The AMD Ryzen 9000 series initially showed strong promise in benchmarks, but early reviews were underwhelming. It appears AMD’s testing method may have been flawed, leading to disappointing early performance results.
However, a recent Windows update has addressed this issue and is now available to all Windows 11 users. Previously, these performance enhancements were only accessible through the Windows Insider program, but Microsoft has integrated them into the standard Windows 11 builds.
In an interview with The Full Nerd podcast, AMD revealed that the company was puzzled by the initial lackluster performance reports for the Ryzen 9 9950X and other new CPUs. It was later discovered that AMD had been testing with Super Admin mode enabled, which unlocked additional features like enhanced branch prediction that were not available to regular users.
The good news is that the Windows 11 24H2 preview build enabled these performance improvements without requiring administrator access, and now these enhancements are included in the latest Windows 11 23H2 update. This means that users with Ryzen 9000 processors can now experience the anticipated performance boosts.
To take advantage of these improvements, check for updates in the Windows Update tool and download Build 22621.4112 or 22631.4112. After updating, you can finally test your system’s capabilities with tools like Cinebench and 3DMark.
