Microsoft's Memory Integrity Security Feature to Impact Gaming Performance

Microsoft is gearing up to enable its memory integrity security feature in Windows 11 for more devices next month. This kernel-level protection feature aims to prevent malicious code or drivers from running on a Windows 11 machine, but it can also impact PC gaming performance.

Peter Waxman, group program manager at Microsoft, explains that the company's quality updates will enable memory integrity protection on eligible devices and also activate Virtualization-based Security (VBS). This move reflects Microsoft's commitment to making Windows secure by design and default.

While memory integrity only allows trusted kernel-mode code and drivers to run on a Windows 11 system, it can affect PC game performance, especially on older processors. Those with more modern CPUs may experience less of an impact, but frame-rate drops are still possible in select games.