Monday, March 7th 2022
AMD Isolates Windows 11 and Windows 10 Performance Stuttering Issues to fTPM
Does it take ages for the taskbar calendar and notification center to load on your Windows 11 PC powered by an AMD Ryzen processor? Notice random stutters in performance? Chances are, the lag is caused not due to user-interface bugs by Microsoft, but hardware. AMD discovered that certain Ryzen-powered Windows 11 and Windows 10 PCs experience intermittent performance stutters when running with fTPM (firmware TPM) enabled.
The performance stutter is caused due to background memory transactions between Windows and the fTPM, to authenticate an action, as the fTPM serves the function of a hardware root of trust. Since the fTPM is part of the UEFI firmware that resides on the SPI flash EEPROM chip, the performance stutter is caused due to fTPM-related memory transactions with this chip.
AMD issued an immediate workaround, as well as announced that it's working on a fix. As a workaround, you can switch from fTPM to a discrete TPM module (or dTPM), which uses the TPM 2.0 header on your motherboard. dTPMs such as the one pictured above, have been selling on Amazon for anywhere between $50-100. Be absolutely sure to disable Bitlocker before switching between fTPM and dTPM, if you have it enabled. Or you could just wait for AMD's fix, which will be distributed by motherboard or OEM vendors, as UEFI firmware updates.
AMD expects firmware updates with the fix to start coming out around May 2022. These will use the AGESA V2 ComboPI 1.2.0.7 (or later) microcode. The latest version of AGESA in distribution is 1.2.0.6b.
Source:
AMD
The performance stutter is caused due to background memory transactions between Windows and the fTPM, to authenticate an action, as the fTPM serves the function of a hardware root of trust. Since the fTPM is part of the UEFI firmware that resides on the SPI flash EEPROM chip, the performance stutter is caused due to fTPM-related memory transactions with this chip.
AMD expects firmware updates with the fix to start coming out around May 2022. These will use the AGESA V2 ComboPI 1.2.0.7 (or later) microcode. The latest version of AGESA in distribution is 1.2.0.6b.
81 Comments on AMD Isolates Windows 11 and Windows 10 Performance Stuttering Issues to fTPM
I'm not buying a scalped dTPM just to fix this, AMD. Get your shit together.
But at least AMD acknowledges it now (I mean, the video evidence is pretty clear). So we frustrated owners won't just sit there talking to ourselves like a bunch of bozos while other Ryzen owners chime in with their "no problems here on my PC, so this bug doesn't exist".
When was the last time AGESA actually worked without crippling performance or removing PBO functionality? AGESA 1202? 1203 from mid-2021? If nothing else, hoping the 5800X3D launch blesses us with a good AGESA 1207. Or maybe not.
Interesting some people say they have stuttering and some say they have none.
Guess we see whom was right :laugh:
Driver issues is one of the main reasons I've never gone amd systems.
Drivers/ firmware not to far apart :-)
I've heard that some new games are to be locked to a specific PC meaning you can't install it on any other.
Maybe asus did some mojo to the bios :cool:
I finally took a leap of faith and migrated most personal machines on Win 11. So far, so good.
In this case, the fTPM-related stuttering is very distinctive. It does not affect anything 99% of the time; it usually lasts only a few seconds, and it's easy to miss if you're not continuously focused on your PC (ie. gaming, media, audio). But when it happens it is application-agnostic, very noticeable across the board, and it's nigh impossible to confuse it with any other sort of hardware/software issue.
In the first few months I was clean installing all the time back and forth between 10 and 11, trying to figure out the L3 problem and how Win 11 scheduler clocked in games. Ran a bunch of different boards in that period with a lot of B-die tinkering. The only constant was the fTPM problem, and the difference is indisputable once aware of what's causing it. Detailed this a bunch of times elsewhere so I won't go into it, but if there's just one time that some random Redditor actually made some sense, it's this one.
Yeah isn't this just a micro code like intel does ?
I had stuttering issue in my upgraded Win10 to Win 11 install but they are gone since i reinstalled fresh.
I might still have it but VRR make them unoticeable.