Windows Defender can Significantly Impact Intel CPU Performance, We have the Fix

[Nemiyen]

This has been great to prove the issue exists for Windows Defender, please can someone confirm this same bug exists for Teams because... Damn! That program is slow as hell! Especially when in a video meeting lol.

 

[Tarnak]

Hi,

I've encountered issue on mine AW 17r4 i7700HQ. 0x222 changing very quickly.
Resetting seems to fix it to 0x330.

Thx UncleWebb

 

[phanbuey]

This has been great to prove the issue exists for Windows Defender, please can someone confirm this same bug exists for Teams because... Damn! That program is slow as hell! Especially when in a video meeting lol.

Teams is an absolute disaster... I can confirm it's a ton better on 12th gen since it's relegated to e cores.

 

[RobinHood2022]

I have an Intel Core i5-7600K at 3.8GHz running Windows 11 (despite the fact that this CPU isn't "officially" supported by Microsoft for Windows 11), and I'm getting solid "Not Used" status, hex value 0x000, even while running a scan using Windows Defender. It seems to me, therefore, that I am unaffected by this bug which Kevin is talking about.

My advice to anyone who is experiencing problems with this bug is to regularly run Windows Update. Yes, I know people don't like to hear something like that, but it's good advice -- and it WORKS.

 

[TheHunter]

I have this bug on my 11700kf and win10

It started this year around Jan-feb.. at first i thought it was nvidia driver fault had some constant registry writes until i finally noticed it was defender..

3dmark physics is also affected


So i just need to run this once per boot or is it permanent?


Edit; and if I disable virtualization it also eliminates this issue as someone mentioned it one page earlier?

Thanks

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Ran into this

Performance Test April 2022

Performance Test April 2022 for Microsoft Windows 10 security products released, 17 products' impact on system performance was tested.

www.av-comparatives.org

mbam at almost 20% right behind defender 24%
The way default setting are in mbam I'd believe it updating every hour those little hits can be a pain on low resource systems

Teams is an absolute disaster... I can confirm it's a ton better on 12th gen since it's relegated to e cores.

I get rid of teams
Seems most use zoom anyway why waist time with teams or even skype anymore.

 

[unclewebb]

I'm getting solid "Not Used" status

That is good. Best to monitor for this for a few days. Do some sleep resume cycles if you normally use that.

In Windows 10 on my 10th Gen CPU, sleep resume is a guaranteed way for Windows Defender to set the timers to mode 0x222 and for it to start running its algorithm which reduces performance.

even while running a scan using Windows Defender

The Windows Defender automatic scanning feature works whether the timers are in mode 0x222 or not. It is almost like Defender has a separate chunk of code that is sometimes causing excessive CPU usage in the background. It can start or stop at anytime. Unless you are monitoring for this, it is difficult to know when this might be happening. It seems like this chunk of code is not running on Intel's recent 12th Gen CPUs.

regularly run Windows Update

This problem has been around for years. So far, nothing on Windows Update seems to fix it.

So i just need to run this once per boot or is it permanent?

Pushing the Reset Counters button seems to fix this issue until the computer goes to sleep or you reboot. If you want to be 100% sure this does not start up again, run ThrottleStop and minimize it to the system tray. You can start Counter Control at any time to see what is going on with the counters.

 

[TheHunter]

It says normal now and it fixes the issue 100%, tested cpuz benchmark and it's consistent all the time now.

Thanks

 

[TheDeeGee]

I'm getting almost 800 more points with reset timer.

Now it's very unclear how to run ThrottleStop, do i need to click "Turn On" to enable it? Do i have to apply it every reboot?

 

[UrsineSaturn9]

I tested it out on 10750h and only got "Normal" status. But I've been running TS v9.2 for ages anyway, so have updated to v9.5 and left this feature turned on. Absolutely love ThrottleStop for my gaming laptop. Used to routinely hit temperatures of 100C and with this program, some undervolting and limiting the turbo ratios I rarely get more than 70-75C while gaming.

 

[unclewebb]

I'm getting almost 800 more points with reset timer.

A rough estimate is about +100 points for every core you have. I have a 10 core 10850K so it gains 1000 points. A 6 core CPU will typically gain 600 points and an 8 core CPU should gain about 800 points in Cinebench R23. Those are just some numbers off the top of my head.

how to run ThrottleStop

To fix this problem you can run ThrottleStop, minimize it to the System Tray / Notification Area and that is all you need to do. There is no need to enable any of its many options.

Some users have decided to immediately exit ThrottleStop after it starts. This works for me but I cannot guarantee that this will work for everyone. I prefer to leave ThrottleStop running.

If you exit ThrottleStop, you will definitely need to run it gain if you do a sleep resume cycle or if you reboot.

ThrottleStop has an INI option that you can use to force ThrottleStop to immediately exit. If you are going to use this option, at the moment, I would set it to 15 seconds.
Add this line to the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file.

ExitTime=15

In the next version of ThrottleStop, I will be changing things so setting this to 1 second should be good enough.

I've been running TS v9.2

TS 9.2 and 9.3 used to automatically fix this problem. Back then, I had no idea what was causing this problem or why ThrottleStop had this magic ability. I stopped using one of the programmable counters in TS 9.4 and didn't really think too much about it. This provided Windows Defender the opportunity to take over control of all of the counters so it could run its slow and sluggish algorithm. It took a while to get everything figured out. TS 9.5 uses one of the programmable counters like TS 9.2 and 9.3 used to use.

Absolutely love ThrottleStop

Good to hear. ThrottleStop has greatly improved the user experience for quite a few laptop owners worldwide.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
@unclewebb
I always wondered why isn't there a pinned thread with the throttle stop version download here ?

ThrottleStop

Optimize and tweak your Intel processor

www.techpowerup.com

 

[unclewebb]

a pinned thread

That sounds like a good idea. I have never created a pinned thread before. I will put it on the things to do list.

 

[ThrashZone]

That sounds like a good idea. I have never created a pinned thread before. I will put it on the things to do list.

Hi,
Sure would make it easier to find your awesome software besides using various search engines

 

[Yooyoo1987]

I have 10400f with the same issue, hope ms will correct this bug asap.

 

[Aaron2]

I have an i7-9700K and so far I only get Normal and Not Used in Counter Control over the last three days, and I shutdown every night (fast reboot disabled). I have applied no tweaks to my knowledge that affect Defender in any way. Strange...

 

[AusWolf]

Also:

Notice how single-threaded performance also suffers when the Defender timer is active. The multi-thread ratio is the same in both instances.

 

[unclewebb]

@AusWolf
How about doing some 3D Mark testing?

It tends to be fairly consistent and should show some reduced performance because of this Windows Defender feature.

 

[AusWolf]

@AusWolf
How about doing some 3D Mark testing?

It tends to be fairly consistent and should show some reduced performance because of this Windows Defender feature.

Done. Interestingly, it's not as consistent as I thought it would be:

The CPU score clearly shows the difference. I don't know why my GPU score was lower the second time. I didn't change any setting in 3DMark or in Adrenalin. AMD GPUs are weird.

It's also strange that some scores were affected in the CPU profile test, some others were not.

 

[TheHunter]

For me it was timespy and and firestrike physics that showed the most difference, cpu profile not as much.

By both at least 1000-1500points difference..


But back then i didnt test this tool yet, just disable/enable realtime protection.

 

[FLFLFL]

I get this, is OK ?

 

[unclewebb]

OK

0x222 is bad.

0x000 is good.

 

[ThrashZone]

0x222 is bad.

0x000 is good.

Hi,
Saw you found one of the dummies on elevenforums

I posted to brink this thread and he saw fit to make a news story

 

[lexluthermiester]

Saw you found one of the dummies on elevenforums

Devin isn't the worst there, for sure. He's a bit of a smart-ass but mostly harmless. It's Kari you have to be very careful of. @unclewebb be very careful how you interact with Kari. Say the wrong thing to them and they will get you banned, no matter who you are.

 

[ThrashZone]

Devin isn't the worst there, for sure. He's a bit of a smart-ass but mostly harmless. It's Kari you have to be very careful of. @unclewebb be very careful how you interact with Kari. Say the wrong thing to them and they will get you banned, no matter who you are.

Hi,
No I was referring to cereberus.