Slow performance - Windows 11 or my hardware?

[Lodreus]

Hi,

For the past few months I've noticed my PC performance declining to the point where I am having to restart more often than normal to clear the trouble. The poor performance became too great to the point I had to reset Windows (Main drive only). Since then it's been... so-so, but still sluggish at times.

i5-9600k
AMD Radeon RX 5700
RAM DDR4 16GB
SSD 840 EVO 250GB
3 HDD's
EVEA 600W

I wanna say Windows 11 has been the source of it all, or partly. I've had this setup for long time now and while I do plan to upgrade I wanna start with the RAM.

I've been debating whether to dual-boot Linux Mint and handle my work on Linux only and game on Windows, but it's inconvenient for me. And, I don't want to run a VM.

Anyone on Windows 11 notice the same, and/or what do you recommend?

Thanks.

[Viking2121]

Andrius227 původně napsal:

I think the cpu is too slow. 6 cores without hyperthreading is very limiting.

Hyperthreading is very important for older cpus. I have an old 3rd gen i5 thats basically unusable now but i also have a 2nd gen i7 that still runs great (on win10) because it has hyperthreading.

Nah, Got Win 11 23h2 on a old Q6600, 2.6ghz quad core with 8GB of DDR2, and a 8400gs and a 480GB PNY SSD, its no gaming machine, but general use, its snappy, web browser does just fine, if I didn't know better, I wouldn't know its on a system from 2006 lol.

6 cores with out HT is plenty for general use and gaming, maybe not quite 4k or even 1080p AAA titles good, but should do it just fine. I had a 9700k system an it its just 8 cores, no HT with a Vega 64, and it did amazing on Win 11, better then I thought it would really. Even played Forza Motorsport on it and FH5 and BF 2042 on it before I sold it.

Deff not the CPU in my opinion.

[mtono]

in my experience windows 11 needs a very, very fast machine to run properly. why i cant say. i switched back to windows 10, because i do not own such fast machine for windows 11 to run on. the minimum requirements for windows 11 are for example a 2600 amd cpu. why? because windows 11 is different. so what? buy a very fast pc or use windows 10. that is what i experienced.
cu

[kingjames488]

ya, win11 is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥...

idk wtf people are talking about trying to tell you it's bad because you haven't updated your drivers or w.e... I've been running win7 for over a decade hardly updating drivers and it's not just completely deterierated at the rate this win11 system with the new faulty intel chips has... they're probably under-clocking everything to save intel's ass at this point.

[mtono]

i want to use windows 10 and i am convinced, that i can run it as long as there is a antivirus software running on it, in case windows 10 defender isnt updated anymore. if you know what i mean? when steam doesnt support windows 10 anymore, i need a faster machine, too.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Win10 will still get Security Updates until Jan 2028, so of course Defender is up to date on it. Defender in Win11 is not much different aside from some changes to the defaults.

By the time Win10 goes unsupported for real by apps and services; we will most likely already be headed into 2030+

[Viking2121]

kingjames488 původně napsal:

ya, win11 is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥...

idk wtf people are talking about trying to tell you it's bad because you haven't updated your drivers or w.e... I've been running win7 for over a decade hardly updating drivers and it's not just completely deterierated at the rate this win11 system with the new faulty intel chips has... they're probably under-clocking everything to save intel's ass at this point.

You do know his CPU is a 9600k right? But hey, staying on a OS thats loosing more and more support every day, good for you, If I had a cookie, I'd give ya a cookie for your efforts.

[kingjames488]

Viking2121 původně napsal:

kingjames488 původně napsal:

ya, win11 is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥...

idk wtf people are talking about trying to tell you it's bad because you haven't updated your drivers or w.e... I've been running win7 for over a decade hardly updating drivers and it's not just completely deterierated at the rate this win11 system with the new faulty intel chips has... they're probably under-clocking everything to save intel's ass at this point.

You do know his CPU is a 9600k right? But hey, staying on a OS thats loosing more and more support every day, good for you, If I had a cookie, I'd give ya a cookie for your efforts.

idk how any of that has to do with the OS win11 being a lemon.

[Lodreus]

AmaiAmai původně napsal:

What exactly do you mean by "declining performance?"

Also, if you have old HDDs you can try disconnecting them to see if the issue is actually one that is close to failing. If an HDD is close to failing,

Windows can slow down even if it's not the OS drive because of automated checking and other processes like drive indexing (and search indexing, etc.). On a bad mechanical disk this will cause a massive loss in performance, SSDs will just blue screen or the PC will freeze once it gets bad enough .

If any of those drives are over 5 years, I would test performance with them connected and disconnected if it is an easy test.

If you leave the connected and turn off controller in BIOS it is not the same thing because some BIOS still keep the devices connected, but hide them from the operating system. If the drive is bad and shorting the port, the operating system won't see the drive but still get the signal that the port is shorting and run a check there.

--

One last thing is if you have CSM on for a Linux OS, make sure Windows was installed in UEFI. You can verify it with a simple tool like HWInfo or use Windows like described here:

https://kb.parallels.com/115815/

more complex methods if it shows blank or another value besides UEFI/Legacy (like CSM, or the value is numerical)

https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/how-to-know-if-windows-using-uefi-or-legacy.html

EDIT: forgot to add , in case your drive is failing and you want to turn indexing off until your drive completely fails...

Drive Indexing:

https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/disable_indexing_11.html

Search Indexing:

https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-search-indexer-guide/

There is a way to turn off both in the registry if some software continues to force it on even with the simple method above.

It's been two days now and I believe to have found the source of the issue. I removed a old laptop HDD that I had connected. Only used as a backup for stuff but since removing it things have gotten quicker. Hopefully, that is it! Thanks.