News Tested: Default Windows Setting Slows Games Up to 10%, Even on RTX 4090

[Admin]

With Windows 11 (and possibly 10) now enabling VBS by default, we ran some tests to see how much it's impacting performance with the RTX 4090 on a Core i9-13900K. Here are the results of our testing.

Tested: Default Windows Setting Slows Games Up to 10%, Even on RTX 4090 : Read more

 

[Why_Me]

Good read ^^

 

[PlaneInTheSky]

 

[Viking2121]

Yeah, I knew this hurt FPS long time ago, but I forgot all about it when I reinstalled windows, turning it back off lol

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Yeah, I knew this hurt FPS long time ago, but I forgot all about it when I reinstalled windows, turning it back off lol

This was me with the 13900K. New test build, totally forgot about VBS. Which is really why this article exists. I freaked out and thought, "OMG how much performance am I losing because of VBS!?" Thankfully, everything was tested on the 13900K with it enabled, so it's still "fair" in that sense. But I'm left trying to decide if I should retest the various GPUs with VBS disabled, or stick with the Microsoft default of having it on? Decisions, decisions...

 

[flashflood101]

It's incredibly irresponsible to promote disabling important security features.

 

[hotaru.hino]

It's incredibly irresponsible to promote disabling important security features.

Security is all about risk management. We have to know what these features do in detail, how they impact our system usage, and the probability of scenarios in which not having this security feature enabled or available would be a problem. For example, you might say it's incredibly dumb to run Windows XP because of how insecure it is now. Except... just don't plug it into the internet (or a network that has free access to the internet) and nearly all of that risk goes away.

In the case of businesses and whatnot, some may not deploy security patches immediately, or at least not to every system they have. If the security patch creates other issues, that could bring down the entire business, and they would have to roll back the patch anyway.

Otherwise blindly saying every security feature should be used may as well be telling everyone they need to get on Windows 11 right now (and if they don't have supported hardware, they need to buy it) and saying they can stay on 10 is irresponsible.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

I would say that with a 5% average FPS difference at 1920x1080 and 2% difference at 3840x2160, that's a negligible and expected difference between a prepared benchmark machine and typical PC, especially if you look at the actual performance differences and see that the most affected game, MS Flight Sim, goes from 151.9 to 168.8 fps, you're not jumping into any new performance tiers, you're still a solid 144hz.

I think anyone using a system costing the better part of $3000 would be more concerned about getting just 40FPS in Cyberpunk 4K than going from 319FPS to 350FPS in Borderlands at FHD.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

Thanks Jarred, this was a timely headsup! Also I'm glad to see you're diligent about squeezing every bit of performance out of your setup.

 

[PlaneInTheSky]

It's incredibly irresponsible to promote disabling important security features.

I've been reading about what this feature does for the last 30 minutes and I have to agree.

This should not be disabled.

This is the windows hypervisor, it is a critical part of Windows their security system. It abstracts running processes from the core OS and private user data.

Not only does it protect you from viruses, malware, etc, it also protects you from programs that are not viruses, from accessing your files, even in offline mode.

 

[mhmarefat]

It abstracts running processes from the core OS and private user data.

WOW! Windows users can now go to sleep with the ease of mind that their private data is safe at the trustworthy hands of Microsoft. A small performance regression (on a 13900k no less.. not sure how severe the penalty would be on lower end CPUs that normal people use) is the price to pay for guranteed private user data protection (Microsoft's red line).
Nothing to see here.. move along people.

 

[PlaneInTheSky]

WOW! Windows users can now go to sleep with the ease of mind that their private data is safe at the trustworthy hands of Microsoft.

I'll be the first to call out Microsoft their telemetry. But that's a completely different discussion that has nothing to do with protecting yourself from malware and viruses.

 

[bikemanI7]

I've been running Core Integrity and such on my Intel 10700 for a long while on Windows 11 Pro 64bit install, and honestly i don't notice any performance problems in games i play, and normal daily tasks. i didn't feel comfortable when Windows 11 first launched turning it off then, and don't think i'm gonna these days. As everything seems to be working as normal, games seem fast and responsive, and other tasks do fine as well

 

[pf100]

Ever since windows 10 came out I've disabled defender as one of the first things I do after a clean install.

 

[bikemanI7]

I"m Happy using Defender myself, along with my Malwarebytes Premium. Been using since very first release of Windows 10, after being on Avast Free from Windows XP days til 10 Release date. Then Switched to Defender full time

 

[Makaveli]

Ever since windows 10 came out I've disabled defender as one of the first things I do after a clean install.

I keep defender since its fairly light weight and don't require me to install some resource heavy app from a 3rd party.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Not only does it protect you from viruses, malware, etc, it also protects you from programs that are not viruses, from accessing your files, even in offline mode.

I'm looking at the landing page for VBS and it makes no mention of this feature or suggesting it. And even poking around, it doesn't mention anything about preventing programs from accessing your files (which uh, isn't that what the file system permissions are for?)

You're free to point out where this is in Microsoft's documentation.

 

[sfjuocekr]

Oh no, you are leaving all that performance on the table...

You are getting consistent 100+ FPS in every benchmark, what performance are are we talking about then?

The extra wasted energy you needed to flood your visual cortex with details you will never consciously see while pixel-peeping?

 

[PlaneInTheSky]

I'm looking at the landing page for VBS and it makes no mention of this feature or suggesting it. And even poking around, it doesn't mention anything about preventing programs from accessing your files (which uh, isn't that what the file system permissions are for?)

You're free to point out where this is in Microsoft's documentation.

Microsoft VBS entails memory enclaves that block kernel level threats from accessing local data and files when they are loaded into memory. Apple does the same thing with secure enclave.

Turning VBS off is a huge security risk. VBS is a major defense mechanism against the most destructive viruses that gain access to the whole system. VBS blocks these viruses from accessing the OS itself and protects memory and data.

If Microsoft Defender is the front gate protecting your house, VBS is the security guard inside the building . VBS is just as vital as defender to have a secure OS.

 

[postandghost]

If I get a virus, I get a virus. Have never had issues with them even in the days of Windows 98/XP. In the event I get one, I will just do the minor inconvenience of reinstalling windows if I have to (I don't think I have ever really had to do this and I have been pc building since like 2001). At least I will go down doing what I love, which is having my gaming PC perform the absolute best that it can.

 

[FabToGo]

Turning VBS off in BIOS even sped up my boot time about 10 seconds.

 

[Deleted member 1353997]

How about we all return to the days of DOS, where multitasking did not exist and only 1 program could ever run on the CPU at any given point in time? How much performance would we gain then?

You know, there's a point where "moar performance" is not equal to "better".

 

[Bane Silvermoon]

It's also worth noting that when AMD provided the minimum system requirements to early testers and developers to make the dual CCDs function as expected for the 7900x3d and 7950x3d, if using Windows 11 the minimum requirements listed VBS enabled and included instructions on how to turn it on.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-9-7950x3d/images/slide-5.jpg

 

[rluker5]

I just turn off virtualization in the bios.
But I also use defender and Malwarebytes.
Nothing is perfect. AMD still has not fixed SQUIP so their users should turn off SMT for good security.

 

[punkncat]

Keep in mind that if you are truly concerned about gaming/system performance that not only is this mitigation an issue, but you also need to remember Spectre and Meltdown....