Windows 11 vs Windows 10 performance on Alder Lake

[SpyderTracks]

There's a lot of disinformation about this on the web, so worth informing yourself if you're choosing Intel 12th Gen as a platform.

Windows 11 doesn't inherently give better performance, on some apps and games it benefits, on others it's worse.

Just be sure you're fully up to speed on the benefits and weaknesses of both:

 

[ubuysa]

I think we need to remember that Windows 11 was not intended to be a step up from Windows 10, nor was it intended to be a faster/better/more reliable OS than Windows 10.

Windows 11 was the least damaging way that Microsoft could turn on Windows support for the newer hardware security features found in modern CPUs. That's why Windows 11 only runs on modern CPUs whilst Windows 10 runs on all CPUs.

Microsoft took the opportunity offered by a new version of Windows to make some changes to the UI - likely to keep it looking modern and relevant - and to make some changes under the covers (the Windows scheduler has had a major rewrite for example, and it's at the core of CPU performance). Although Windows 11 looks shiny and new it's mostly Windows 10 with a new engine management system and a fresh paint job.

One thing that the review above did not seem to indicate was whether they turned HVCI on in Windows 10. Obviously, when the hardware is ensuring memory integrity (with HVCI on) there will be a performance price to pay somewhere - there's no such thing as a free lunch - so we might expect Windows 11 (with HVCI on) to perform poorly compared to Windows 10 (with HVCI off).

But leaving HVCI aside, the rewrite of the Windows 11 scheduler might well be responsible for poorer performance initially as Microsoft get to grips with optimising its efficiency. The Windows 10 scheduler has been around for over 6 years now and the inefficiencies in there will have been all ironed out by now, the newer Windows 11 scheduler will no doubt receive its fair share of optimising over the next months or so.

As I said at the start, I think we need to bear in mind that Windows 11 was not intended to be revelation nor a revolution. It's really just a one-trick-pony, taking advantage of hardware security features in modern CPUs. In that sense it's mostly just Windows 10 wearing a new set of clothes.

There is no burning need for anyone to upgrade to Windows 11, the most stable and reliable OS platform at the moment is Windows 10 and it looks from the above that it offers marginally better performance at the moment too. That's no surprise really and I doubt that Windows 11 will ever outperform Windows 10 by very much even after they get the glitches ironed out.

 

[Gary S]

The one thing to rember is that Windows 11 specifically has the scheduling for the alder lake cpu to take advantage of the main cores and e-cores.
This is the only reason I've it specced on my new system being built.
I will turn off the added security features in the bios and the hcvi thing in the menu.