Windows Hotfix Improves AMD Bulldozer Performance

Attention AMD fans, if you're running one of those newfangled Bulldozer processors in your system, how would you like a free performance boost? You can have one, so long as you're rocking a copy of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Microsoft this week rolled out a hotfix that's supposed to make things run better automagically.

"Currently, the performance of AMD Bulldozer CPUs is slower than expected. This behavior occurs because the threading logic in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 is not optimized to use the Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) scheduling feature. This feature was introduced in the Bulldozer family of AMD CPUs," Microsoft explained in a support article."

After applying the hotfix, your Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 system will fully support AMD Bulldozer processors, which will then "operate at the expected performance level." Having things run as they should is, you know, always a good thing, even if it takes a hotfix to get there.

Before you go and grab the patch, be sure to install Service Pack 1 first, as it's a prerequisite. Once SP1 is in place, you're golden, Ponyboy. You can download the hotfix from here.