AMD says Microsoft’s next big Windows 11 update will improve Zen 5 CPU performance

AMD says Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 11 version 24H2 update will improve performance for its new Zen 5 CPUs. The Ryzen 9000 series launched earlier this month, and failed to live up to AMD’s performance promises in most reviews. After rumors of a Windows bug, AMD has revealed that AMD-specific branch prediction code will be optimized in Windows 11 version 24H2, which is expected to ship next month.
↫ Tom Warren at The Verge

It’s wild how seemingly small things can have a major impact on the launch of a new processor (or GPU) line these days. The main culprit behind the disappointing benchmarks upon launch of the Ryzen 9000 series turned out to be the 9000’s new branch prediction method, the code for which is not yet available in Windows. However, AMD ran their tests in “Admin mode”, which yielded results as if such code was actually present.

AMD has said the branch prediction code needed to unlock the full potential of Ryzen 9000 chips in Windows and yield benchmark results comparable to AMD’s own internal tests and PR promiseswill be released next month as part of “Windows 11, version 24H2 in preview through the Windows Insider Program (Release Preview Channel – Build 26100) or by downloading the ISO here“. AMD claims this update will benefit users of previous Zen 5 and Zen 3 processors as well, but to a lesser degree.

No word on if this issue affects Linux users in any way.