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Once again, another massive win for Windows 7 at the lower resolutions. The performance at 4K is virtually identical.
The results are interesting, but perhaps not entirely surprising. The DirectX 9 results are largely in line with our expectations, given that Windows 11 must run these games through the D3D9On12 mapping layer, yielding substantial advantages for Windows 7.
The DirectX 11 results are more nuanced, but a clear trend emerges: Windows 7 has the advantage when we are CPU-limited, while Windows 11 performs better when we are GPU-limited. This makes sense given that Windows 11 uses graphics drivers built on a more advanced codebase, while Windows 7 is a leaner operating system with fewer background processes and, consequently, lower CPU overhead.
Microsoft has recently detailed its K2 plan, which aims to improve the performance and reliability of Windows 11. We hope these continued efforts to improve Windows 11 pay off.
The lower CPU performance we observed in Windows 11 cannot be attributed to its most notable security features, such as VBS (Virtualization-Based Security) and HVCI (Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity), as we disabled both during testing. Notably, Windows 7 does not support VBS or HVCI at the software level, while Windows 11 supports hardware virtualization extensions (such as Intel VT-x or AMD-V) and Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). Additionally, fixed-function hardware can reduce the impact of virtualization to varying degrees, based on the CPU architecture's capabilities. However, additional telemetry and other background services still pop up and use precious CPU cycles.
Using the latest chipset drivers and enabling features such as Resizable BAR does not help Windows 11 close the gap in CPU-limited scenarios by any significant margin. Ultimately, we would like to see Windows 11 become leaner and more efficient, as our results suggest there is still some performance left on the table, particularly on the CPU side.
Dan Mateescu Social Links Navigation Contributor Dan Mateescu is a PC enthusiast with many years of experience benchmarking PC hardware. In 2021, he started his own YouTube channel called 'Compusemble' where he benchmarks hardware in video games and the latest tech demos.
ezst036 Since people cannot always afford 64GB of memory at the insane prices, This test would have been more interesting constrained to 16GB or otherwise somehow constrained to a slightly unusual 24GB since Win7 hogs less memory. Or at least, dual-test with both memory options and the same slate of games.(Test1: 64GB/Test2: 16GB) Reply
USAFRet ezst036 said: Since people cannot always afford 64GB of memory at the insane prices, This test would have been more interesting constrained to 16GB or otherwise somehow constrained to a slightly unusual 24GB since Win7 hogs less memory. The idea was to remove any hardware issues, and concentrate on the OS differences. Reducing it to 16GB could easily show difference in game performance due to the RAM, not the OS. Reply
qxp USAFRet said: The idea was to remove any hardware issues, and concentrate on the OS differences. Reducing it to 16GB could easily show difference in game performance due to the RAM, not the OS. Reducing available memory would allow to see differences in memory management by the OS and the amount of memory used for internal OS purposes. Both very important, as differences in computational game performance are likely largely due to GPU drivers. Reply
USAFRet qxp said: Reducing available memory would allow to see differences in memory management by the OS and the amount of memory used for internal OS purposes. Both very important, as differences in computational game performance are likely largely due to GPU drivers. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Reply
TerryLaze Admin said: Windows 11’s more advanced graphics driver appears to provide an advantage in GPU-limited scenarios, while Windows 7’s lower CPU overhead offers more consistent frame pacing, though with lower peak performance. What?!? How does that "appear" to be the case at all? Windows 11 has a ton of thread and core management to reduce power needs/ increase efficiency and with games not telling the OS that they want to be run with a high priority they get "round robinned" along with all other things currently running on the system, causing bad lows. Just having a tool showing you clocks and actual CPU usage while gaming and reporting those alongside would go a very long way. The overhead over 7 on the CPU for an 8c/16t system is basically zero, especially if none of the games ever got close to using all cores fully or even semi-fully. Which with the newest title being from 2019 is pretty much guaranteed. Overhead only makes a difference if you reach beyond the full load mark. Reply
Sum Change Now try the experiment in 5 years when the automatic updates windows 11 won't let you turn off have completely bricked your computer and the built in OS spyware has had you arrested for an un licenced copy of a Milli vanili song someone emailed you. The number 1 reason people are not buying new computers is they don't want win 11. Maybe the new chrome os silver will save us all in November. Sell your Microsoft stock and buy Google stock Reply
USAFRet Sum Change said: The number 1 reason people are not buying new computers is they don't want win 11. Have any stats for this? I expect the "number 1 reason" is that hardware has sort of stagnated, and a 5 or 10 year old system still runs the stuff they want. Used to be, there was a major visible hardware change every year. It was beneficial to upgrade. Today, maybe not so much. "most people" don't know or care which OS is in it. Reply
usertests USAFRet said: I expect the "number 1 reason" is that hardware has sort of stagnated, and a 5 or 10 year old system still runs the stuff they want. That'd be the #2 reason. After the #1 reason of recent massive memory/storage price hikes, leading to articles like this: Extinction Watch: Sub-$500 Computers in Danger, According to Report The stagnation is important, but it was present in 2025, 2024, etc. Reply
Makaveli Sum Change said: Now try the experiment in 5 years when the automatic updates windows 11 won't let you turn off have completely bricked your computer and the built in OS spyware has had you arrested for an un licenced copy of a Milli vanili song someone emailed you. The number 1 reason people are not buying new computers is they don't want win 11. Maybe the new chrome os silver will save us all in November. Sell your Microsoft stock and buy Google stock lmao Did you make this all up in a dream? Reply
setx Why not add Windows 10 LTSC to the test? It has advantage of newer drivers and security support over Win7 and stability with significantly less garbage over Win11. Also, testing with less system RAM is indeed very interesting. Using CSM on Win7 was unreasonable, it's not like you are using WinXP. And ReBAR worked just fine on Win7 as I remember. Reply
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- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/we-tested-gaming-performance-in-17-year-old-windows-7-against-windows-11-on-a-modern-gaming-pc-older-operating-system-delivers-advantages-in-some-scenarios#main
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