Are you a gamer running Windows 11? Here’s Microsoft’s advice to speed up games

techradar.com:

Windows 11 has a couple of tweaks to security settings which can help PC gamers get smoother frame rates, Microsoft has advised.

In a blog post(opens in new tab) spotted by Tom’s Hardware(opens in new tab), Microsoft supplies instructions on how to switch off two features that provide beefier security for Windows 11 PCs, thereby delivering better performance in games – with the trade-off that your system is more vulnerable to attack with this functionality disabled.

The features in question are Memory Integrity (in Windows Security, Core Isolation), and the Virtual Machine Platform, known as VMP (under Windows Features). Both are simple switches (well, a slider and a checkbox respectively) that can be turned off if you so wish.

Microsoft notes: “As part of continued testing and feedback from users, Microsoft has seen that in some scenarios and some configurations of gaming devices there may be a performance impact with Memory Integrity and VMP on.”

The company further observes: “Gamers who want to prioritize performance have the option to turn off these features while gaming and turn them back on when finished playing. However, if turned off, the device may be vulnerable to threats.”

As Microsoft makes clear, Memory Integrity helps to ensure that all drivers installed are fully signed and trustworthy, blocking one route of injecting malicious code that nefarious types might use.

Sadly, Microsoft doesn’t elaborate on what kind of impact on frame rates these two mentioned security features could have, and how much you might stand to gain by switching them off (roughly – doubtless that will vary somewhat based on all manner of factors).

It may not be all that much on average, going by what we see anecdotally online. (Tom’s