Disabling Windows 11 security settings gives a major speed boost to Intel GPUs

Cast your mind back a month, and you may recall that Microsoft shared something of a surprising tip for gamers -- by disabling some security features of Window 11, it is possible to boost game performance. Well, it seems there is more to this tip than this.

People with systems featuring Intel's Arc discrete GPUs found that disabling the same security settings increased performance quite dramatically. And we are talking about measurable increases of thousands of points in benchmarking tool 3DMark.

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The setting that needs to be disabled in Windows 11 is Memory Integrity -- something that is enabled by default -- and when you read Microsoft's description, it is not hard to understand why:

Memory Integrity helps prevent attackers from injecting their own malicious code and helps ensure that all drivers loaded onto the OS are signed and trustworthy.

But if you are willing to take a security risk, disabling the setting has a dramatic effect on the performance of Arc A380 graphics cards -- and very likely others too. Twitter user Löschzwerg shared news of the speed boost:

Microsoft has previously provided instructions for disabling Memory Integrity:

1. Select Start, enter "Core Isolation" in the taskbar, and select Core Isolation from the list of results to open the Windows security app.
2. On the Core isolation page, turn off the toggle for Memory Integrity. You might need to restart your device.               

Image credit: rokas91 / depositphotos