Performance Improvements Archives

Winsage

December 23, 2024

New Windows 11 24H2 bug list: 12 reasons to avoid this update for now

On October 1, Microsoft released the 2024 update for Windows 11, named Windows 11 24H2, which includes an upgraded Copilot AI, a revamped File Explorer, and performance improvements. The update is available through the Windows Update screen or can be downloaded from Microsoft's website. However, the rollout has encountered several bugs, prompting Microsoft to temporarily halt the update for certain devices. Key issues reported include: 1. Conflicts with Ubisoft games, causing freezes or crashes. 2. Problems with the Auto HDR feature leading to incorrect color displays or unresponsive games. 3. Incompatibility with Easy Anti-Cheat software, resulting in blue screens for users with Intel's Alder Lake+ processors. 4. Blue screens due to driver incompatibilities, particularly with Intel's Smart Sound Technology and certain hardware configurations. 5. A bug causing the mouse pointer to disappear in Chromium-based applications. 6. Erratic internet connectivity issues, with some devices unable to obtain a valid IP address. 7. A time zone setting issue preventing users without administrative privileges from changing their time zone. 8. Problems with the clipboard history feature appearing empty despite copied items. 9. Network sharing issues where devices fail to appear in the network list. 10. Printer setup difficulties for users of Copilot+ PCs, particularly with HP, Canon, and Brother printers. 11. Audio output issues for users utilizing Dirac Audio technology. 12. Microsoft Outlook failing to launch for users relying on Google Workspace Sync. Microsoft has acknowledged these issues and is working on patches and solutions. Users are advised to delay upgrading to the 2024 version until these problems are resolved.

Winsage

December 23, 2024

Your Windows 11 PC is acting up? 4 essential settings I always check first

Windows 11 users may experience a decline in performance due to resource-heavy applications, unoptimized settings, or malware. A simple reboot can refresh the RAM and system connections. To enhance performance, users can: 1. Download the latest updates by checking the Windows Update section in Settings and installing any pending patches. Users can revert to a previous version if performance issues arise post-update. 2. Disable startup applications through the Task Manager to prevent them from launching at boot, which can improve system performance. OneDrive syncing can also be paused to reduce slowdowns. 3. Deactivate unused features, such as notifications and Transparency Effects, to free up system resources. 4. Remove malware by installing a robust antivirus program. Windows Security provides basic protection, but alternatives like Bitdefender Total Security or AVG Antivirus may offer more comprehensive security against threats.

AppWizard

December 17, 2024

Google urges Android developers to prep for 16 KB memory page

Android developers are preparing for a transition to a 16 KB memory page size, expected to improve performance by 5–10% across applications and games. Google has introduced developer options for testing on Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 devices, with support from other OEMs like Samsung and Xiaomi anticipated. Developers using native code must assess and rebuild their apps, ensuring compatibility with the new page size by upgrading to Android Gradle Plugin version 8.5.1 or later and using NDK version r28 or later. Applications without native code will remain compatible without modification. Testing for compatibility can be done using emulators or physical devices like the Pixel 8/8 Pro and future Pixel 9 models. Developers are advised to avoid hardcoding assumptions about memory page sizes to prevent compatibility issues.

Winsage

December 14, 2024

Rising to the TOPS: How will NPUs and Windows AI grow in 2025?

In 2024, Microsoft introduced the "Copilot+ PC" branding for AI-capable laptops, while Apple launched Apple Intelligence. These developments have led to mixed outcomes, with features like real-time translations and on-device speech-to-text being beneficial, but others, such as Windows Recall, still proving their value. By 2025, mainstream developers are expected to integrate on-device AI into Windows applications, influencing consumer purchasing decisions. The term "TOPS" (Trillions of Operations Per Second) is becoming important for evaluating the AI performance of Windows laptops, with a minimum of 40 TOPS required for Microsoft's "Copilot PC+" designation. Qualcomm's Copilot+ PCs reported around 45 TOPS, significantly higher than Intel's 11 TOPS. By the end of 2024, premium Windows laptops are expected to see a three- to four-fold increase in NPU performance compared to 2023 models. Analysts speculate further performance improvements may occur towards the end of 2025. Despite the potential for a two- to three-fold enhancement in on-device AI performance, experts caution against overemphasizing TOPS figures, which may not accurately reflect real-world performance. The lack of a unified API for leveraging NPU capabilities in Windows complicates matters for users of Copilot+ laptops without Qualcomm chips. Although AMD and Intel have released competitive chips, Qualcomm currently holds an advantage with exclusive support for certain applications. Microsoft is promoting its low-level machine learning API (DirectML) and the Windows Copilot Runtime, which may enhance the Copilot+ PC ecosystem. While cloud-based AI solutions remain an option, the cost of these services is expected to rise, making on-device AI more appealing. The introduction of ChatGPT Pro highlights the financial implications of cloud access compared to on-device NPU usage, which incurs no additional costs. The pace of on-device AI adoption in Windows' software ecosystem is anticipated to accelerate in 2025.

Tech Optimizer

December 13, 2024

Benchmark Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with Dedicated Log Volumes

Organizations face challenges in maintaining the performance of mission-critical databases under demanding workloads. Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) offers a managed, cost-effective, and scalable solution. In PostgreSQL, transactions are logged in a Write-Ahead Log (WAL) buffer before being stored in a WAL segment, which is crucial for data recovery and replication. The performance of these transactions is linked to the storage system for WAL segments. By default, PostgreSQL stores all files, including WAL, in one location, but separating WAL storage can enhance performance. Amazon introduced the Dedicated Log Volume (DLV) feature, allowing users to store WAL segments on a separate volume of 1,024 GiB with 3,000 Provisioned IOPS. DLV features write coalescing, reducing IOPS demand by consolidating log writes into larger operations, improving throughput and efficiency while potentially lowering costs. A benchmarking solution involves executing a script on an Amazon EC2 instance to evaluate performance across two RDS for PostgreSQL instances: one with DLV enabled and one without. To benchmark, prerequisites include launching an Amazon EC2 Linux instance, installing pgbench, and creating two RDS instances—one with DLV and one without. The benchmarking script resets WAL statistics and simulates a workload with 64 concurrent clients processing half a million transactions each. The infrastructure for benchmarking includes an EC2 instance with 16 vCPUs and 128 GiB memory, and two RDS instances with 64 vCPUs and 512 GiB memory each, using IO2 storage with 10,000 PIOPS. Key database configuration parameters impact performance, particularly those related to commit, checkpoint, and WAL settings. The benchmarking script uses pgbench to create a TPC-B-like workload and measures performance metrics such as transactions per second (TPS) and latency. Results indicate that enabling DLV significantly reduces runtime from 77 minutes to 40 minutes (a 92.5% improvement), increases TPS by 91.83%, and reduces latency by 95.56%. Key WAL statistics show improvements in write and sync times, confirming DLV's effectiveness in enhancing database performance. Monitoring techniques for DLV include using Amazon CloudWatch for metrics like IOPS and latency, and PostgreSQL's pg_stat_wal for detailed WAL activity statistics. The DLV feature is compatible with PIOPS storage types and supported in specific PostgreSQL versions across all regions.

Winsage

December 11, 2024

Windows 10 support is ending. Why should you upgrade to Windows 11 now?

Date of the online workshop: December 20, 2024 Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Format: Online Webinar Key topics covered in the webinar: - Assessing technical devices for Windows 11 Pro deployment - Increasing competitive edge with performance and AI-enhanced features in Windows 11 Pro - Simplifying deployment for a smooth transition to Windows 11 Pro Reported benefits of Windows 11 Pro: - 58% drop in security incidents with new devices - 42% faster completion of demanding workloads on average - 62% drop in security incidents due to hardware-backed protection - 25% faster deployment of modern Windows 11 Pro PCs - All-day battery life and accelerated performance options available Speaker: Rajesh Sharma, Commercial Master Trainer at Microsoft Quote from Yusuf Mehdi, Executive Vice President, Consumer, CMO, Microsoft: “With the Windows 10 End of Support moment, now is the time to move to Windows 11 with confidence.” Testimonial from Thomas Kaiser, Technical Lead, IT at Klöckner Pentaplast: Migration to Windows 11 has significantly reduced the time required for PC upgrades.

AppWizard

December 10, 2024

Use This Trick To Optimize Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Your PC

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has been released, developed by MachineGames. The game has high system requirements, particularly for ray tracing. Troy Baker voices Indiana Jones. Performance testing on a high-end rig with a Geforce RTX 4080 indicates that VRAM significantly affects performance. For optimal settings at various resolutions, 8GB, 10GB, and 12GB of VRAM are recommended for different quality settings. Using DLSS frame generation requires additional VRAM. The game utilizes path tracing for lighting calculations, impacting visual effects like sun shadows and reflections. Benchmarks show performance results at 1440p and 4K with various settings. Players may experience pop-in issues, which can be temporarily mitigated by entering a command. The game is available on PC and Xbox Series X|S, with a PS5 release planned for spring 2025 and accessible via Xbox Game Pass.

Winsage

December 6, 2024

Phi Silica, small but mighty on-device SLM

The Applied Sciences team has developed the small language model (SLM) Phi Silica, which enhances power efficiency, inference speed, and memory efficiency for Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs using Snapdragon X Series NPUs. Phi Silica is designed for on-device use and supports multiple languages, featuring a 4k context length. Microsoft announced that developers will have access to the Phi Silica API starting January 2025. The Copilot+ PCs can perform over 40 trillion operations per second, achieving significant performance improvements when connected to the cloud. Phi Silica utilizes a Cyber-EO compliant derivative of Phi-3.5-mini, and its architecture includes components such as a tokenizer, detokenizer, embedding model, transformer block, and language model head. The model's context processing consumes only 4.8mWh of energy on the NPU, with a 56% improvement in power consumption compared to CPU operation. Phi Silica features 4-bit weight quantization for efficiency, rapid time to first token, and high accuracy across languages. The model was developed using QuaRot for low-precision inference, achieving 4-bit quantization with minimal accuracy loss. Techniques like weight sharing and memory-mapped embeddings were employed to optimize memory usage, resulting in a ~60% reduction in memory consumption. Innovations such as a sliding window for context processing and a dynamic KV cache were introduced to expand context length. The model has undergone safety alignment and is subject to Responsible AI assessments and content moderation measures.

Winsage

November 8, 2024

How (and why) to roll back Windows updates on your PC

Windows update KB5043145 caused some users to experience the blue screen of death instead of performance improvements. Before rolling back updates, users should check for adequate hard drive space, restart the system, attempt to reinstall updates, disconnect non-essential hardware, check for conflicts in Device Manager, ensure antivirus software is not interfering, and verify that the Windows Update service is activated. To troubleshoot update issues, Windows 11 users can run the Windows Update troubleshooter from Settings, while Windows 10 users can access it through Update & Security. Users can also utilize system restore points to revert to a previous state, use the Reset Windows Update Tool to repair update components, manually install updates from the Microsoft update catalog, or reset and restart update services via command prompt. If all else fails, reinstalling Windows may be necessary, though it could result in data loss.

AppWizard

November 7, 2024

First Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered PC Patch brings performance and stability improvements

Nixxes has released Patch 1.1 for Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, which includes bug fixes and performance enhancements. Key fixes include resolving a crash related to mouse and keyboard controls, addressing disappearing or flickering shadows in Meridian for ultrawide resolutions, and correcting a floating bow issue during cinematics. The update also aligns the audio volume of pre-rendered cut scenes with gameplay. Improvements have been made to Steam Input, HUD markers for objectives, and various user interface elements, alongside general performance and stability enhancements. A PSN account is required to access the remaster, and there are no plans to remove this requirement. The update will be automatically downloaded via Steam.