While Microsoft will only support Windows 10 until 2025, the company continues to improve the now legacy platform. However, the apparent inclusion of virtualization-based security (VBS) by default in Windows 10 may not excite many users. According to Tom’s Hardware, this feature can be enabled automatically in Windows 10.
If you are unfamiliar with VBS, it is native in Windows 11 by default as a security tool on the platform. About a year ago there was a lot of noise about how VBS could cause severe drops in game performance when enabled.
While concern over VBS subsided over the past year, there are still concerns that it will affect benchmarks. Tom’s Hardware discovered that Memory Integrity was enabled by default in their fresh install of Windows 10. To get to the bottom of the matter, the outlet ran a series of tests on 15 games using four types of settings and resolutions.
Test
These tests were performed on a Windows 11 PC with the AMD Ryzen 7950X3D processor. The tests also used the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 with VBS enabled and disabled. When the VBS setting was enabled, there was a 5% performance drop when running the game at 1080p resolution:
“Taking the bigger picture, it might not seem so bad. Disabling VBS improved performance by up to 5% overall, and it dropped to just 2% at 4K ultra. And if you’re using that level of gaming hardware, we think you’re probably expecting to be running 4K ultra as well. But even at our highest possible settings, there are still some notable exceptions.
It should be noted that all testing was performed on Windows 11 and not Windows 10. However, it is likely that similar performance differences will be seen on Windows 10 when VBS is enabled/disabled.
Tip of the day: For the most part, Windows apps are stable, but they can still be disrupted by updates or configuration issues. Many start their PCs only to find that their Microsoft Store isn’t working or their Windows apps won’t open. Luckily, Windows 11 and Windows 10 have an automatic repair feature for apps that can fix such issues.
