Windows 11 Ultimate Performance Plan: Enable, Verify and Test Real Gaming Gains

There is also an important detail missing from many quick guides: creating a power plan does not activate it. Microsoft documents duplication and activation as separate operations. And on Modern Standby devices, Microsoft allows only Balanced or plans derived from Balanced—a significant boundary for anyone trying this on a Windows 11 laptop.

What Ultimate Performance actually changes​

Power plans are collections of settings, not extra horsepower waiting behind a command prompt. Microsoft describes Balanced as matching performance and power consumption to demand, while High Performance prioritizes performance at the expense of greater energy use. Each plan can contain separate plugged-in and battery settings, and only one plan is active at a time.

Processor behavior is part of that policy. Microsoft’s processor power-management documentation identifies three interacting components:

• A core-parking engine, which determines the appropriate set of compute cores for the workload.
• A performance-state engine, which makes processor performance-scaling decisions.
• Platform-specific controls, which handle state transitions and account for hardware constraints.

That final component matters. The same plan name does not guarantee identical behavior across different processors and PCs. Microsoft explicitly separates hardware-independent policy from platform-specific implementation, and notes that silicon vendors tune processor power-management profiles.

XDA’s Samarveer Singh reports that his system’s Balanced configuration allowed a 0% minimum processor state, while Ultimate Performance used 100%. He also describes different utilization thresholds and more aggressive core availability under performance-oriented plans. Those observations should remain attached to his test system—not promoted into universal Windows 11 defaults.

Nor does a 100% minimum processor-state setting mean 100% CPU utilization. Microsoft documents it as a processor-performance parameter, with behavior dependent on processor support. It is not a command to manufacture work for idle cores.

The takeaway: Ultimate Performance changes power-management policy. Its name alone tells you nothing about the size of a performance gain.

What XDA’s gaming results show—and what they cannot​

Singh compared High Performance against Ultimate Performance, not Balanced against Ultimate Performance. That distinction limits what the results can tell a reader considering a switch from Windows’ everyday configuration.

His reported figures were:

Fortnite was the clear positive result in XDA’s test. Its reported average increased by 7 FPS, while the 1% low increased by 11.1 FPS. Singh found the latter improvement more noticeable during play.

The other results were flat or slightly lower. XDA characterized those differences as falling within measurement error, but its reporting does not establish that statistically: the test description does not provide repeat-run variation, run counts, detailed hardware specifications, or the benchmarking method.

Singh also reports leaving DLSS Frame Generation disabled. That is useful context, but these remain measurements from one system—not a promise that selecting Ultimate Performance will reproduce the Fortnite improvement elsewhere.

There is another reason to resist sweeping conclusions. The article initially describes Cyberpunk 2077 as relatively CPU-bound, then groups it with GPU-bound single-player games. Its evidence does not support using multiplayer versus single-player as a reliable shortcut for predicting power-plan benefits.

The takeaway: these results justify an experiment, not a blanket gaming recommendation.

How to add, activate, and verify the plan​

For a Windows 11 PC that supports the conventional plan, XDA’s procedure starts with Command Prompt run as administrator.

Before changing anything, record the current plan:

powercfg /getactivescheme

Then use the command reported by XDA:

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

Microsoft documents that duplication returns a newly created scheme GUID. Keep that returned identifier; it identifies the copy you created.

Reopen Control Panel > Power Options and select Ultimate Performance if it appears, as described in XDA’s walkthrough. Alternatively, use Microsoft’s activation command, replacing NEW-GUID with the returned identifier:

powercfg /setactive NEW-GUID
powercfg /getactivescheme

The final command should identify the intended active plan. To inspect available schemes or the active scheme’s settings:

powercfg /list
powercfg /query

To undo the experiment, replace ORIGINAL-GUID with the identifier recorded earlier:

powercfg /setactive ORIGINAL-GUID

These verification and rollback commands follow Microsoft’s documented powercfg operations.

If the plan does not appear​

Do not repeatedly run the duplication command hoping it will eventually unlock something. First inspect the available plans and sleep states:

powercfg /list
powercfg /a

Microsoft documents /a as reporting available sleep states. Its power-policy documentation says Modern Standby devices permit only Balanced or Balanced-derived plans. A missing conventional performance plan can therefore reflect a platform restriction, rather than an incorrectly typed command.

For an organization-managed PC, check with IT before attempting further changes. Microsoft notes that access to power settings can be controlled through permissions and Group Policy.

Test the workload, not the label​

A sensible experiment needs an exit strategy and a repeatable workload. Microsoft’s tuning guidance recommends establishing a baseline and evaluating performance alongside energy consumption, rather than assuming a configuration remains optimal for every workload. Although much of that guidance discusses servers, the measurement principle is useful here.

For a desktop gaming or development PC, a practical comparison would be:

1. Record the original active plan and baseline results.
2. Keep application settings, drivers, power source, and background activity consistent.
3. Repeat the same benchmark, scene, compilation, or rendering task several times.
4. Activate Ultimate Performance and repeat the comparison.
5. Return to the original plan and check whether the difference persists.

That is a suggested test procedure, not a claim of independent WindowsForum benchmarking. For gaming, compare the frame-time behavior your benchmark exposes as well as average FPS. For development or creative work, compare completion times and responsiveness in the task you actually perform.

XDA cautions that reduced power saving may mean greater heat, fan activity, and battery consumption. Its test does not quantify any of those costs, so there is no supported temperature increase, battery-runtime penalty, or electricity-cost estimate to attach to the results.

Should you enable Ultimate Performance?​

Not automatically. Balanced is a sensible starting point, particularly where portability and efficiency matter. Microsoft defines it as balancing power and performance according to demand—not as an inherently low-performance configuration.

For a compatible desktop or workstation, Ultimate Performance is worth considering as a reversible, measured experiment. XDA’s Fortnite result suggests that some workloads may respond positively, but its other three tests demonstrate why the outcome cannot be assumed.

The strongest reason to keep the plan is a repeatable improvement in your own work. Without that evidence, “Ultimate” is just an impressive label on a different set of trade-offs.