Which is faster for gaming, Windows 10 or Windows 11? That's a question we've noticed people has kept asking over time, especially in some of our recent CPU-related reviews. And fair enough, Windows 10 is still widely used today, making it as relevant as ever. The last time we looked at Windows 10 performance was three years ago, so yea, it's been a while.
For this update, we'll be looking exclusively at gaming performance. Our test setup for today's test is fairly simple: both operating systems have been freshly installed for each of the four tested hardware configurations. Following the installation, the chipset drivers and display drivers were installed, along with our testing software and, of course, the 13 games that we're benchmarking.
The only modification made to the Windows install is to disable the "core isolation" feature on Windows 11, which enables memory integrity by default. Windows 10, on the other hand, defaults to memory integrity as disabled. The memory integrity security feature can significantly reduce performance in some games, so we wanted to avoid that being a factor in our results.
It's also worth noting that we've also seen comments and claims that rolling back to Windows 10 provides a significant improvement in gaming performance. However, we suspect in many of those examples the difference was simply due to Windows 11 running with memory integrity enabled, as this is the default, while Windows 10 disables this CPU-taxing feature by default.
For those wondering, we did benchmark this on the Core i7-12700K back in late 2021, as at the time we found Intel's Alder Lake CPUs more interesting than AMD's Zen 3 processors.
Also, we don't necessarily recommend you disable Memory Integrity if you're running Windows 11, though we personally do on our gaming systems, but that's a risk we're willing to take. It does use a lot of CPU resources, and given we mostly play competitive shooters, the performance hit can be quite substantial. Anyway, we just wanted to quickly give that disclaimer – this is not a recommendation.
Making this testing a lot easier, we used a pair of TeamGroup's Cardea A440 4TB SSDs, one with a fresh install of Windows 10 and the other with Windows 11, allowing us to seamlessly switch between them to verify settings and results. This was fortunate as more than once we ran into some rather unexpected data, and we'll, of course, take a look at that in a moment.
For both operating systems we downloaded the latest ISO from Microsoft's website, which means Windows 10 2022 Update, Version 22H2, and Windows 11 2023 Update, Version 23H2. So let's get into the data…
Benchmarks
Baldur's Gate 3
Starting with Baldur's Gate 3, we find no performance difference between the two operating systems for either the AMD or Intel CPUs tested. So, there's nothing notable here.
The Last of Us Part 1
The results found when testing with The Last of Us Part 1 are also very close, though Windows 10 was repeatedly a few frames faster in this example. That said, we're talking about a 1-2% difference, so while the older operating system was faster here, the margin is certainly insignificant.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Now, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty cost us a lot of time on this content as we had to re-install and test each operating system two more times to try and work out what's going on here. For some reason, the 7800X3D was substantially faster using Windows 10, boosting the average frame rate by 10%. Oddly though, despite that unexpectedly large increase for the 7800X3D, the 7700X was just 3% faster.
We then moved over to the Intel test system and found a 6% increase for the 14700K when using Windows 10 along with a 7% increase for the 12700K. Of course, we triple-checked quality settings along with the operating system and hardware configuration, but failed to understand why this game is generally showing a fairly large performance increase when run on Windows 10 compared to Windows 11.
Hogwarts Legacy
Other newly released and highly demanding games such as Hogwarts Legacy provided results that are in line with what we've found previously, that is to say, there's no real difference in performance between Windows 10 and 11.
Assetto Corsa Competizione
It's a similar story with ACC, though here the 7700X was consistently 3% faster on Windows 10 while the 7800X3D was 2% faster. These are not exactly large margins, but again the older operating system did consistently provide slightly better results.
Spider-Man Remastered
The Spider-Man Remastered results are very similar to those seen when testing with Hogwarts Legacy and The Last of Us Part 1, so there is no real performance difference between the two operating systems.
Homeworld 3
Homeworld 3, on the other hand, did play better using Windows 10, boosting the performance of the 7800X3D by 6% and the 7700X by 4%. We also saw a 3-5% improvement for the Intel CPUs when using Windows 10, so not quite the margins seen when testing with Cyberpunk 2077, but still noteworthy.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Like Cyberpunk, A Plague Tale: Requiem has more unexpected results for us. After multiple clean installs of both operating systems, we were able to confirm these results as accurate, at least for the hardware configurations tested. Again, it was the 7800X3D that benefited the most when using Windows 10, seeing a 10% boost to the average frame rate, though oddly no change to the 1% lows.
The 7700X, on the other hand, only saw a 5% boost, which is still statistically significant. Then for the Intel CPUs, we consistently saw a 3-4% performance improvement when using Windows 10.
Counter-Strike 2
Counter-Strike 2 also played best on Windows 10, though this time the 7800X3D was just 3% faster while the 7700X was 10% faster, a bit of a reversal compared to A Plague Tale: Requiem and Cyberpunk. But the point is Windows 10 was consistently faster than Windows 11 in this title. We found the same thing when testing the Intel processors, where the 14700K was 11% faster and the 12700K was 7% faster when using the older operating system.
Starfield
Starfield provides us with another example where Windows 10 was faster, this time providing the 7800X3D with a 4% boost and the 7700X with a 2% boost. The Intel processors also saw similar gains with a 4% improvement seen when using Windows 10.
Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West saw no difference at all when comparing the two operating systems, so it's interesting how some games show a difference while others see little to nothing.
Hitman 3
Hitman 3 falls under the little to nothing heading with up to a 1.5% difference between the two operating systems, so again nothing notable here.
Watch Dogs: Legion
Finally, we have Watch Dogs: Legion, where we generally saw a few more frames when using Windows 10, but we're only talking about margins of up to 2%, so again not much to see here.
Which Version of Windows Do You Like Better?
So there you have it: Windows 10 vs. Windows 11 gaming performance using Intel's 12th and 14th-gen Core series processors along with AMD's Zen 4 processors. Of the 13 games tested, we were surprised to find 5 displaying a notable performance advantage in favor of Windows 10. This was with VBS, otherwise known as core isolation or memory integrity, disabled for both operating systems.
In the past, we've found both operating systems to deliver similar gaming performance, and if anything, it's generally been Windows 11 that offers the performance advantage.
Granted, it's been years since we last did this testing, and back then, games such as Starfield, Homeworld 3, Counter-Strike 2, and Phantom Liberty were yet to be released. Why these games performed better on Windows 10 in our testing is difficult to say. It's possible a recent Windows 11 update is to blame, or it could even be a display driver issue. Realistically, the list of possible causes is almost endless.
What we can say beyond a shadow of a doubt is, if you don't like Windows 11 and you're still happy gaming on Windows 10, then there's really no need to upgrade, which is probably why most Windows users have yet to do so.
However, if you do upgrade, we've found in past testing that you're generally far better off going with a fresh install rather than upgrading your existing operating system. A fresh Windows installation almost always results in better performance and can help avoid stability issues.
Shopping Shortcuts:
- Windows 11 for $19 at the TechSpot Store
- Windows 10 for $19 at the TechSpot Store
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