Microsoft’s next big Windows 11 update significantly improves Ryzen gaming performance

AMD promised that Microsoft’s upcoming 24H2 update to Windows 11 would improve performance for its new Ryzen 9000 series CPUs, but it’s also giving a significant boost to some older Ryzen CPUs. Hardware Unboxed has tested the Zen 4-based Ryzen 7 7700X and the new Ryzen 7 9700X (Zen 5) on both Windows 11 version 23H2 and 24H2 and found a significant performance increase thanks to Microsoft’s OS update.

On average, Hardware Unboxed found an improvement of 10 percent across multiple games running at 1080p resolution on the older Ryzen 7700X running Windows 11 version 24H2. On the latest Ryzen 9700X, Windows 11 24H2 provides an 11 percent performance improvement on average in the same game tests. KitGuru has also tested AMD’s best gaming CPU, the 7800X3D, and found similar increases in some games, alongside improvements to the older Ryzen 9 7950X thanks to Windows 11 version 24H2.

The new benchmark results come just weeks after AMD launched its Zen 5 desktop CPUs, which failed to impress during early reviews. Reviewers found that in gaming the previous generation Ryzen 9 7950X looked like better value than AMD’s new flagship Ryzen 9 9950X.

Windows 11 24H2 will certainly improve the performance of these new Zen 5 CPUs, but since it’s also improving older Zen 4 processors, the performance gap still seems to be a little disappointing between the two architectures. Microsoft’s 24H2 update is anything but disappointing for Ryzen owners though, as it literally allows them to download better performance for their CPUs.

We’re expecting Microsoft to release its 24H2 update for Windows 11 in late September, but if you want to grab it early you can opt into the Windows Insider program and enable the Release Preview builds on your PC. If you’d prefer to clean install or perform the upgrade manually, ISO files for 24H2 are available here.