A feature in Windows 11 designed to offer security might be resulting in poorer gaming performance.
The culprit is Microsoft’s Virtualisation Based Security, which “uses hardware virtualisation features to create and isolate a secure region of memory from the normal operating system.”
While this is important for security reasons, it is also responsible for sluggish gaming. Even more specifically, the fault appears to be with the Hypervisor-Enforced Code Integrity (HVCI), a feature that is enabled by VBS.
According to Tom’s Hardware, who tested 15 different games with the feature disabled and enabled, turning the VBS off improved average frame rates by up to 10 per cent when playing Microsoft Flight Simulator using an Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card.
Of the fifteen games, there was an average of a 5-6 per cent performance boost when switching the VBS off.
Given the feature is meant to protect your computer from outside forces, it seems unwise to turn it off. Hopefully Microsoft will offer a solution for gamers soon.
