AMD responds to the allegations of Ryzen 9000’s performance.

Following the scrutiny faced by Ryzen 9000 testers during the evaluation process, many encountered unsatisfactory outcomes from benchmarks that fell short of the expectations set by AMD’s pre-launch internal benchmark figures. Today, AMD has issued an official reaction, publishing a detailed blog post addressing gaming performance. Leo is currently retesting some scenarios for an upcoming video.

AMD’s rationale for the variance between the gaming data originated by AMD and reviewer benchmarks is as follows:

• The AMD gaming test suite encompasses a wide array of esports, AAA, and popular older games, encompassing both CPU- and GPU-constrained titles. The results drawn from game performance can be significantly swayed by the composition of the test suite.
• AMD conducted tests on Intel setups utilizing comparable DDR5-6000 memory, along with Intel default settings as a baseline power profile, which may slightly impact gaming performance.
• AMD also conducted tests with Windows Virtualization-based Security (VBS) activated. While this is the default behavior in Windows and is recommended by Microsoft for enhanced security, it has the potential to affect gaming performance.

The “Zen 5” architecture incorporates a broader branch prediction capacity than its predecessors in the “Zen” line. AMD’s automated test procedure was conducted in “Admin” mode, generating results that showcase branch prediction code optimizations not present in the Windows version utilized by some reviewers to test the Ryzen 9000 Series.

AMD highlights how the choice of Windows version installed can impact gaming performance through recent tests conducted with the Ryzen 9 9950X on Windows 11 24H2 and Windows 11 23H2. The table below demonstrates that certain games indeed exhibit notable performance enhancements when using Windows 11 Version 24H2:

The tests depicted in the table were conducted at 1080p resolution with ‘High’ graphic settings. The performance gains witnessed with Windows 11 24H2 are attributed to the integration of AMD-specific branch prediction code, leading to overall improved performance. However, this version of Windows 11 is currently only accessible through the Windows Insider Program. Presently, this Windows update is within the Release Preview Channel, indicating that Microsoft is likely preparing to deploy it to all users soon. In the interim, AMD is in discussions with Microsoft to expedite the dissemination of these code optimizations through an optional update in Windows 11.

AMD asserts that the Zen 5 CPUs will observe the most significant enhancement with this Windows update, although Zen 4 and Zen 3 CPUs may also experience some improvements.