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Your PC still games fine. Windows 10 stopped getting security updates in October 2025, a nagging upgrade prompt keeps appearing, and every article you find either says “upgrade now” or “Windows 11 ruins your FPS” without telling you which one applies to your machine. That is a genuinely annoying place to be, because the wrong choice either leaves you unpatched or costs you a weekend.
So here is the honest version. This guide covers what Windows 11 actually changes for games, the five things to check before you touch the upgrade button, the one security setting that can quietly cost you frames, and what to do if your PC does not qualify at all.
Quick answer
Windows 11 is worth moving to, but not because it makes your games faster. On identical hardware it is roughly a wash on frame rate. What you actually get is an operating system that still receives security patches, plus a few features (Auto HDR, better windowed-game latency, DirectStorage support) that help in specific situations rather than across the board.
The two questions that decide it for you: does your PC meet the requirements, and is Memory Integrity switched on. Both are covered below, with the exact steps to check.
Still on Windows 10
You want to know if upgrading is safe for your games, or whether to stay put.
Already on Windows 11
Something feels slightly slower than it used to, and you want to know what to switch.
Buying or building a PC
You want to know which of these features are worth paying for.
What Windows 11 actually changes for your games
Most of the “Windows 11 is built for gaming” talk comes from launch marketing, and marketing is not a benchmark. Four gaming features get named repeatedly. Only two of them are likely to matter to you, and which two depends entirely on your monitor and your storage. Here is the whole picture in one place before we go through them.
| Feature | Windows 11 only? | Will you actually notice it? |
|---|---|---|
| Auto HDR | Yes | Only with an HDR display. Then yes, clearly, in older SDR games. |
| Optimizations for windowed games | Yes | Yes, if you play borderless windowed. Lower latency, and VRR and Auto HDR start working there. |
| DirectStorage | No | Only in the small number of games that support it, and only on an NVMe SSD. |
| Xbox app and Game Bar | No | Convenience only. It is not a performance feature. |
| Security updates | Effectively yes | You will never see it, and it is still the strongest reason to move. |
Auto HDR: the one that looks like magic, if you have the screen
Auto HDR takes older games that were built for standard dynamic range and expands their colour and brightness so they display in HDR. Microsoft’s own description is that it applies to older SDR titles using DirectX 11 or DirectX 12, which covers a very large slice of anyone’s back catalogue. Microsoft explains it here.
The catch is in the hardware. You need a display that genuinely handles HDR and is connected over a modern HDMI or DisplayPort cable, and you need current graphics drivers. On an ordinary SDR monitor, Auto HDR does nothing at all. If you have an HDR-capable TV or monitor and have never switched this on, it is the single most visible thing on this list.
Windowed game optimizations: the quiet fix nobody markets
If you play in borderless windowed mode (most people who alt-tab to Discord or a browser do), older Windows used an older presentation path that added latency. Windows 11 moves compatible DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 games onto a modern path, which cuts that latency and lets Variable Refresh Rate and Auto HDR work in windowed mode instead of only in exclusive fullscreen. Microsoft documents the change here.
This is the feature most likely to make Windows 11 feel snappier in games, and almost nobody talks about it.
DirectStorage: real technology, still barely used
DirectStorage is Microsoft’s API for letting a game pull assets straight off a high speed NVMe drive with far less CPU overhead, which in principle means faster level loads. Two honest caveats. First, it is not a Windows 11 exclusive: Microsoft’s own developer guidance describes a Windows 10 input and output path that developers can target. Second, and this is the part that decides it for you, DirectStorage does nothing unless the specific game you play was built to use it. Check that game’s own system requirements rather than assuming the operating system gives it to you.
Tip: Do not upgrade for DirectStorage. If load times are your problem, moving the game from a hard drive to any SSD will do far more for you than the operating system will.
The Xbox app: useful, not magic
The Xbox app and Game Bar are the same on both operating systems. They are how you install Game Pass titles, record clips and check performance, and they are genuinely convenient, but nothing about them is a reason to change your OS. If you are weighing up the subscription itself, that is a separate question worth its own answer: is Xbox Game Pass worth it.
Check these five things before you upgrade
The compatibility rules are stricter than most people expect, and the standard upgrade prompt does not always explain why a machine is blocked. Five checks answer it, and each one takes under a minute. Run them in this order.
Security chip
TPM 2.0
Boot mode
UEFI plus Secure Boot
Processor
On the supported list
RAM, disk, GPU
The easy ones
TPM 2.0
Press Windows key plus R, type tpm.msc and press Enter. The window tells you whether a TPM is present and which specification version it uses. On a lot of gaming PCs the chip is there but switched off in the BIOS, listed as PTT on Intel boards or fTPM on AMD ones.
UEFI firmware and Secure Boot
Windows key plus R, type msinfo32, press Enter. Look at “BIOS Mode” (it must say UEFI, not Legacy) and “Secure Boot State”. A machine installed in Legacy mode can often be converted, but that is a real job, not a toggle.
A supported processor
This is the one that blocks most people, and it is not about speed. Microsoft publishes a list of approved Intel, AMD and Qualcomm processors, and a fast older CPU that is not on it still fails. The published minimum is 1 GHz or faster with two or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor. Check your exact model against Microsoft’s published lists rather than guessing from the model number.
RAM and storage
The published minimum is 4 GB of RAM and a 64 GB or larger drive. Any PC you actually game on passes this comfortably. Treat it as a formality, not a target.
Graphics card
It must support DirectX 12 or later with a WDDM 2.0 driver. Windows key plus R, type dxdiag, press Enter, then open the Display tab. Any graphics card capable of modern gaming clears this.
Warning: Guides that show you how to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware do exist. Microsoft’s published position is that upgrading without checking eligibility “could leave a system in an unsupported state”, and that if you have already installed Windows 11 on a device that does not meet the requirements you should roll back to Windows 10 immediately. An unsupported install defeats the entire reason for upgrading. If your PC does not qualify, use the options further down instead. [Microsoft Support: Ways to install Windows 11]
Two more things worth knowing before you commit. Windows 11 Home, and Windows 11 Pro set up for personal use, both require an internet connection and a Microsoft account during initial setup. And if you are coming from Windows 10 Home or Pro on a qualifying PC, the upgrade to the equivalent Windows 11 edition is free. [Windows 11 specifications] [Windows 10 end of support]
The setting that can quietly cost you frames
Here is the part that explains most “Windows 11 made my games worse” posts. Windows 11 turns on virtualisation-based security by default on a lot of machines, and the piece that matters for gaming is Memory Integrity, also called Hypervisor-protected Code Integrity or HVCI.
What it does is genuinely valuable: it runs driver code checks inside an isolated, virtualised environment, so a malicious or compromised low-level driver cannot simply take over the machine. Microsoft’s own description is that it verifies dangerous code before it is allowed to run. [Microsoft Support: Core isolation]
What it costs depends almost entirely on how old your processor is, and Microsoft is unusually direct about this. Its documentation states that memory integrity works better on Intel Kaby Lake and newer processors, which have Mode-Based Execution Control, and on AMD Zen 2 and newer, which have Guest Mode Execute Trap. Older processors fall back to emulating those features through something called Restricted User Mode and, in Microsoft’s own words, “will have a bigger impact on performance”. [Microsoft Learn: Enable memory integrity]
So the rough rule is simple. If your CPU is Intel 7th generation or later, or AMD Ryzen 3000 series or later, the cost is usually small. Older than that and it is worth actually measuring.
To see where you stand, open the Windows Security app, go to Device security, then Core isolation details. The Memory Integrity toggle is there. If you want to confirm what is actually running rather than what is switched on, run msinfo32 again and scroll to the bottom of the System Summary page, where Windows lists its virtualisation-based security status.
Do
Leave Memory Integrity on if your PC is reasonably current and your games run fine. The protection is real and you are unlikely to feel the cost.
Don’t
Switch it off as a routine “optimisation” because a video told you to. Test one game with it on, then off, and decide from what you actually measured.
Warning: Turning Memory Integrity off is a real security downgrade, not a free win. It is the defence that stops a vulnerable signed driver being used to compromise your PC, and driver-based attacks are not theoretical. If you turn it off, know that is the trade you made.
Your 20-minute settings pass after the upgrade
A fresh Windows 11 install is not configured for gaming out of the box. None of these take long, and together they cover almost everything worth changing. Work down the list in order.
The post-upgrade checklist
✓ Reinstall your graphics drivers from AMD, Nvidia or Intel directly. Do this first, because several settings below only appear when the driver reports support for them.
✓ Game Mode: Settings, then Gaming, then Game Mode. It prioritises the game in the foreground. Leave it on.
✓ Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling: Settings, then System, then Display, then Graphics, then default graphics settings. It hands more scheduling work to the GPU. Restart afterwards, and test rather than assume it helps.
✓ Optimizations for windowed games: in the same graphics settings area. Turn it on if you play borderless windowed.
✓ HDR and Auto HDR: Settings, then System, then Display, pick your HDR display, expand HDR. Only relevant with an HDR-capable screen.
✓ Per-game graphics preference: in the same Graphics page, add a specific game and set it to High performance. This matters most on laptops with two graphics chips.
If you game on a laptop, add one more: check the power mode in Settings, then System, then Power and battery, because a laptop plugged in but set to a balanced or efficiency profile will quietly cap what the hardware does. The same logic applies whichever gaming device you play on.
Still on Windows 10? Your three honest options
If your PC cannot take Windows 11, or you simply do not want to move yet, you still need a plan, because doing nothing means running an operating system that no longer receives security patches. Microsoft confirms support for Windows 10 ended on 14 October 2025. There are three real routes, and only one of them is free forever.
Two things about ESU are worth being precise on, because they are widely misreported. It delivers security updates only, with no feature updates, no non-security fixes and no technical support. And the dates have moved once already, so confirm the current end date on Microsoft’s own ESU page before you rely on it.
Which one is you?
All five checks passed: upgrade. Do the settings pass above the same day and you are done.
Only TPM or Secure Boot failed: both are usually a BIOS setting, not new hardware. Enable them, re-check, then upgrade.
The processor is not on the list: enrol in ESU today, and plan the replacement over the next year rather than in a panic.
The mistakes that cost people the most
Almost every bad Windows 11 gaming experience traces back to one of three things, and all three are avoidable.
Upgrading without a backup. An in-place upgrade usually keeps your files and your installed games. Usually is not always. Copy anything irreplaceable somewhere else first, and remember that many save files live in the cloud but not all of them do.
Judging performance on day one. A fresh Windows install spends its first hours indexing, downloading updates and reinstalling drivers. Benchmarking then, and concluding the OS is slow, is the most common false alarm there is. Give it a day.
Running a debloat script from a video. These routinely strip out the Xbox app, Game Bar and Windows Security components that games and anti-cheat systems expect to find. Change settings one at a time, and know what each one does.
There is one more worth naming, because it was a genuine selling point once. Windows 11 originally shipped a way to run Android apps through the Amazon Appstore. Microsoft removed both Windows Subsystem for Android and the Amazon Appstore from the Microsoft Store on 5 March 2025, so if you were upgrading to play mobile games on your desktop, that reason no longer exists. [Microsoft Learn: Windows Subsystem for Android] For mobile-style gaming, a phone or a handheld is the practical answer, which is its own comparison: gaming phones versus handheld consoles.
The bottom line
Windows 11 will not hand you free frames. Treat it as the supported, patched place to game from, take Auto HDR and the windowed-game optimisations as genuine bonuses if your hardware suits them, and spend twenty minutes on the settings pass so the machine is actually configured for what you do with it. If your PC does not qualify, enrol in ESU now and plan the upgrade properly instead of running unpatched.
Next step
Run the five checks above today. It takes about five minutes and it turns “should I upgrade?” into a straight yes or no. Then, if you are sorting out what to actually play on it, start here.
What Game Pass actually includes
Or browse our game reviews for something to install first.
Frequently asked questions
Does Windows 11 lower FPS in games?
Not by itself. On identical hardware the difference is small either way. The frame rate drops people report usually come from Memory Integrity being on by default, which costs more on processors that predate Mode Based Execution Control. Check that setting before blaming the operating system.
Can I install Windows 11 without TPM 2.0?
Methods to bypass the check exist, but Microsoft states that PCs which do not meet the minimum requirements are not entitled to updates and may not receive them. Since staying patched is the main reason to upgrade, an unsupported install undoes the point of doing it.
Do I lose my games if I upgrade from Windows 10?
An in-place upgrade normally keeps your files, installed programs and games. Normally is not a guarantee, so back up anything irreplaceable first and check whether your save files sync to the cloud.
Is Windows 11 Pro better than Home for gaming?
No. The gaming features are the same. Pro adds business and management features such as BitLocker and domain join. Do not pay more for Pro expecting better game performance.
Is it worth upgrading to Windows 11 just for Auto HDR?
Only if you already own an HDR-capable display. On an HDR screen, Auto HDR visibly improves a large back catalogue of older games. On a standard SDR monitor it does nothing at all.
What happens if I stay on Windows 10?
Windows 10 stopped receiving security updates on 14 October 2025. Your games keep working, but the operating system stops being patched against new vulnerabilities. Extended Security Updates are the supported way to keep receiving critical patches while you plan the move.
Sources and references
Every date, requirement and price above should be confirmed against these pages before you act on it, because Microsoft has already changed some of them once.
Microsoft: Windows 11 specifications, features and computer requirements
Microsoft Learn: Windows 11 requirements
Microsoft: Windows 10 support has ended
Microsoft: Windows 10 Consumer Extended Security Updates
Microsoft Support: Use Auto HDR for better gaming in Windows
Microsoft Support: Optimizations for windowed games in Windows 11
Microsoft Support: Core isolation and Memory integrity
Microsoft Learn: Enable memory integrity (the processor generations and the performance note)
Microsoft Support: Ways to install Windows 11
Microsoft: DirectStorage, official repository and developer guidance
Microsoft Learn: Windows Subsystem for Android, discontinuation notice
