Installing Windows 11 might make the apps on your AMD-powered computer slower, the chipmaker has warned. AMD has published documentation on a couple of Windows 11 bugs affecting its Ryzen processors, one of which can slow down its CPUs by up to 15 percent. That particular bug can increase L3 cache latency by three times, which in turn can affect apps that need quick access to memory.
Most affected applications could slow down by three to five percent. If you play games “commonly used for eSports,” though, you might be feeling the bug’s impact a lot more, since it could slow down those games by around 10 to 15 percent. The second bug, as Ars Technica explains, is related to the “preferred core” feature that allows a system to use the fastest individual CPU cores in a processor.
AMD didn’t mention any particular percentage for the second bug, but the company said its impact is more noticeable in chips with more than eight cores and with 65W Thermal Design Power (TDP) or higher. That includes many of the high-end desktop chips released over the past few years, but suggests popular lines like the 3600X and 5600X should be minimally affected, and AMD-powered laptops aren’t likely to be particularly troubled either.
In its announcement, AMD assured that it’s investigating the issues with Microsoft and that they’re working on a fix for them. A patch for the first bug will be released as Windows update, while a fix for the second will roll out as a software update sometime this month. For the latter, it could mean having to check AMD’s website for the update and having to install new drivers manually.
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