Back when AMD previewed the Zen 5 architecture, it promised an IPC gain averaging 16% over equivalent Zen 4 parts. While the new chips handily beat out the older ones in heavily threaded benchmarks, the gains were smaller in games. That led to some criticisms, with many gamers believing the new chips didn't offer enough to tempt them to upgrade.
AMD acknowledged these concerns in a blog post, saying it's internal testing was "run in admin mode, which produced results that reflect branch prediction code optimizations not present in the version of Windows reviewers used to test Ryzen 9000 Series". The blog goes on to say the Windows 11 24H2 update will improve Zen 5 gaming performance when it's released later this year.
According to testing by Hardware Unboxed, Windows 11 24H2 update can deliver double digit performance improvements across many titles.
Branch prediction is one of the significantly improved areas of the Zen 5 architecture. Better branch prediction leads to fewer wasted clock cycles, which in turn means better performance and power efficiency. But improved branch prediction means little without the appropriate software awareness, and the OS plays a key role. It begs the question, why didn't these optimizations come sooner?
Hardware Unboxed noted that Zen 4 chips also achieved gains under 24H2, which makes us wonder why AMD and Microsoft weren't able to deliver these optimizations months—if not years in advance. With these optimizations, Zen 5's percentage gains over Zen 4 might not have changed all that much, but they would have looked better versus the Intel competition.
Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD.
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest.
Even without the 24H2 optimizations, it's not like Zen 5 is a slouch. Our reviews of the Ryzen 5 9600X, Ryzen 7 9700X, Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X highlight their power efficiency, cooler running and solid all-round performance. It just seems as though they could have been that bit better.
It goes without saying that when Windows 11 24H2 is released to the public later this year, you should install it in order to get the best out of your chip. I guess that means our man Nick is going to have to cut back on sleep—again—to see just how this update affects the PC Gamer benchmark results.
The Windows 24H2 update is available for Windows Insiders, and it will be out in the wild before X3D chips arrive, which bodes well for gamers. They'll go head-to-head with Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake family. We don't know just how each family will perform in games, but it'll be an exciting battle.
