Windows 11 began rolling out to the public in October 2021, but for years it’s faced a steady stream of criticism from PC gamers. Many players felt the newer operating system didn’t run games as smoothly as Windows 10, and the topic became a frequent point of debate across gaming forums and communities. Some users even held off upgrading entirely, while others started looking at alternative operating systems for their gaming PCs.
That performance argument may finally be losing steam.
New testing from Hardware Unboxed suggests the latest Windows 11 update, Windows 11 25H2, has closed the long-discussed gaming performance gap with Windows 10. In fact, the results indicate Windows 11 25H2 can now outperform Windows 10 in a range of modern and older AAA games.
In the test setup, Hardware Unboxed paired the operating system with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and compared Windows 11 25H2 against Windows 10 22H2. Across 1080p gaming, Windows 11 reportedly delivered an average uplift of about 1.2%. The bigger surprise came at higher resolutions like 1440p and 4K, where Windows 11 25H2 showed an average advantage of around 5%.
The benchmark suite included a mix of demanding, high-profile titles—both new releases and established favorites—such as Battlefield 6, Spider-Man 2, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and Mafia: The Old Country, among others. That’s a notable shift from earlier testing in 2024, where Windows 10 came out ahead of Windows 11 22H2.
It’s worth keeping expectations realistic. Comparing gaming performance between operating systems is notoriously difficult to keep perfectly “apples to apples.” Results can change based on the exact hardware configuration, background processes, driver versions, game patches, and even which specific games are included in the test set. A different mix of titles could produce slightly different averages, especially when the margins are relatively small.
Still, the overall takeaway is clear: Windows 11 25H2 appears to be a strong update for gaming performance, and it arrives at a time when many players are weighing whether it’s finally worth moving on from Windows 10.
That decision is also becoming less optional. Microsoft ended all support for Windows 10 in October 2025, meaning users should not expect new feature updates or security patches going forward. For gamers who stuck with Windows 10 because of performance concerns, the latest Windows 11 results suggest upgrading may now offer the best of both worlds: current support and competitive (or better) frame rates in today’s biggest PC games.
