benchmarks Archives

AppWizard

January 16, 2026

Riot moves to stamp out League of Legends duo queue abuse as “a few bad actors ruin things for everyone”

Riot Games has introduced new duo queue restrictions in League of Legends, disallowing duo play up to Grandmaster rank, even for players with Grandmaster MMR. The company has increased the duo penalty to reflect the advantages of playing in pairs. The current season has seen an increase in exploitative behavior, prompting these changes. Riot plans to implement an indicator to show when a player's actual MMR exceeds their displayed rank. Additionally, there is a delay in improvements to the autofill matching system, which aims to reduce mismatched roles for players.

Winsage

January 12, 2026

VLC gets native support for Snapdragon-powered PCs — but its devs haven’t forgotten your ancient Windows XP rig

The latest update to VLC, versions 3.0.22 and 3.0.23, introduces native support for Arm processors, specifically for Windows ARM64, requiring a minimum of Windows 10 RS5 17763 / 1809. This update improves playback across various formats, enhances subtitle rendering, includes codec updates, introduces a Dark Mode user interface, allows users to manage playing files, and addresses multiple security issues. The Snapdragon X2 Plus chip outperforms Intel's Core Ultra 7 265U and 256V processors, delivering up to 3.5 times the CPU performance of the former and a 52% increase in multi-core performance compared to the latter. Microsoft reported that 90% of usage time on Arm-based PCs is dedicated to natively compiled applications.

Winsage

January 12, 2026

Windows 11 Faces Backlash as Slowest OS in 25 Years, Benchmarks Show

Microsoft's Windows 11, launched in 2021, has been criticized for significant performance issues, making it potentially the least performant version of Windows in over two decades. Independent benchmarks reveal that Windows 11 is slower than its predecessors in areas such as boot times, application launches, and overall system responsiveness. Users with high-end hardware, including 13th-generation Intel Core processors, have reported noticeable slowdowns compared to Windows 10. Performance assessments indicate that Windows 11 struggles in various categories, including file operations, multitasking, and gaming, with longer boot speeds reminiscent of older systems. Gamers have experienced stuttering and frame rate drops, and Microsoft has acknowledged these issues in updates since 2022. The operating system is criticized for being a "resource hog," with preloaded features consuming resources even when idle. Users have reported lagging File Explorer and freezing processes, leading some to consider alternative operating systems. IT departments have noted increased support tickets related to performance issues, prompting some to delay upgrades from Windows 10. Microsoft has offered optimization advice, but critics argue these are temporary fixes for deeper architectural problems. The performance issues have implications for software developers and hardware manufacturers, increasing development costs and complicating hardware optimizations. Analysts warn that without prompt action, Microsoft's market dominance could be at risk, as users advocate for a leaner, faster Windows.

Tech Optimizer

January 12, 2026

Percona launches fixed-scope packages for open databases

Percona has launched Percona Packages, a suite of consulting and support services for database and IT teams using open-source systems. The initial offerings include: 1. **Quickstart**: Prepares database environments for high-demand periods with proactive optimization, a health check, and three months of expert support. 2. **Performance Optimization**: Identifies and resolves database performance issues, including slow queries and configuration problems, through hands-on tuning and best-practice guidance. 3. **AI Readiness**: Tailored for PostgreSQL, this package optimizes databases for AI workloads, featuring performance metrics analysis and benchmarks. These packages aim to address the skills shortage in data engineering and management, supporting various open-source database technologies like MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, and Valkey. The services are designed to help organizations prepare for peak usage and improve ongoing performance, allowing them to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure.

Winsage

January 12, 2026

2026 Shift: Professionals Ditch Windows 11 for Linux’s Speed and Savings

Professionals are increasingly moving away from Windows 11 to various Linux distributions due to dissatisfaction with performance issues and intrusive features in Windows. A 2025 analysis showed Linux distributions outperforming Windows by an average of 19.5% in everyday tasks. Performance tests indicated that SteamOS, a Linux-based platform, often matched or exceeded Windows 11 in gaming performance. Linux's lightweight nature and superior system administration tools appeal to those managing servers and virtual environments. Security concerns regarding Windows 11, including privacy issues and forced updates, have led users to prefer Linux's open-source model, which allows for greater transparency and customization. Economic factors also play a role, as Linux is free and open-source, eliminating licensing fees associated with Windows 11. User-friendly distributions like Linux Mint facilitate the transition for new users, and community support helps address common challenges. Large organizations are increasingly adopting Linux for its stability and responsiveness, while the Linux community fosters rapid improvements and adaptability. User feedback highlights privacy, performance, and customizability as key benefits of switching to Linux.

Winsage

January 12, 2026

Windows 11 File Explorer Lag: Legacy XP Feature Fix via Registry Tweak

File Explorer in Windows 11 has been reported to have performance issues, particularly delays when navigating folders with many media files or documents. This problem is linked to the auto-discovery feature, which optimizes folder display settings based on content but incurs a significant computational burden. Disabling this feature through registry modifications can lead to improved performance, with users experiencing faster navigation and reduced folder load times. Microsoft has acknowledged these issues and plans to preload File Explorer for quicker launches, but the underlying problems remain largely unaddressed. Users have shared their experiences and solutions, including registry tweaks that set folder types to "NotSpecified" to eliminate scanning overhead. Despite some incremental updates from Microsoft, many users still face core lags, prompting ongoing community-driven fixes and discussions about the need for deeper audits of legacy code.

AppWizard

January 11, 2026

Valve’s new Steam Deck update doesn’t promise much, but classic Call of Duty games could see some real performance gains

The January 8 SteamOS beta update introduces a feature called ntsync, which provides kernel-level support for a driver that enhances Windows game performance on Linux systems, particularly for the Steam Deck. This update may improve performance for older titles in the Call of Duty franchise and other classic games. Testing on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare showed minor frame rate improvements when using the ntsync-enabled Proton-GE fork, stabilizing frame rates around 135-144 FPS compared to 130-140 FPS on the fsync build. Users have reported that issues like framerate drops and graphical glitches in Call of Duty Black Ops have been resolved with the new Proton-GE/ntsync combination. To utilize these improvements, users can opt into the SteamOS 3.7.20 beta branch and install the latest Proton-GE version via the Proton Up-Qt app.

Tech Optimizer

January 8, 2026

Faster Is Not Always Better: Choosing the Right PostgreSQL Insert Strategy in Python (+Benchmarks)

Inserting 2 million records per second into Postgres is achievable. The analysis explores five methods for inserting data into Postgres using Python, focusing on trade-offs in abstraction, safety, convenience, and performance rather than just speed. High-volume insert workloads are common in scenarios like loading records, syncing data, backfilling analytics tables, and ingesting events. Minor inefficiencies can lead to significant performance impacts. To interact with Postgres, the psycopg3 driver is used alongside SQLAlchemy, which provides two layers: Core and ORM. Psycopg3 is a low-level driver requiring manual SQL management, while SQLAlchemy Core offers a SQL abstraction, and the ORM maps Python classes to database tables, enhancing productivity but introducing overhead. Benchmarking involves measuring only the time spent transferring data from Python to Postgres, ensuring a fair comparison among methods. The fastest method may not always be the best due to maintenance costs, correctness guarantees, and cognitive load. The right insertion strategy depends on the existing data structure rather than just row count. The ORM is suited for CRUD-heavy applications, Core for data ingestion and analytics, and the Driver for maximum throughput in extensive writes. Performance issues can arise from mismatching abstractions, and reverting to a lower level may enhance performance. A guideline for choosing methods is: - Use ORM for applications prioritizing correctness and productivity. - Use Core for data movement or transformation balancing safety and speed. - Use Driver for pushing performance limits with raw power and full responsibility.

Tech Optimizer

January 6, 2026

How to speed up mass data inserts in PostgreSQL when using Spring

A common task in enterprise systems involves loading large volumes of data into PostgreSQL, which can be slow if using a loop in Java that calls the save() method for each record. Initial tests show that a basic insert operation takes over 10 minutes. Hibernate retains every object in the session-level cache until the transaction concludes, leading to high memory consumption. Enabling batching with the jdbc.batch_size setting improves performance by about 23%, but high memory usage persists. Application-side caching of IDs is faster than database-side caching, achieving a 30% performance gain. Using saveAll() results in minimal improvement as it still calls save() in a loop. Enabling reWriteBatchedInserts in the JDBC driver allows for multi-row inserts, reducing operation time to 4 minutes and 37 seconds. Clearing the session-level cache with EntityManager further optimizes memory usage, resulting in an 18-second time gain. Setting order_inserts=true enhances batching efficiency. With all optimizations, insertion time is reduced to 4 minutes and 19 seconds. A custom data insertion layer can be created to generate INSERT statements, with reflection being a straightforward but not optimal method. Prepared statements improve performance and security, with an efficient batch size of 5,000 records. PostgreSQL's COPY command facilitates faster bulk data transfers than multi-row inserts. Integrating COPY with Spring transactions enhances performance, and parallelizing the insertion process with a ThreadPoolExecutor significantly improves speed and memory usage.

Winsage

January 6, 2026

Windows 11 Trails Older OS Versions in ThinkPad X220 Speed Tests

Windows 11 has been tested on a Lenovo ThinkPad X220, revealing it to perform poorly compared to its predecessors, particularly Windows 8.1, which excelled in benchmarks for boot times and application launches. The test involved various Windows versions (XP, Vista, 7, 8.1, 10, and 11) on the same aging hardware, highlighting that Windows 11 consistently finished last in most categories. The ThinkPad X220 does not meet Windows 11’s minimum requirements, lacking essential components like TPM 2.0 and a compatible processor, which may have skewed the results. Critics argue that using outdated hardware for testing is not representative, suggesting that a fair comparison would involve flagship devices from each generation. Windows 11's architecture is designed for modern multicore CPUs and SSDs, which may struggle on older hardware. Additionally, Windows 11 has heavier overheads due to advanced security features, which consume resources that older operating systems do not. User feedback indicates frustration with Windows 11's performance on legacy hardware compared to leaner alternatives like Linux. Despite Microsoft promoting optimizations in Windows 11, these did not manifest in the ThinkPad test, and the findings raise concerns for businesses considering upgrades as Windows 10 approaches its end-of-support date in 2025.