Learn about the gaming performance gap between Windows 11 and Windows 10, master 7 ways to optimize Windows 11 gaming performance, as well as another way to ensure a great gaming experience.
"I became interested in Windows 11 after trying my friend's latest computer with Windows 11. My computer is the latest ROG laptop computer that I just purchased last month and it fully meets all the requirements for the Windows 11 upgrade. However, the main use of my laptop computer is to play games and I am not sure if the upgrade will affect the gaming experience. Which one is better for gaming, Windows 11 or Windows 10? I urgently need to know a result, preferably with detailed Windows 11 vs Windows 10 gaming test results."
Windows 11 has convinced a large number of users with its new design language, which even includes many gamers. But more gamers are still waiting and watching, they are not sure whether Windows 11 will bring a better gaming experience, or rather, they want to know which one is better for gaming, Windows 11 or Windows 10? It decides on your computer configuration. If you have similar questions, please continue reading.
Is Windows 11 better than Windows 10 for gaming? Keep in mind that the new Windows 11 brings more performance improvements than Windows 10, including memory management, sleep state recovery, disk footprint, and browser caching. But for gamers, what deserves attention are the 3 new features: Auto HDR, DirectStorage, and Game Pass.
To win over gamers, Microsoft claimed "If you're a gamer, Windows 11 is for you" and set DirectX 12 as a necessary upgrade for Windows 11. However, from the results of Windows 11 vs Windows 10 gaming benchmark tests, Windows 11 is not as suitable for gaming as advertised. The results of the Windows 10 vs Windows 11 gaming performance comparison are as follows.
It is worth mentioning that Windows 11 is not friendly to AMD gamers. Compared to Windows 10, the L3 cache latency of Ryzen CPUs is substantially increased in Windows 11, which may result in a 5%-15% reduction in actual gaming performance. Therefore, if you are using an AMD Ryzen CPU, it is recommended that you don't upgrade to Windows 11 for now.
If you insist on upgrading to Windows 11, to ensure a real-world gaming experience, it is recommended that you optimize Windows 11 for better gaming performance with the 7 options below.
If you are using a laptop computer, enable the "Enhanced pointer precision" feature in Windows 11 to make the trackpad more usable. If you are using a desktop computer, it is recommended that you disable this feature in Windows 11 to ensure a better gaming experience.
Step 1. Use Windows+S to open the search box, type mouse settings, and click the mouse settings option below the best comparison.
Step 2. Find the Related settings section on the right panel, and click Additional mouse options.
Step 3. At the top of the Mouse Properties window, switch to the Pointer Options tab.
Step 4. In the Motion section, uncheck the Enhance pointer precision checkbox.
For a long time, the Windows game mode was a feature that didn't help much and could bring negative effects to your computer such as input delays. However, in the last few months, Microsoft started to pay attention to this feature and made some targeted developments, and it has become better in Windows 11.
Without affecting the gaming performance, it is recommended that you turn on this feature to prevent Windows from automatically popping up any notifications, drivers, and updates to maintain a better gaming experience.
Please note: Normally, game mode is enabled by default, but you may disable this feature due to previous bad performance, so you need to check if this feature is enabled.
Step 1. Use Windows+S to open the search box, type game mode, and click the best comparison.
Step 2. In the game mode setting window, make sure the game mode option in the right panel is turned on.
Nvidia or AMD graphics cards can record the exciting activities happening in the game, so you need to disable similar features built into Windows 11 to prevent conflicts and reduce the game performance loss.
Step 1. Open Windows 11 settings, and click Gaming > Captures.
Step 2. In the Captures window, under the Recording preferences section, find and disable the Record what happened option.
After using your Windows computer for some time, various applications are constantly added to the system and launched secretly at start up, which will deplete your computer's gaming performance and thus affect the actual gaming experience. For this reason, you need to disable unnecessary applications in the boot.
Step 1. Use ESC+Shift+Ctrl to open Task Manager and switch to the Startup tab at the top.
Step 2. Select the applications unnecessary, click the Disable button in the bottom right corner, and restart your computer.
If you are using a laptop computer, be sure to change the power plan, which will effectively improve the gaming performance when it is not connected to a power source.
Step 1. use Windows + S to open the search box, enter the power plan, and click below the settings to select Power Options.
Step 2. Below the Preferred plans, select the power plan you need according to your needs, here we recommend choosing Balanced.
Desktop computers usually have only one graphics card, so adjusting the GPU priority is not very meaningful. However, most laptop computers have two graphics cards (integrated and discrete), and different graphics cards have a significant impact on gaming performance. Therefore, you need to change the GPU priority for specific applications in Windows 11 to ensure a good gaming experience.
Step 1. Open Windows 11 settings and click System > Display > Graphics.
Step 2. In the list of the graphics window, select the application you want to change the GPU options for, and click the Options button.
Step 3. In the Graphics preference window, switch to High performance and click the Save button.
Virtualization-based security (VBS) is a new feature in Windows 10 that enhances system security by virtualizing hardware and software to create an isolated subsystem that can effectively prevent malware from damaging your computer. However, this feature is not friendly to gamers, which will severely impact your gaming performance, reducing the average frame rate of games by up to 28%.
To ensure a good gaming experience, it is recommended that you disable the VBS feature. First, you need to check if VBS is disabled on Windows 11.
Step 1. Use Windows+S to open the search box, type in System Information and tap the System Information option below the best comparison.
Step 2. In the right panel of the System Information window, find Virtualization-based security to check if VBS is disabled.
Step 3. If it shows not enabled, you do not need to disable it; if it shows enabled, please click the following two methods to disable it.
Step 1. Click on Windows 11 Start Menu button and select Settings from the list of apps. Click on Privacy & Security in the left panel.
Step 2. Click the Windows Security option at the top of the right panel, and select Device security in the new window that pops up.
Step 3. In the Device security window, click the Core isolation details button under Core isolation.
Step 4. In the new window that pops up, find the Memory integrity section, you will need to turn this feature off and restart your computer.
Step 1. Use Windows+R to open the Run window, type regedit, and then click the OK button.
Step 2. Navigate to the following path.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard
Step 3. In the right panel, find and double-click EnableVirtualizationBasedSecurity to open it, change the value to 0 in the numeric information section, and click the OK button to restart your computer.
To ensure your gaming experience, it is recommended that you perform a system backup using AOMEI Backupper Standard before upgrading to Windows 11. If you are not satisfied with your Windows 11 gaming experience, you can use your previous system backup image file to restore to Windows 10 and always maintain the best gaming experience.
First, you need to download this freeware to easily backup system on Windows 11/10/8.1/8/8/7/Vista/XP. If you are a server user, please use AOMEI Backupper Server version to quickly backup your system in Windows Server 2003/2008/2011/2012/016/2019 and other Server versions. Then follow the graphic tutorial below.
Step 1. Open AOMEI Backupper Standard, and then click Backup > System Backup.
Step 2. It will select Windows system partition and boot-related partitions automatically. And you just need to select a destination.
Step 3. Click Start Backup to backup Windows 10 before upgrading to Windows 11.
Besides System Backup, AOMEI Backupper has other features that you may be interested in.
Windows 11 vs Windows 10 gaming, which one is better? It decides on your computer configuration. If you insist on upgrading to Windows 11, this article also provides 7 methods to improve your gaming performance. It is recommended that you use AOMEI Backupper Standard to perform a system backup so that if you are not satisfied with Windows 11, you can always restore to Windows 10 to ensure a better gaming experience.
This software supports running scheduled backups to backup your system regularly, the incremental backup method can improve backup efficiency and save disk space. And you can easily backup system (Windows 11/10/8/7, etc) to different destination locations.
Besides System Backup, AOMEI Backupper Standard will also provide you with features such as File Backup, Disk Backup, and Partition Backup, so that the data on your Windows 10 or Windows 11 computer will be protected in all aspects. If you need to restore backup to multiple computers automatically, you can use AOMEI Image Deploy to help you, which is available in tech and techplus versions.