From TechSpot:
AMD has put an official end to the debate surrounding Windows 10's thread scheduler and Ryzen's lower-than-expected 1080p gaming performance. In an official statement posted on the AMD gaming blog, the company says "the Windows® 10 thread scheduler is operating properly for “Zen.”"
The statement continues to say AMD "do not presently believe there is an issue with the scheduler adversely utilizing the logical and physical configurations of the architecture."
As for reported performance deltas between Windows 10 and Windows 7, AMD says that they "do not believe there is an issue with scheduling differences between the two versions of Windows", and that any performance differences are simply attributed to the software architecture differences between 7 and 10.Problems? What problems?
AMD went on to say that their new SMT technology should have a neutral or positive impact on performance (never mind all those benchmarks to the contrary), and finishes by saying that "some game optimizations for Ryzen may be possible." So, there are no problems, therefore any problems you're seering are strictly your imagination, and they'll be helping patch the non-existent performance problems on a game-by-game basis.... eventually.
Why is this AMD's best option, exactly? Ryzen benchmarks really are something of a hot mess right now, and this latest statement from AMD is basically an admission that their new hotness CPU just doesn't run as well as they were claiming prior to its launch. That's right in line with the Intel's comparative benchmarks, which show only modest gains for Kaby Lake over SkyLake, but considering how much AMD have sunk into development the new Zen architecture, if it's not going to be able to outperform Intel's Kaby Lake, that might spell serious trouble for AMD.
AMD does mention, almost in passing, that Ryzen performs equally well on both Windows 7 and Windows 10, but considering their previous, full-throated endorsement of Windows 10 as the only platform that will see full driver support for Ryzen and all other future AMD products, I don't think that's going to be enough to pull in the Windows 7 die-hards that they're losing by not outright committing to supporting Windows 7 until at least 2020. If this was meant to be some sort of dog-whistle appeal to Windows 7 AMD enthusiasts, I think it's much to quiet for any of those old dogs to really hear, and pitched outside the range of their hearing, anyway.
AMD's previous CPUs were at a significant performance disadvantage compared to Intel's i5, so the fact that Ryzen is on par with i7 is still a significant performance improvement over older AMD processors. AMD's bang-for-buck proposition hasn't changed, either, which has already prompted Intel to cut prices significantly on their line -- competition is generally good for consumers, and anyone buying a new PC can now basically pick the affordably-priced, high-powered CPU of their choice. But PC sales are still down, and neither new CPU is showing enough of a performance boost in independent testing to justify the expense of a new system. So, how does AMD benefit from taking the hit for this?
"Our new CPU really just isn't that great" certainly doesn't help sell Ryzen, and since i7/Kaby Lake isn't really a big step up from i5/Skylake, either, it doesn't look like either new CPU line is likely to boost PC sales anytime soon... which means there's nothing driving new Windows 10 installations for Microsoft, either. I guess Microsoft get the driver issue to stop being comment-worthy, but that doesn't seem like much of a benefit. Who wins here?