Windows 11 24H2 Performance: Real Gains vs Windows 10 at End of Support

Microsoft's approaching end-of-support for Windows 10 has sharpened a question many users have been postponing for years: beyond security and features, does moving to Windows 11 deliver a measurable, real-world performance win — or could the upgrade cost you frames, responsiveness, or workflow throughput? A fresh set of independent benchmarks and ecosystem reports from 2025 makes the answer less blanket and more urgent: in many modern scenarios Windows 11 (particularly 24H2) now takes the lead — but not everywhere, and not for every CPU or game engine. The data shows clear, engine- and workload-dependent swings that should force holdouts to plan upgrades proactively rather than rely on habit or comfort. (support.microsoft.com, neowin.net)

Background / overview​

Microsoft has set the end-of-support date for Windows 10 at October 14, 2025. After that date, Windows 10 will no longer receive feature updates, quality updates, security fixes, or official technical assistance; Microsoft recommends upgrading eligible machines to Windows 11 or enrolling eligible devices in a one-year Extended Security Updates (ESU) program if more time is needed. That hard deadline reframes performance debates into migration planning: if Windows 11 delivers consistent advantages for your primary workloads, delaying upgrades risks both security and compatibility headaches. (microsoft.com, learn.microsoft.com)
At the same time, a wave of 2024–2025 performance testing from reviewers, independent benchmarkers and hardware outlets has shown the landscape is mixed. Some workloads and modern games show meaningful gains on Windows 11 24H2, while certain CPU-heavy tests and titles — especially on specific AMD Zen 5 “X3D” parts — sometimes favor Windows 10 under particular conditions. That variability is why careful analysis of the new data and how it applies to individual hardware configurations matters more than ever. (neowin.net, techradar.com)

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How the new benchmarks were done (methodology matters)​

Short version: methodology shapes outcomes. When reviewers run GPU-bound tests at high resolution and maximum settings, the GPU is the bottleneck — and OS differences usually vanish into measurement noise. To expose CPU-side changes and thread-scheduling differences, modern testers intentionally reduce GPU load (lower resolution and graphics detail) while increasing CPU stress. Synthetic CPU tests such as 3DMark’s Time Spy CPU, Time Spy Extreme and the 3DMark CPU Profile are designed to stress threading and scaling; UL’s Procyon suite tests local LLM inferencing and vision workloads to explore AI performance differences between Windows versions. The recent 2025 comparisons that show larger deltas mostly used this CPU-forward approach for gaming plus industry-standard Procyon and Cinebench workloads for productivity and AI. (support.benchmarks.ul.com, benchmarks.ul.com)
Why this matters in practical terms: if your day is shader-heavy AAA gaming at 4K, OS-level thread scheduling differences rarely matter. If you primarily run esports titles, CPU-bound games at 1080p, or local LLM inference, the OS’s scheduler, virtualization features, and security defaults can materially affect performance. The updated 2025 tests emphasize precisely those CPU- or AI-sensitive scenarios.

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Synthetic benchmarks: what the data shows​

3DMark physics and Time Spy Extreme — meaning and outcomes​

• Time Spy Extreme (TSE) is a DirectX 12-based CPU workload designed to be substantially heavier than the standard Time Spy CPU test; UL describes the TSE CPU test as “three times more demanding than the Time Spy CPU Test.” Because TSE focuses on continuous simulation work and minimizes render interference, it’s particularly revealing when comparing thread-scaling and scheduling behavior between OSes. In recent 2025 runs, Time Spy Extreme exposed some of the largest OS deltas, with Windows 10 sometimes posting markedly higher CPU scores than Windows 11 on certain hardware. (support.benchmarks.ul.com, neowin.net)
• 3DMark CPU Profile shows performance at progressively larger thread counts (1 / 2 / 4 / 8 / 16 / max). Because it pauses between passes, it represents stepwise stress rather than a continuous sustained load. Several reviewers have found the Profile test shows smaller OS differences than TSE — suggesting Windows 11 may throttle more quickly (or schedule differently) under sustained, continuous load compared with intermittent burst-style loads. That difference helps explain why Time Spy Extreme and real-game continuous workloads sometimes penalize Windows 11 more.

Ray-tracing / DX12 Ultimate microtests​

• Tests that measure ray-tracing overhead or ray-construction tasks (DX12 Ultimate workloads) reveal small but sometimes consistent wins for Windows 11 in GPU-limited but ray-heavy scenes — likely due to lower system overhead in certain GPU driver paths and updated DirectX runtime handling. These gains are generally small in absolute FPS but can be meaningful when CPU work is part of the RT pipeline. In tests designed to shift pressure back to the CPU — for example, custom 720p RT builds — Windows 11 often eked out wins in some titles.

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Real-world games: big swings, engine-specific behavior​

The most important headline from the 2025 tests is not “Windows 11 always better” or “Windows 10 superior” — it is that the result is engine-dependent and workload-dependent. Recent comparative runs show three broad patterns:

• Windows 11 advantages in many modern and AI-forward workloads. Several modern games and features that depend on frame generation, DX12 behavior, or CPU/GPU cooperation show measurable gains on Windows 11 builds that include 24H2 optimizations. In other cases (notably when frame-generation technologies or DirectStorage-like stacks are in play), Windows 11 pulls ahead. These wins are most visible in average frame-rate and in AI inference tests that use Windows 11-specific runtime improvements. (neowin.net, benchmarks.ul.com)
• Windows 10 surprises on select titles and CPUs. Tests run on AMD’s 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D (a Zen 5 chip with 3D V-Cache) revealed a surprising trend in early 2025: in a number of CPU-heavy, low-resolution test setups certain games and benchmarks delivered better results on Windows 10 than on Windows 11 — sometimes by a substantial margin. Tech reviewers reproduced examples where Counter-Strike 2 and Fortnite at 1080p/low favored Windows 10, and where enabling Windows 11’s virtualization-based security (VBS) further reduced frame rates. The takeaway: security defaults and scheduler changes in Windows 11 can, in specific scenarios and on some chips, create a nontrivial performance penalty. (techradar.com, thefpsreview.com)
• Huge splits in a few engines, parity in many others. Titles like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Far Cry 6 and Cyberpunk 2077 produced wildly different results depending on test config, CPU, and OS. In some Ubisoft titles the 9950X3D ran far better on Windows 11 (suggesting differences in cross-CCD scheduling), while in other tests Windows 10 led by double-digit percentages. That inconsistency underlines the necessity of interpreting single-test claims with caution. The pattern is: expect variance, not uniform superiority. (neowin.net, thefpsreview.com)

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Productivity and AI workloads — where Windows 11 is frequently ahead​

Beyond gaming, the 2025 rounds of testing show more consistent Windows 11 advantages in areas tied to local AI inference and some productivity tasks:

• UL Procyon and local LLM inference: Procyon’s AI Text Generation benchmark (Phi-3.5-mini, Mistral-7B, Llama-3.1-8B, Llama-2-13B) and Procyon’s Computer Vision stack measure token throughput and inferencing latency. In multiple independent Procyon runs, Windows 11 systems — especially clean installs of 24H2 with updated inference runtimes (DirectML/ONNX improvements) — outpaced Windows 10 by large margins for certain models. The largest deltas were with smaller LLMs like Phi 3.5 and Llama 3.1 where Windows 11 showed 30–45% higher tokens/s in some configurations. That’s a function of modern GPU/driver/runtimes and Windows’ newer AI plumbing; it’s not magic — it’s runtime optimization and driver maturity. (benchmarks.ul.com, support.benchmarks.ul.com)
• Rendering and content creation: Cinebench 2024 (the newer RedShift-based release) and multithread rendering tasks sometimes favored Windows 10 in older tests, but many modern video/transcoding and AI-accelerated workflows favor Windows 11 when drivers and toolchains are built against the new runtime APIs. For creators relying on GPU-accelerated AI workflows (local LLM assistants, image generation, or GPU transcoding), Windows 11’s momentum in runtime and API support is already beneficial. (neowin.net, support.benchmarks.ul.com)

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Deep dive: why some AMD X3D CPUs ran better on Windows 10​

The most eye-catching anomalies from 2025 testing involve Zen 5 X3D processors like the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. These chips bring large 3D V-Cache heaps and multi-CCD layouts that change how latency, cache locality and scheduling interact.

• Cross-CCD latency and scheduler behavior: Early Zen 5 launches exposed higher cross-CCD latencies that were later targeted with firmware and microcode updates. Scheduling that places threads and game workloads across CCD boundaries can introduce penalties when the OS scheduler or driver stack doesn’t prioritize locality to the same CCD (the one with V-Cache). Several independent investigations and microcode updates addressed cross-CCD latency, but the interaction between Windows’ scheduler, virtualization settings and OEM defaults created situations where Windows 10 — or a Windows 11 install with VBS off — routed work in ways that accidentally yielded better gaming throughput in specific titles. In short: architecture + scheduling + security defaults = variable outcomes. (tomshardware.com, amd.com)
• Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) and Memory Integrity: Windows 11 enables more virtualization-derived protections by default on many OEM systems. Microsoft documents that enabling Memory Integrity (HVCI) and VMP can reduce performance in some gaming configurations; independent tests show typical average FPS impacts in the 4–10% range, and in extreme CPU-bound titles higher losses in 1% lows. For X3D chips that are extremely sensitive to thread placement and cache locality, the overhead of hypervisor-based protections or the changed visibility of CPU topology can magnify performance variance. The practical, user-facing result was that turning off VBS/Memory Integrity often closed much of the gap — but at the cost of reduced security. (support.microsoft.com, tomshardware.com)
• Driver, BIOS and clean install effects: Multiple testers and community reports found that BIOS updates, chipset microcode, and a clean OS install (versus an in-place upgrade) frequently alter the observed behavior. Reinstalling Windows and ensuring the latest AGESA/BIOS and chipset drivers can restore expected performance on many systems, which is why reviewers recommend a full clean install for problem diagnosis before blaming the OS. That caveat applies equally to Windows 10 and 11 testbeds. (shop-us-en.amd.com, neowin.net)

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Practical implications for holdouts and upgrade planning​

The data produces a pragmatic set of conclusions for Windows 10 holdouts weighing whether to upgrade before October 14, 2025:

• Security-first: Windows 10’s EOL means security risk increases over time. Even if a specific workload runs marginally better on Windows 10 today, the lack of security updates and eventual application and driver staleness argue strongly for eventual migration. Microsoft’s ESU option buys only a year of patching for most consumers. Plan to move.
• Test for your workload, don’t guess: If you run one critical title or pipeline, reproduce the 2025 tests on your machine: try a clean Windows 11 install (24H2), update BIOS and drivers, and run the CPU-forward variant of your tests. If Windows 11 shows worse performance, try toggling VBS/Memory Integrity and confirm effect sizes. Many gaps can be closed with driver/firmware updates or configuration changes.
• Pro-active driver and firmware updates matter: For AMD X3D owners, ensure motherboard BIOS includes the latest AGESA fixes; for everyone, install the latest chipset and GPU drivers before benchmarking. These non-OS layers often explain the gap more than Windows internals alone. (tomshardware.com, shop-us-en.amd.com)
• Don’t assume parity; be prepared: Competitively focused gamers who run CPU-bound titles at low resolution should test and be prepared to temporarily disable Memory Integrity during sessions if the measured penalty is large — recognizing the security trade-off and re-enabling protection afterward. For production pipelines, test the exact inference model or render workloads you run; Windows 11’s gains for AI are real and may be the deciding factor for creators leveraging local LLMs. (benchmarks.ul.com, support.microsoft.com)

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An actionable upgrade checklist (numbered)​

• Back up everything: use Windows Backup or a third-party imaging tool to create a full image and a file-level backup.
• Check compatibility: run Microsoft’s PC Health Check to confirm Windows 11 eligibility (TPM, Secure Boot, CPU support).
• Update BIOS/firmware: download the latest motherboard BIOS and AGESA microcode (critical for Zen 5/X3D chips).
• Install the latest chipset drivers for your platform before benchmarking.
• Perform a clean install of Windows 11 24H2 on a test partition or spare drive if possible; configure settings and run your CPU- and AI-focused benchmarks.
• If you see performance regressions, test toggling Memory Integrity / VBS and measure the effect; document the security trade-offs and decide whether a per-session toggle is acceptable. (support.microsoft.com, tomshardware.com)
• If you must postpone migration, enroll eligible devices in ESU for one year while planning hardware or configuration changes — but consider ESU temporary insurance, not a long-term strategy.

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Risks, caveats and unverifiable claims​

• Benchmarks vary by rig, driver, BIOS, and environment. Single-site or single-video claims about “X% faster” should be considered evidence but not incontrovertible proof for all users. Independently reproducing results on your hardware is the only way to know what matters for your system. This is a cautionary principle, not an excuse for inaction.
• Some third-party reporting and marketing comparisons (including Microsoft’s own promotional material in 2024–2025) have been criticized for conflating hardware improvements with OS-level improvements. When manufacturers or vendors highlight a 2x or 3x uplift, read the test matrix carefully: Are the machines the same aside from OS? If not, hardware differences likely explain most gains. Several outlets flagged that error in Microsoft’s messaging. Treat grand claims skeptically until validated by independent side-by-side tests.
• A subset of the community reports (forums, Reddit threads) reflect individual fixes (reinstall Windows, toggle BIOS options) that fixed observed slowdowns; these are useful troubleshooting leads but are not universal solutions. Any reported “fix” that lacks corroboration by multiple reviewers should be treated as provisional. Flagging such claims as unverified keeps expectations realistic.

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Final analysis — who should upgrade, when, and how​

• Regular consumers and enterprise users: With Windows 10 going end-of-support on October 14, 2025, the default recommendation is to plan and execute upgrades to Windows 11 for security, compatibility and long-term support reasons. For enterprises, channel and resellers should map application compatibility and consider ESU only as a bridge while migrations are scheduled. (microsoft.com, learn.microsoft.com)
• Gamers with competitive priorities or niche CPUs: If you run CPU-bound esports titles and own a high-end X3D chip, test. Some early 2025 benchmarks show Windows 10 advantages in select scenarios; but many of those gaps are reduced or closed through BIOS/microcode and driver updates, or by adjusting virtualization settings — with clear security trade-offs if you toggle protections off. In short: test first, then upgrade with validation. (thefpsreview.com, tomshardware.com)
• Creators and users of local AI tooling: The trend is clear: Windows 11’s improved runtime stack and growing vendor support deliver meaningful gains for local inferencing and AI-assisted workflows. If your day job depends on on-device LLMs, Windows 11 24H2 and updated inference runtimes are increasingly the better platform. Plan to migrate sooner rather than later.

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Conclusion​

The 2025 performance story is less about a universal winner and more about context. Windows 11 has made measurable, sometimes large, progress in AI, ray-tracing pipelines and many modern DX12 workloads — and Microsoft’s end-of-support date for Windows 10 makes migration an operational priority. Yet some high-end CPU-bound tests, particularly involving complex multi-CCD X3D chips and titles that stress scheduling and cache locality, have shown Windows 10 holding sudden, surprising leads. Those anomalies are not permanent absolutes: firmware, driver updates, runtime improvements, and configuration changes often close the gap.
For holdouts, the pragmatic path is clear: treat Windows 10’s October 14, 2025 end-of-support as a firm deadline; plan an upgrade and validate the migration on your actual workloads before committing broadly. Back up, update BIOS and drivers, run clean-install experiments, and measure — then decide. The data in 2025 recommends migration for most users, but it also requires careful, evidence-based transition planning for the small set of performance-critical systems that still benefit from Windows 10 today. (microsoft.com, benchmarks.ul.com, techradar.com)

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Source: Neowin Windows 10 vs Windows 11 2025 performance benchmarks shows holdouts they should upgrade