Early last month, Microsoft published an advisory telling Windows 11 that they can boost the performance of the OS. However, doing so would mean compromising by losing certain security benefits. It now seems the “at your own risk” tweak is having a positive impact on the performance of the Intel Arc GPU.
According to Microsoft, “continued testing and feedback from users” shows Memory Integrity and Virtual Machine Platform (VMP) can both create slower performance during gameplay.
“Gamers who want to prioritize performance have the option to turn off these features while gaming and turn them back on when finished playing,” points out Microsoft in the support document. “However, if turned off, the device may be vulnerable to threats.”
Memory Integrity is built into the OS to ensure drivers are secure before they are installed on a system. It is a basic protection level to stop malicious code from landing on the OS. As for VMP, it provides important security features for virtual machine services.
Gains
Microsoft has not said how much performance gains users can expect. Although, these features are known for eating resources, so disabling them should lead to noticeable gains for gamers. It seems this is absolutely the case for machines running Intel’s Arc discrete GPUs.
Twitter user Löschzwerg has run the tests for the Arc A380 and finds the GPU saw a boost of 2,000 to 3,000 points on the DirectX 9 3DMrk03 benchmark. This marks a 5.2% gain over the original 58,000 points the card scored.
If you want to turn off the features, remember that there are security risks.
To disable Memory Integrity, search for “Core Isolation” on the taskbar. Click the Core Isolation search result and in the Windows security app toggle off the features.
To switch off VMP, type “Windows Features” and choose the “Turn Windows Features on or off” from the search results. In the Windows Features section, search for “Virtual Machine Platform” and disable it.
Tip of the day: If you need to Create, Delete or Resize Partitions, Windows has everything you thanks to the built-in Disk Management-tool.
