AMD didn’t have an easy ride with its latest Ryzen 9000 desktop CPU launch, marred first by a delay and then mediocre reviews thanks to only small gains over their predecessors. However, AMD Ryzen CPUs just got a massive performance boost courtesy of the most unlikely source – a Microsoft Windows update.
Windows 11 2024 update 24H2 is already available on preview channels and has been tested by YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed. Amazingly they found an average game performance boost of 11% on the Ryzen 7 9700X, giving it a lift in benchmark graphs. However, it’s not just the Ryzen 9000 series that benefits. Older generations of Ryzen CPUs will benefit too such as the Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 5000 series.
For example, the Ryzen 7 7700X saw an average uplift of 10% across a range of games. The benefits come from optimized AMD-specific branch prediction code, which the company outlined in a recent blog post. It went on to say “Zen 5 will see the biggest boost, but this Windows update will improve performance for Zen 4 and Zen 3 as well. We’re collaborating with Microsoft to roll out this optional update to all Windows 11 users soon.”
Will it benefit Intel CPUs too?
This is an AMD-specific optimisation so sadly for Intel users, the new Windows update will not benefit its CPUs in the same way. In fact, Hardware Unboxed carried out the same test on a Core i5-14600K and found no improvement. This means that the gap in performance between AMD and Intel will now lean more in AMD’s favor.
Is Ryzen 9000 better now?
The down side, though, is that Hardware Unboxed’s testing shows that the Ryzen 7 7700X scaled nearly as well as the Ryzen 7 9700X, so while the latter Zen 5-based CPU was 11% faster in games on average, it was still only 1% faster than it’s predecessor – the 7700X.
As a result, while the argument for opting for AMD over Intel just got much stronger, the question on whether to buy a Ryzen 7000 or 9000 CPU hasn’t really changed and is more a financial question as to how much cheaper the Ryzen 7000 model is. In addition, performance for AMD’s 3D V-Cache models such as the Ryzen 7 7800X3D has also increased, with initial reports on Reddit of delighted owners.
What about other software?
It’s not just game performance that’s improved though. Hardware Unboxed didn’t test anything other than games, but AMD claims that in addition to game performance boosts, content creation should benefit too. The UL Benchmark Procyon Office suite, for example, saw a six percent uplift in performance by installing the 24H2 update.
It’s still early days and more benchmarks will likely surface over the next few days, but it seems clear that this is some very good news for AMD Ryzen owners. However, it’s a great shame that this update wasn’t rolled out in time for the Ryzen 9000 launch, which would have given AMD more of an advantage compared to Intel CPUs and that reviewers were not made aware of it either. I for one would have been happy to test with the new update seeing as it would be made widely available after the launch anyway.
When can I get Windows 11 Update 24H2?
As for public availability, Windows Central claims a September or October release for Windows 11 24H2, but you can sign up to the Windows 11 Insider Program and access it now by heading here.
