AMD's latest flagship CPU is a beast on Windows 10, surpassing Windows 11 in tests

Earlier this week, AMD released its new flagship processor for gamers, which we’ve all been waiting for. And based on past X3D CPUs, these are poised to really be the best. But now, recent benchmarks seem to indicate that AMD’s latest high-performance processors, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D, exhibit superior gaming performance on Windows 10 compared to Windows 11, particularly when Windows 11’s virtualization-based security (VBS) is enabled.

How significant are the differences?

Testing conducted by Tech YES City reveals that in CPU-bound games at low graphical settings, such as CS2 at 1080p, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D achieves an average of 745 frames per second (fps) on Windows 10. In contrast, the same setup on Windows 11 averages 729 fps, with performance dropping further to 710 fps when VBS is enabled. This represents a performance decrease of approximately 2.1% between Windows 10 and Windows 11 with VBS disabled, and a more significant drop when VBS is active.

Similar trends were observed in other titles, including Fortnite at its lowest settings in 1080p. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D achieved 591 fps on Windows 10, compared to 541 fps on Windows 11, with an additional reduction of 41 fps when VBS was enabled, amounting to a 9.2% performance decrease.

These findings suggest that gamers seeking optimal performance from AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D processors may experience better results on Windows 10, especially in CPU-intensive games. The impact of Windows 11’s VBS on gaming performance is notable, and users are advised to consider this when configuring their systems.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Overview

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core processor priced at $699, designed to deliver exceptional performance for both gaming and creative workloads. It leverages AMD’s second-generation 3D V-Cache technology, which enhances cooling and base clock speeds. In productivity tasks, it is approximately 24% faster than its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and it outperforms Intel’s top CPUs, including the Core i9-14900K and the Core Ultra 9 285K, in various scenarios.

While Windows 11 offers various features and security enhancements, these benchmarks highlight that Windows 10 may currently provide superior gaming performance for specific high-performance AMD processors.