Windows 11 includes an optional OS graphics feature called Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling (abbreviated as HAGS), and this performance analysis will showcase gaming using the Gigabyte AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER. We will compare the performance of 26 PC games with HAGS on versus HAGS off using our latest recommended GeForce Game Ready driver, 512.15, and Windows 11 version 21H2.

The Windows 10 May 2020 Update (version 20H1) added this feature, and we tested it using this Windows version in November 2020. Unfortunately, we saw that the HAGS feature led to performance inconsistencies on Windows 10. That made us not recommend it for general use at the time. We’re now revisiting HAGS performance using the latest Windows 11 public build to see if it is finally worth it.

You can enable HAGS through the Windows 11 “Default graphics settings” menu as long as you satisfy its requirements: Windows 10 v20H1 or newer, a supported GPU (Pascal onwards from NVIDIA, and RX 5600 onwards from AMD), and HAGS compatible GPU drivers.

This time, our testing platform is a recent install of Windows 11 64-bit Pro Edition, an i9-12900K with stock clocks, an ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4 motherboard, and 32GB of T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE DDR4 3600MHz. The games tested, settings, hardware, GeForce drivers, and Windows 11 build are identical except for the HAGS’ states we compare (on vs. off).

Before offering the performance data and charts of each different analysis scenario, it’s important to describe both the hardware and software configuration used in our testing, as well as the analysis methodology.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4 motherboard (Intel Z690 chipset, v.1008 BIOS)
• T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3600 MHz CL14 XMP), supplied by TeamGroup
• Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 3080 MASTER 10GB (rev. 1.0); v.F4 VBIOS, stock clocks
• 1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• 2 x WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD
• 1 x TeamGroup MP33 M.2 PCIe 1TB SSD
• Corsair RM850x, 850W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28? IPS UltraHD (3840×2160) 60Hz 5ms FreeSync Monitor for testing games at 2160p resolution.
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS QuadHD (2560 x 1440) 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor for testing games at 1440p resolution.

Test Configuration – Software

• NVIDIA GeForce 512.15 drivers; ‘High Quality’ and ‘prefer maximum performance’ (on a per-game profile-basis); Shader Cache Size ‘Unlimited’ (globally); fixed refresh rate (globally).
• We enable Resizable BAR (why?).
• V-Sync application controlled in the control panel, V-Sync off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 11 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v21H2, High-performance power plan, HAGS off, Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off, Control Flow Guard (CFG) off on a per-game basis.
• We do not install GIGABYTE and ASUS tools.
• Latest DirectX
• All 26 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v.1.2.3
• UNIGINE Superposition, v.1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), the latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean, and restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

GeForce Driver Suite-related

• We use DCH Game Ready drivers.
• The display driver is installed.
• We install the latest version of PhysX.

Game Benchmarks-related

• We use the corresponding built-in or custom benchmark sequence.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• We use CapFrameX for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in or custom benchmark sequence.
• Consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that can be aggregated by CapFrameX using the following method:
  • ‘Aggregate excluding outliers’:
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• We compare and value the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of gain/loss, by setting the following thresholds to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid and non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when evaluating raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when evaluating frame time consistency; after applying our custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 26 PC Games

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Chernobylite (DX11)
• Days Gone (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
• Far Cry New Dawn (DX11)
• God of War (DX11)
• Neon Noir (DX11; Loop Mode)

DX12 Games

• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (DX12)
• Borderlands 3 (DX12)
• Call of Duty: Vanguard (DX12)
• Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12)
• DIRT 5 (DX12)
• F1 2021 (DX12)
• Far Cry 6 (DX12)
• Forza Horizon 5 (DX12)
• Ghostwire: Tokyo (DX12)
• Hitman 3 (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12)
• LEGO® Builder’s Journey (DX12)
• Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX12)
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• DOOM Eternal (VK)
• Quake 2 RTX (VK; v.1.5.0)
• Strange Brigade (VK)
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood (VK)

NVIDIA Control Panel settings

Here are the global NVIDIA Control Panel settings:

Both ‘High-Quality’ values for texture filtering-quality setting and ‘Prefer maximum performance’ for power management mode are set on a per-game or program profile basis via Manage 3D Settings > Program settings tab.

The Performance Summary Charts with 26 Games

Below are the summary charts of 26 games used to compare the games’ performance changes with HAGS enabled and disabled using the AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER.

You can see the list of graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in or custom game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Days Gone, Far Cry New Dawn, and Far Cry 6 tested at 3840×2160 resolution. You may click on each chart to open a pop-up for the best viewing.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. We display the low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time and to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values.

There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frametimes consistency or stability between the different states of the HAGS feature. We applied the following custom formula to calculate the stability gains or losses:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use purple for the significant improvements or orange font for regressions.

Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling Performance Charts ( On vs. Off)

Notes on Windows 11 Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling performance (On vs. Off)

For the game benchmarks, although most games show no significant performance differences with HAGS enabled, we see significant improvements in Ghostwire: Tokyo (DX12), Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DXR), and Wolfenstein: Youngblood (RTX) in terms of frametime consistency; but also noteworthy performance regressions in Ghostwire: Tokyo (DX12) in terms of raw performance, LEGO® Builder’s Journey (DX12 & RTX modes) and Quake 2 RTX (Vulkan Ray Pipeline & Vulkan Ray Query modes) in terms of frametime consistency. Both LEGO® Builder’s Journey and Quake 2 RTX regressions are striking and are associated with severe and consistent frametime stability and frame-pacing issues during testing and gameplay.

Also, we saw inconsistent and low GPU load in Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX12) and experienced random crashes in Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12) with HAGS enabled.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding HAGS’ state recommendation are valid for similar Ampere gaming rigs using GeForce Game Ready 512.15 driver and Windows 11 v21H2. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different GPU architectures, testing benches, GPU drivers, and MS Windows versions may vary.

Conclusion

Based on our previous results and findings, although we acknowledge that HAGS performance results are better on Windows 11 than we showed in the past using Windows 10, we still see significant performance inconsistencies that prevent us from recommending HAGS for general or global use for GeForce gamers.

Anyway, the HAGS feature is still quite promising and can improve performance in some cases, so we also recommend doing your testing to see how it works with your gaming rig and set of favorite games.

The Windows 10 May 2021 Update (version 21H1, build 19043) started to become publicly available three weeks ago, and this performance analysis will showcase gaming using the Gigabyte AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER. We will compare the performance of 18 PC games on the latest Windows 10 May 2021 update versus the October 2020 update (version 20H2, build 19042) using GeForce Game Ready 466.27 driver.

Our testing platform is a recent install of Windows 10 64-bit Pro Edition, an i9-9900K with stock clocks, a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard, and 32GB of Kingston DDR4 3333MHz. The games tested, settings, hardware, and GeForce drivers are identical except for the Windows 10 builds we compare.

Before offering the performance data and charts of each different analysis scenario, it’s important to describe both the hardware and software configuration used in our testing as well as the analysis methodology.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i9-9900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard (Intel Z390 chipset, v.F12l BIOS)
• Kingston HyperX Predator 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3333 MHz CL16)
• Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 3080 MASTER 10GB (rev. 1.0); v.F4 VBIOS, stock clocks
• Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD
• Corsair RM750x, 750W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28? IPS UHD 4K (3840×2160) 60Hz 5ms FreeSync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate on) when testing games at 2160p resolution.
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS (2560 x 1440) 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor (G-Sync Off, Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 1440p resolution.

Test Configuration – Software

• NVIDIA GeForce 466.27 drivers; ‘High-Quality’ and ‘prefer maximum performance’ (on a per-game profile-basis); fixed refresh rate (globally).
• Resizable BAR off.
• V-Sync application controlled in the control panel, V-Sync off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 10 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v21H1, and latest updates v20H2; high-performance power plan, HAGS off, Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off.
• GIGABYTE and ASUS tools not installed.
• Latest DirectX
• All 18 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v.1.1
• UNIGINE Superposition, v.1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), the latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean, and restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

GeForce Driver Suite-related

• Standard Game Ready drivers are used.
• The display driver is installed.
• The latest version of PhysX is installed.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• The corresponding built-in or custom benchmark sequence is used.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• CapFrameX is used for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in or custom benchmark sequence.
• Consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that can be aggregated by CapFrameX using the following method:
  • ‘Aggregate excluding outliers’:
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• We compare and value the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of gain/loss, by setting the following thresholds to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid and non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when evaluating raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when evaluating frame time consistency; after applying our custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 18 PC Games, 4 Hybrid & 4 Non-Synthetic Tests

Hybrid Tests (3DMark)

• Fire Strike Ultra
• Time Spy Extreme
• DirectX Raytracing feature test
• Port Royal

Non-Synthetic Tests

• Basemark GPU
• UNIGINE Superposition
• Neon Noir (Benchmark)
• Boundary: Raytracing Benchmark

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Days Gone (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
• Far Cry New Dawn (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Ghost Recon Breakpoint (DX11)
• Neon Noir (DX11; Loop Mode)

DX12 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX12)
• Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12)
• Metro Exodus (DX12)
• Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DX12)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX12)
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Godfall (DX12)
• DIRT 5 (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint (VK)
• Strange Brigade (VK)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood (VK)
• Quake 2 RTX (VK; v.1.5.0)

NVIDIA Control Panel settings

Here are the global NVIDIA Control Panel settings:

Both ‘High-Quality’ values for texture filtering-quality setting and ‘Prefer maximum performance’ for power management mode are set on a per-game or program profile-basis via Manage 3D Settings > Program settings tab.

The Performance Summary Charts

Below are the summary charts of 18 games and 4 hybrid and 4 non-synthetic benchmarks used to compare the performance changes for the AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER from the Windows 10 October 2020 (20H2) version to the latest May 2021 (21H1) version.

You can see the list of graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in or custom game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Borderlands 3, Days Gone, and Far Cry New Dawn, tested at 3840×2160 resolution. You may click on each chart to open a pop-up for the best viewing.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. We display the low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time and to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values. There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frametimes consistency or stability between the different driver versions. To calculate the gains or losses in stability we applied our custom formula:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use purple or orange font for the significant improvements or regressions respectively.

Windows 10 May 2021 Update Performance Charts

Notes on Win dows 10 May 2021 (21H1) version performance

We found no significant differences between gaming performance on the latest Windows 10 May 2021 (21H1) version compared with October 2020 (20H2) version. Overall, the results are well within what is considered our 3% margin of error, or “benchmarking noise”.

Let’s head to our conclusion.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding Windows 10 version recommendation are valid for similar Ampere gaming rigs using GeForce Game Ready 466.27 driver. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different GPU architectures, testing benches, and GPU drivers may vary.

Conclusion

Based on our previous results and findings, we recommend upgrading to the latest Windows 10 May 2021 update (21H1) since its raw performance and smoothness or frametimes consistency level is approximately on par with the prior Windows 10 version (20H2).

From a qualitative point of view, there are important reasons that also make it advisable to upgrade to Windows 10 version 21H1 from an older build. These reasons include its higher stability, security fixes, and a few new OS features. Finally, we found the latest Windows 10 build to be stable and relatively bug-free, which is in line with what we experienced after the last October 2020 (20H2) update.

Let’s Play!

***

Rodrigo González (aka ‘RodroG’) is an enthusiast gamer and tech reviewer interested especially in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.

The Windows 10 May 2020 Update (version 20H1) added an optional OS feature called Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling (abbreviated as HAGS), and this performance analysis will showcase gaming using the Gigabyte AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER. We will compare the performance of 13 PC games with HAGS on versus HAGS off using our latest recommended GeForce Game Ready driver, 456.71, and Windows 10 version 20H2.

Currently, this OS feature is disabled by default, but you can enable it through the Windows 10 “Graphics Settings” menu as long as you satisfy its requirements: Windows 10 v20H1 or newer, a supported GPU (Pascal onwards from NVIDIA, and RX 5600 onwards from AMD), and HAGS compatible GPU drivers.

This time, our testing platform is a recent install of Windows 10 64-bit Pro Edition, an i9-9900K with stock clocks, a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard, and 32GB of Kingston DDR4 3333MHz. The games tested, settings, hardware, GeForce drivers, and Windows 10 build are identical except for the HAGS’ states we compare (on vs. off).

Before offering the performance data and charts of each different analysis scenario, it’s important to describe both the hardware and software configuration used in our testing as well as the analysis methodology.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i9-9900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard (Intel Z390 chipset, v.F9 BIOS)
• Kingston HyperX Predator 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3333 MHz CL16)
• Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 3080 MASTER 10GB; v.F2 VBIOS, stock clocks
• Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• Seagate 2TB Desktop SSHD SATA 3.1
• Seagate 2TB FireCuda SATA 3.1
• Corsair RM750x, 750W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS 2560 x 1440 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor (G-Sync Off, Fixed Refresh Rate On)

Test Configuration – Software

• NVIDIA GeForce 456.71; High Quality & prefer maximum performance (on a per-game profile-basis); fixed refresh rate (globally).
• V-Sync application controlled in the control panel, V-Sync Off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 10 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v20H2; Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features Off.
• Gigabyte software tools not installed.
• Latest DirectX
• All 13 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean & restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

GeForce Driver Suite-related

• Standard drivers are used.
• The display driver is installed.
• The latest version of PhysX is installed.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• The corresponding built-in benchmark sequence is used.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• CapFrameX is used for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in benchmark sequence.
• Consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that can be aggregated by CapFrameX using the following method:
  • “Aggregate excluding outliers”
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• To compare and value the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of Gain / Loss, the following thresholds are set to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid & non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when valuing raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when valuing frame time consistency; custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 13 PC Games, 4 Hybrid & 3 Non-Synthetic Tests

Hybrid Tests (3DMark)

• Fire Strike Ultra
• Time Spy Extreme
• DirectX Raytracing feature test
• Port Royal

Non-Synthetic Tests

• Basemark GPU
• UNIGINE Superposition
• Neon Noir (Benchmark)

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
• Far Cry New Dawn
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Ghost Recon Breakpoint (DX11)
• Neon Noir (Loop Mode)

DX12 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Metro: Exodus (DX12)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX12)
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint (VK)
• Strange Brigade (VK)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood
• Quake 2 RTX

NVIDIA Control Panel settings

Here are the global NVIDIA Control Panel settings:

Both ‘High Quality’ value for texture filtering-quality setting and ‘Prefer maximum performance’ for power management mode are set on a per-game or program profile-basis via Manage 3D Settings > Program settings tab.

The Performance Summary Charts with 13 Games

Below are the summary charts of 13 games and 4 hybrid and 3 non-synthetic benchmarks used to compare the games’ performance changes with HAGS enabled and disabled using the AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER. We list the graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Borderlands 3 and Far Cry New Dawn which are tested at 150% resolution scaling. You may click on each chart to open a pop-up for best viewing.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. We display the low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values. There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frametimes consistency or stability between the different driver versions. To calculate the gains or losses in stability we applied our custom formula:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use green or red font for the significant gains or losses respectively.

Notes on Windows 10 Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling performance (On vs. Off)

From the charts, we see no significant performance changes between HAGS on and off on for both the hybrid and non-synthetic tests.

For the built-in game benchmarks, although there aren’t significant differences in raw performance with HAGS enabled, there are some significant performance regressions in frametimes stability that affect Borderlands 3 (DX11 API mode), Metro Exodus (DX12 API mode, with RT global illumination off), and Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Vulkan API mode). Borderlands 3‘s regression is a major one and is associated with severe and consistent stuttering during testing and gameplay. The rest of the games show no significant changes in terms of frametimes consistency.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding HAGS’ state recommendation are valid for similar Ampere gaming rigs using GeForce Game Ready 456.71 driver and Windows 10 v20H2. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different GPU architectures, testing benches, GPU drivers and MS Windows 10 versions may vary.

Conclusion

Based on our previous results and findings, we do not recommend enabling HAGS in its current state, since we did not find any significant improvement both in terms of raw performance and frametimes stability, and we also find certain cases of significant regressions in frametimes consistency. This leads us to think that the full implementation and success of this OS feature are yet to come.

That said, the HAGS feature is still quite promising, and we encourage you to do your own tests to see how it works with your gaming rig and set of favorite games.

***

Rodrigo González (aka “RodroG”) is an enthusiast gamer and tech reviewer interested especially in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.

[Updated 12/22/2020 19:43 PM PT]

The Windows 10 October 2020 Update (version 20H2, build 19042) started to become publicly available last week, and this performance analysis will showcase gaming using the Gigabyte AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER. We will compare the performance of 12 PC games on the latest Windows 10 October 2020 update versus the May update (version 20H1, build 19041) using GeForce Game Ready 456.71 driver.

Our testing platform is a recent install of Windows 10 64-bit Pro Edition, an i9-9900K with stock clocks, a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard, and 32GB of Kingston DDR4 3333MHz. The games tested, settings, hardware, and GeForce drivers are identical except for the Windows 10 builds we compare.

Before offering the performance data and charts of each different analysis scenario, it’s important to describe both the hardware and software configuration used in our testing as well as the analysis methodology.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i9-9900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard (Intel Z390 chipset, v.F9 BIOS)
• Kingston HyperX Predator 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3333 MHz CL16)
• Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 3080 MASTER 10GB; v.F2 VBIOS, stock clocks
• Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• Seagate 2TB Desktop SSHD SATA 3.1
• Seagate 2TB FireCuda SATA 3.1
• Corsair RM750x, 750W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS 2560 x 1440 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor (G-Sync Off, Fixed Refresh Rate On)

Test Configuration – Software

• NVIDIA GeForce 456.71 drivers; High Quality & prefer maximum performance (on a per-game profile-basis); fixed refresh rate (globally).
• V-Sync application controlled in the control panel, V-Sync Off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 10 64-bit Pro edition, v20H2 (build 19042.576), and v20H1 (build 19041.576); Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features Off.
• Gigabyte software tools not installed.
• Latest DirectX
• All 12 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean & restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

GeForce Driver Suite-related

• Standard drivers are used.
• The display driver is installed.
• The latest version of PhysX is installed.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• The corresponding built-in benchmark sequence is used.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• CapFrameX is used for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in benchmark sequence.
• Consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that can be aggregated by CapFrameX using the following method:
  • “Aggregate excluding outliers”
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• To compare and value the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of Gain / Loss, the following thresholds are set to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid & non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when valuing raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when valuing frame time consistency; custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 12 PC Games, 3 Hybrid & 3 Non-Synthetic Tests

Hybrid Tests (3DMark)

• Fire Strike Ultra
• Time Spy Extreme
• Port Royal

Non-Synthetic Tests

• Basemark GPU
• UNIGINE Superposition
• Neon Noir (Benchmark)

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Far Cry 5
• Ghost Recon Breakpoint (DX11)
• Neon Noir (Loop Mode)

DX12 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Metro: Exodus (DX12)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint (VK)
• Strange Brigade (VK)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood
• Quake 2 RTX

[Updated 12/22/2020 19:43 PM PT]

NVIDIA Control Panel settings

Here are the global NVIDIA Control Panel settings:

Both ‘High-Quality’ value for texture filtering-quality setting and ‘Prefer maximum performance’ for power management mode are set on a per-game or program profile-basis via Manage 3D Settings > Program settings tab.

The Performance Summary Charts

Below are the summary charts of 12 games and 3 hybrid and 3 non-synthetic benchmarks used to compare the performance changes for the AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER from the Windows 10 May 2020 (20H1) version to the latest October 2020 (20H2) version. We list the graphics settings on the charts, and we run the built-in game benchmarks sequence at 2560×1440, except for Borderlands 3 at 150% resolution scaling. You can open each chart in a separate window or tab for the best viewing.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. The low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) are displayed below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time and to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values. There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frame times consistency or stability between the different driver versions. To calculate the gains or losses in stability we applied our custom formula:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use green or red font for the significant gains or losses respectively.

[Updated 12/22/2020 19:43 PM PT]

Notes on Windows 10 October 2020 (20H2) version performance

We found no notable differences between gaming performance on the latest Windows 10 October 2020 (20H2) version compared with last May’s (20H1) version. Overall, the results are well within what is considered our 3% margin of error, or “benchmarking noise”. The only exception in this group of tests is a significant improvement in frametimes stability (0.2% percentile FPS) that affects Ghost Recon Breakpoint benches.

Let’s head to our conclusion.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding Windows 10 version recommendation are valid for similar Ampere gaming rigs using GeForce Game Ready 456.71 driver. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different GPU architectures, testing benches, and GPU drivers may vary.

Conclusion

Based on our previous results and findings, we recommend upgrading to the latest Windows 10 October 2020 update (20H2), since its raw performance and smoothness or frametimes consistency level is approximately on par with the prior Windows 10 version (20H1).

From a qualitative point of view, there are important reasons that also make it advisable to upgrade to Windows 10 version 20H2 from an older build. These reasons include its higher stability, security fixes, and certain new OS features. Finally, we found the latest Windows 10 build to be stable and relatively bug-free which is in contrast to what we experienced after the last May 2020 (20H1) update.

Let’s Play!

***

Rodrigo González (aka “RodroG”) is an enthusiast gamer and tech reviewer interested especially in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.