[German]Windows 11 contains pitfalls for gamers, video editing users etc. that the majority of users are not even aware of. A blog reader sent me the relevant information at the end of May 2024 (thanks for that). According to the reader, he had made the mistake of switching from Windows 10 to Windows 11. After that, the problem was that the desktop was jerky and the Steam client used could only use very low data rates for caching. The reason for this is insufficient distribution of the computing load to CPU cores (P cores are not used in background processes) in the Windows 11 default settings.
A tip from a reader about Windows 11
Blog reader Rüdiger has been using Windows 11 at work for months, but was still using Windows 10 at home. The reader is obviously a gamer, as a Steam client is installed on his computer. So far so good, but the problem lurks just around the corner in this combination. He wrote to me about this:
A few weeks ago, I made the mistake of reinstalling my systems with Windows 11. In fact, a new installation was simply necessary for various reasons and instead of reinstalling Windows 10, I decided to install Windows 11 straight away. I regretted this on the same day, even though I have been working with Windows 11 for months.
Of course, this is a strong statement – but it falls within the range of similar statements from former Microsoft developers about Windows 11, which I addressed in the article Windows 11 has been falling in user favor for months.
Performance issues
The reader wrote that he unfortunately "recently had to use slow Internet again". But for some time now, the Steam client has offered the option of serving as a download cache for other computers in the network. According to the reader, this is a nice function,
- because the game downloads were transferred from one Steam client to another under Windows 10 at 2.5 Gbit.
- Under Windows 11, however, the world looked quite different, as the reader discovered. More than 400Mbit was not possible for these transfers in the same network, he wrote to me.
When installing Windows updates or Store app updates, the blog reader also noticed that windows on the desktop sometimes became 'jerky'. This is also in line with what I read in the above-linked article on Windows 11 from the statements of ex-Microsoft developers. The "best Windows ever" is simply rubbish, as I wrote in the linked blog post.
P-Core problem found as a cause by chance
As the reader notes in his email: "In fact, it was only by chance that I then tracked down the problem." To keep an eye on the network throughput, the reader had the task manager open. Then he started testing and made a surprising (to me) discovery.
- During a test of the network transfer from one Steam client to another, the desktop even froze.
- The reader noticed in the task manager that the eight E-cores of his Core i9 12900K CPU were 100% utilized, but the P-cores of the processor had nothing to do.
After some research, the reader found out that Windows 11 background tasks are only executed on the E-cores by default. He added that this can also be easily verified using the 7zip benchmark, for example. As long as the benchmark is running in the foreground, everything is fine. But as soon as the benchmark window is minimized, the process with the test only runs on the e-cores.
IOnce I knew the cause, I searched the Internet using the relevant terms and found a number of hits. On reddit.com there is the thread Windows 10 —> Windows 11 E Cores Utilization, where someone raises the problem and also posted links to explanations. Another thread Handbrake Windows 11 Efficiency Cores Only from 2022 has someone noting that Windows 11 "stutters" when the video transcoder Handbrake is running in the background. Something similar is mentioned in the reddit.com thread Windows 11 not using P-cores when the screen is locked when encodi ffmpeg. Also in the eleven forum is a thread about the topic.
You can customize the utilization
According to the blog reader, this behavior is caused by hidden settings in the energy-saving plans. He found out that the behavior can be adjusted with the following commands:
powercfg /setacprofileindex scheme_current profile_background schedpolicy X powercfg /setacprofileindex scheme_current profile_background shortschedpolicy X powercfg /setactive scheme_current
The following values are valid for the X:
- 0 All processors
- 1 Performant processors
- 2 Prefer performant processors
- 3 Efficient processors
- 4 Prefer efficient processors
- 5 Automatic
This enabled the reader to solve his Steam problem. He also states that the system runs more smoothly overall afterwards. The reader assumes that the adjustments do not seem to be necessary for the High Performance energy-saving plan. However, this energy-saving plan was not an option for him, as the clock frequency is not even reduced in idle mode.
Network driver as a problem
Furthermore, the reader has found that with Windows 11 it may be best to stick with the drivers for network cards provided by Windows or Windows Update. Due to slow transfer rates of network shares, he carried out a test with iperf. He used 2.5Gbit network components from Realtek (Onboard RTL8125BG) and Intel (i225-V Revision 3 PCIE plug-in card).
The reader then tested several driver versions from the Realtek website. He noticed that the drivers from the website throttled the transmissions to approx. 2.0 Gbit if the Power Save mode (advanced settings of the network driver in the Device Manager) was not active. This also applies to the drivers that supposedly do not support the power save mode.
A bit silly: However, this error only occurred after the first restart. The transfer rates measured with iperf remain permanently at 2.37Gbit only with activated Power Save mode. This value is probably the actual data rate without overhead.
The drivers provided by Windows do not have this problem. According to the reader, the picture is similar with the Intel drivers. Here, however, the behavior is independent of the advanced settings. With the drivers from the Intel website, the cards repeatedly delivered lower values (approx. 1.6 GBit), especially during the first test with iperf, and then always fluctuated between 2.0 and 2.3Gbit. With the drivers from the Windows update, however, the values are constant at 2.37Gbit.
The reader only realized later that the slow transfer rates are probably a Windows bug. However, as he had carried out the tests with iperf, the results were clear: the manufacturer's drivers are garbage. The reader also notes that it was a little inconvenient that some errors only occurred after a restart. Was the issue or this behavior known?
