Microsoft has pushed out an emergency fix to squash a bug in tow of the most recent Windows 10 update that caused frame rate problems for PC gamers.
The problems came from the cumulative updated pushed out to Windows 10, with users reporting that they were experiencing lower than expected frame rates and stuttering in games. Some users fixed this by rolling back the updates to older versions, but that's hardly a good long term fix.
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But Microsoft kicked into gear to solve the problem noting on its known issues and notification section of its support website that: "A small subset of users have reported lower than expected performance in games after installing KB5000842 or later updates. Most users affected by this issue are running games full screen or borderless windowed modes and using two or more monitors."
"This issue is resolved using Known Issue Rollback (KIR). Please note that it might take up to 24 hours for the resolution to propagate automatically to consumer devices and non-managed business devices. Restarting your device might help the resolution apply to your device faster," Microsoft added.
You may have to b patient and wait for the fix to rollout top your Windows 10 desktop or laptop. But make sure you have Windows Update turned on and the bug should be squashed in due course.
Windows 10 gaming hampered by update bug
The frame rate bug and problems cropped up from the two recent security updates to Windows 10. Specifically, they stem from two updates with the Knowledge Base numbers KB5001330 and KB5001337.
Posters on Reddit have complained that there seem to be a multitude of issues that are affecting these updates. KB5001330 seemed to be copping the most flack, but it seems that users with VSync enabled are saw big performance hits.
It’s interesting to note that Nvidia has previously pointed at KB5000842, which Microsoft pushed to users on March 29, as also having some problems. Specifically, computers capable of getting 180 frames per second in Overwatch were seeing performance drop to 40-45 fps when VSync was turned on. The target was 60 fps which should be easily achievable. You could, of course, stop using VSync and live with the ghastly screen tearing, if this is your issue.
Tech site NextV also reported that installing the two updates, KB5001330 and KB5001337, could even result in a blue screen of death for some users generating multiple error messages. This could be a serious problem if Windows can’t auto-recover itself (it should) and so for safety you might want to consider not installing any of these updates yet until Microsoft's fix has well and truly been pushed out.
Using old versions of Windows is generally not a great idea of course, but if the updates make your PC much worse, it’s probably preferable to just take the chance and update when Microsoft releases a new update which addresses these issues.
