To be more specific, there are three key differences between the High Performance mode we have been using and the new Ryzen balanced mode:
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Windows 10 high performance plan sets both CPU freq_min% and CPU freq_max% to 100%. Our plan sets 90-100%.
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AMD leaves PCI Express Link State Power Management (ASPM) enabled.
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AMD allows the display to turn off after 10 mins (like Balanced); High Performance is 15 minutes.
Unfortunately, 90% minimum processor state is quite a bit more than Intel’s balanced power plan, which has a minimum of 5%. Still, taken together, these changes should be a meaningful improvement over using High Performance all the time.
Another interesting tidbit:
“Win7 keeps all physical cores awake, and parks SMT cores. Win10 keeps one physical and one logical core away (Core0+1), then parks the rest as often as possible. This change alone is what’s responsible for the cases where Win7 was faster than Win10 gaming performance, not the scheduler as the community thought.”
This doubles down on AMD’s previous statement that Windows 10 thread scheduling was not the problem.
AMD has provided their own benchmarking results, which we haven’t had time yet to independently verify. We expect our own results to be in line with the performance differences between the unpatched Balanced mode and High Performance, which was roughly 5% in the worst cases.
Here’s AMD’s chart:
| GAME | RES | Uplift of AMD Plan vs. Balanced (Win10 Default) |
| Battlefield One: Ultra (DX12) | 1920x1080x32 | 10.77% |
| Battlefield One: Ultra (DX11) | 1920x1080x32 | 5.66% |
| Mafia 3: High (DX11) | 1920x1080x32 | 5.26% |
| Gears of War 4 Ultra | 1920x1080x32 | 16.50% |
| Rise of the Tomb Raider: Veryhigh (DX12) | 1920x1080x32 | 4.10% |
| Total War Warhammer: Ultra (DX12) | 1920x1080x32 | 5.34% |
| Total War Warhammer: Ultra (DX11) | 1920x1080x32 | 3.33% |
| Mirrors Edge Catalyst: Ultra | 1920x1080x32 | 4.81% |
| Dota 2: Ultra (DX11) | 1920x1080x32 | 6.33% |
| Batman Arkham Knight | 1920x1080x32 | 4.61% |
| Overwatch: Epic (Russia) | 1920x1080x32 | 5.10% |
| Overwatch: Epic (Hollywood) | 1920x1080x32 | 4.45% |
| Overwatch: Epic (Numbani) | 1920x1080x32 | 4.71% |
| Battlefield 4 (Airfield) | 1920x1080x32 | 3.41% |
| Battlefield 4 (Dam) | 1920x1080x32 | 8.75% |
| Battlefield 4 (Naval) | 1920x1080x32 | 10.07% |
| Call of Duty Advanced Warfare | 1920x1080x32 | 7.11% |
| Murdered Soul Suspect: High | 1920x1080x32 | 14.83% |
| Watch Dogs: Ultra | 1920x1080x32 | 11.89% |
| Watch Dogs: High | 1920x1080x32 | 12.12% |
| Thief: Preset Very High | 1920x1080x32 | 3.68% |
| Thief: Preset Normal | 1920x1080x32 | 7.96% |
| Shadows of Mordor: Very High | 1920x1080x32 | 6.08% |
| GTA V: Max | 1920x1080x32 | 4.44% |
| Far Cry 4: Ultra | 1920x1080x32 | 3.72% |
| Project Cars: Ultra | 1920x1080x32 | 9.03% |
| Alien Isolation | 1920x1080x32 | 8.52% |
| Crysis 3 (Jailbreak) | 1920x1080x32 | 21.56% |
| Bioshock Infinite: Ultra (DX11 DDOF) | 1920x1080x32 | 4.27% |
| Bioshock Infinite: Ultra (DX11) | 1920x1080x32 | 7.87% |
Again, this update will not affect our test results, but it will hopefully make customer’s lives a little easier. Check AMD’s website today for the Ryzen Balanced power plan and more info: it will be integrated into a chipset driver update in the future and will set the new, optimized plan as the default. For now, it’s a download from their AMD blog.
Sr Editor: Patrick Lathan
