One Windows 11 user, Reddit’s BNSoul, recently encountered a significant drop in gaming performance—around 8% after updating to the Windows 11 2023 Update. The issue seemed to specifically impact AMD Ryzen CPUs, with benchmarks consistently revealing slower performance in both single and multi-threaded tasks compared to the previous 22H2 version.
BNSoul documented their frustration, noting the persistence of reduced CPU performance even after a clean install of Windows 11 23H2. Interestingly, the problem wasn’t exclusive to AMD Ryzen, as users with Intel 13th-gen CPUs also reported similar concerns on platforms such as Microsoft’s official site, indicating a broader compatibility issue.
After several days of troubleshooting, BNSoul received a response from Microsoft, offering a potential fix. The solution involved resetting Windows Defender through PowerShell commands (“Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted” and “Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.SecHealthUI -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackage”), followed by a reboot and the enabling of CPU Virtualization in the BIOS (SVM in X570 BIOS). Additionally, users were advised to open Windows Security in Windows 23H2, enable Memory Integrity under Core Isolation settings, restart the system, and verify the Hypervisor functionality. According to BNSoul, implementing these steps successfully addressed the CPU performance issues, restoring performance levels comparable to the previous 22H2 version where certain security features were disabled.
The fix requires you to open PowerShell (Win + type PowerShell), possibly in Admin mode. Then type:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.SecHealthUI -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackageReboot, and ensure that CPU virtualization is enabled in your BIOS.
Open the Windows Security app within the Settings menu, and make sure that Memory Integrity is enabled under Core Isolation. Reboot.
After following Microsoft’s suggested fix, users can anticipate a resolution to any CPU slowdown issues encountered post-Windows 11 2023 Update. The user who applied the fix reported a noteworthy improvement in gaming benchmarks, aligning with the expected performance levels seen in Windows 11 22H2. What’s more, there were even instances where GPU benchmarks demonstrated an increase, suggesting a comprehensive enhancement in overall system performance. This encouraging outcome underscores the effectiveness of the provided solution in addressing CPU-related concerns and potentially boosting the system’s graphical capabilities.