'Apple does this and y’all love it': Microsoft defends new Low Latency feature in Windows 11

A few days ago, Windows Latest reported that a new Low Latency Profile in Windows 11 could make budget rigs perform better. Effectively, it ramps up CPU usage for certain high-priority tasks, which allows it to open and interact with elements of Windows 11 much quicker than before. Since it was spotted, it has been called out for putting a bandage on a wider problem, but a member of Microsoft staff has come to its defence.

Scott Hanselman, VP and member of technical staff for Microsoft AI / GitHub / Windows, has taken to X to defend this Windows update.

"Apple does this and y’all love it," Hanselman says. "See it yourself. Let windows cook."

To let Windows cook is to acknowledge that it is still in process. This means Microsoft is still continuing to work on its Low Latency profiles going forward. Hanselman says, "All modern operating systems do this, including macOS and Linux. It's not 'cheating'; this is how modern systems make apps feel fast: they temporarily boost the CPU speed and prioritise interactive tasks to reduce latency."

Following up on this original tweet, Hanselman says, "Your smartphone already does this. Constantly. Every touch wakes cores, boosts clocks, renders a frame, then drops back to idle milliseconds later. You’ve discovered dynamic frequency scaling."

The Low Latency mode is currently in early testing for Windows Insiders. Early testing shows that the CPU boost opens apps like Edge and outlook 40% faster, and the Start menu all the way up to 70% faster. CPU usage spikes up to almost its max to open up apps, then spins back down again afterwards, and Windows Latest spotted peaks of almost 100% in use.

If you have a beefy rig already, you may not notice a slight increase, but if you have limited cores and performance to work with in the first place, being able to reallocate power at the right moment feels like a smart move.

Windows 11 already sees quite a lot of hate, partially because of the litany of bad Windows 11 bugs over the last year, Microsoft's insistence on using AI, and its own controversies outside of Windows. This could explain why some are very against the new mode. Microsoft taking any shortcuts to better performance leads some to believe it may not actually improve Windows 11 on a structural level. In fairness, just last week, it was revealed that Windows 11 is full of old code.

Whether or not that belief holds any water is still to be seen, but the likes of Linux have benefited greatly from Microsoft's past mistakes. Personally, though, with the memory crisis gutting rigs, I'm happy to take any free performance boosts I can get.