AMD promised that Microsoft’s upcoming 24H2 update to Windows 11 would improve the performance of its new Ryzen 9000 series CPUs, but it’s also giving a significant boost to some older Ryzen CPUs. Hardware Unboxed has tested the Zen 4-based Ryzen 7 7700X and the new Ryzen 7 9700X (Zen 5) on Windows 11 versions 23H2 and 24H2 and found a significant performance boost thanks to Microsoft’s OS update.
On average, Unboxed hardware found a 10 percent improvement in several games running at 1080p resolution on the older Ryzen 7700X with Windows 11 version 24H2. On the latest Ryzen 9700X, Windows 11 24H2 provides an 11 percent performance improvement on average in the same gaming tests. KitGuru has also tried AMD's top gaming CPU, the 7800X3D, saw similar boosts in some games, along with improvements over the older Ryzen 9 7950X thanks to Windows 11 version 24H2.
The new benchmark results come just weeks after AMD launched its Zen 5 desktop CPUs, which failed to impress in early reviews. Analysts found that in the gaming realm, the previous-generation Ryzen 9 7950X seemed to be a better value than AMD’s new flagship Ryzen 9 9950X.
Windows 11 24H2 will certainly improve the performance of these new Zen 5 CPUs, but since it also improves older Zen 4 processors, the performance gap still seems to be a bit disappointing between the two architectures. However, Microsoft’s 24H2 update is by no means disappointing for Ryzen owners, as it literally allows them to download better performance for their CPUs.
We expect Microsoft to release its 24H2 update for Windows 11 in late September, but if you want to get it sooner, you can opt for the Windows Insider Program and enable pre-release builds on your PC. If you prefer to perform a clean install or perform the upgrade manually, the ISO files for 24H2 are available here.
