A New Windows 10 Update Is Wrecking Game Performance

Anyone who’s been paying attention to Microsoft’s Windows 10 update track record will be unsurprised to hear there’s another bad update rolling out. Numerous reports around the web describe plummeting game performance following the most recent April Windows update, which included a cumulative patch known as KB5001330 or KB5001337, depending on your Windows version.

It didn’t take long for affected users to narrow down the cause of their sudden game performance issues. As it turns out, the same issue existed earlier this month when the patches were optional, but now they’re rolling out to everyone with the same problems still present. If you’re on Windows 10 version 2004 (20H1), the patch is KB5001330, but if you’re still on Windows 10 versions 1930 or 1909, it’s KB5001337. You can check by going to your Windows Update history menu.

Gamers say the patch causes poor frame rates, stuttering related to what’s being displayed on the screen, and buggy v-sync. On Reddit, one user explains that attempting to run screen sharing causes games such as Doom Eternal to drop to unplayable frame rates. And lest you think this is a hardware issue, many of the complainants have rare, high-end video cards like the RTX 3070, which will cost you $1,300-1,700 right now due to supply issues. For what it’s worth, I haven’t seen performance issues in games on the KB5001330.

The solution here is one we’ve seen before: Uninstall the offending update. Even Nvidia has suggested anyone affected by this issue should roll back. At least one Redditor says that instantly solved the problem. However, Microsoft is just going to try and install the patch again. You’ll also have to go in and pause automatic updates, which you can do for up to 35 days. You can also use “wusa /uninstall /kb:KB5001330” in a command prompt to get rid of the patch. If you’ve got the other version of this update, just swap in that KB identifier.

There are also some scattered reports of blue screens and boot loops arising from the KB5001330 and KB5001337 patches. This is reminiscent of Microsoft’s last bungled update from March. That one caused blue screens and app crashes across a wide range of systems, particularly those that had printer drivers from Kyocera, Zebra, and others. Microsoft eventually fixed that little snafu, but here we are again just a month later. Such is life with Windows in 2021.

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