Intel APX support arrives in Windows 11 – Ready for Nova Lake
Intel APX extensions arrive in Windows 11 to boost future CPUs
Microsoft’s Windows 11 29695 Insider Build adds support for Advanced Performance Extensions (APX) to boost PC performance on future CPUs. With APX, future CPUs can deliver enhanced PC performance by running tasks more efficiently on new hardware. APX adds additional registers, new instructions, and other capabilities not available on currently available CPUs. As such, APX’s performance-boosting features will be available only on future CPUs.
While AMD and Intel are both working on APX as part of their x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group, Intel is expected to add the feature to its CPUs first. APX support is expected to arrive first on Intel’s next-generation Nova Lake CPUs. For AMD, it is unclear when APX support will arrive, though many believe it will come with Zen 7 CPUs, not Zen 6.
In a presentation earlier this month (via Phoronix), Intel engineers stated that APX delivered significant performance gains in SPEC CPU 2017 workloads. They noted more than 10% fewer loads, more than 20% fewer stores, and more than 10% fewer instructions. In other words, thanks to APX, Intel CPUs can do a lot more work with less CPU time and fewer resources. This should enable significant performance gains in compatible workloads.
(Image from Windows Insider Build 29695 – Via XenoPanther)
With APX support coming to Windows, Intel’s next-generation Nova Lake CPUs should get a performance-boosting feature unavailable on older processors. In time, this feature will come to other CPUs. That said, APX support could give Intel CPUs a big short-term advantage.
APX support will also complement Intel’s AVX10.2 support, which will arrive with Nova Lake next year. Will these instructions give Intel a performance advantage? Or will they go mostly unused? All we know is that Microsoft is ready to support APX with Windows 11, and that’s a good sign.
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