microsoft and AMD are currently working on a Windows update that will address this bug. AMD has confirmed that this bug impacts the performance of AMD Zen 3, Zen 4, and Zen 5 CPUs. This makes this update good news for all modern AMD CPU users. That said, AMD’s new Zen 5/Ryzen 9000 CPUs will receive the largest performance boost as a result of this bug fix. Below, we can see that up to 13% performance gains are possible in games. Furthermore, productivity apps can also benefit from this change. This can be seen with the 6% boost in Procyon Office scores.
Microsoft’s 24H2 update for Windows 11 will bring this fix for all Ryzen users using the OS. Right now, Ryzen users can benefit from these changes now using the latest Windows insider preview.
(Data from AMD comparing Windows 11 (current version) and Microsoft’s upcoming 24H2 update)
Firmware updates are also in the works
AMD has also confirmed that they are working on “AMD Ryzen firmware updates that will benefit Ryzen 9000 users”. This suggests that further performance gains will be possible through motherboard firmware updates. This is good news for AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series, though it is a shame that these fixes were not in place ahead of launch.
You can join the discussion on AMD’s improvement plans for Ryzen 9000 on the OC3D Forums.
