Yeah, Memory Integrity can cost you frames. That part's real, and it's been measured by independent testers going back to 2021, not just this month. But the actual size of that hit is way more nuanced than the panicked headlines make it sound, and on newer hardware, it's honestly kind of a non-issue. Here's what the real numbers say, and a straight answer on whether you should bother flipping it off.
What's on this page
- What the actual benchmarks show, year by year
- The real story: it's not average FPS, it's stutter
- Why the gap has been shrinking on newer hardware
- Which games and setups take the biggest hit
- The setting you should NOT touch if you use WSL or Hyper-V
- Should you actually turn it off
- How to turn it off, if you decide to
Quick note before we get into it: if you want the full rundown on what Memory Integrity actually is, why Microsoft is auto-enabling it on more PCs starting in October, and how to even check your current setting, we covered all of that in a separate guide. This article skips straight to the part you're actually here for, the performance numbers and the decision.
What the actual benchmarks show, year by year
This isn't new territory. People have been testing this exact tradeoff since at least 2021, and having several years of data actually helps here, because it shows a trend, not just a single scary number.
| Test | Hardware | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 four-CPU-platform study | Multiple desktop CPUs | 3.3% to 5.7% average FPS reduction |
| 2021 ten-game test | Intel Core i7-12700KF | 7% average FPS drop, 15% drop in 1% lows |
| 2022 Red Dead Redemption 2 test (via PCWorld) | Intel Core i7-11700 | About 7% performance loss |
| 2023 Tom's Hardware test | RTX 4090 + Core i9-13900K | Around 5% average FPS drop, up to 10% in some titles, 1% lows worsening as much as 15% |
| 2026 independent test (Counter-Strike 2) | Modern CPU | Only 1.7% to 1.9% average FPS drop |
| 2026 independent test (Cyberpunk 2077) | Modern CPU | 1.9% average FPS drop |
Look at that last row again. On current hardware, the actual hit in a real game is under 2%. That's the kind of difference you'd get from a slightly different room temperature affecting your CPU's boost clock, not something you'd notice mid-match.
The real story: it's not average FPS, it's stutter
Here's the detail almost every "Memory Integrity kills your FPS" headline glosses over. Across nearly every test listed above, the average frame rate barely moves, but the 1% low numbers, which measure your worst, choppiest moments rather than your typical frame rate, take a noticeably bigger hit. In that 2021 ten-game test, average FPS dropped 7% but the 1% lows dropped 15%, more than double. Tom's Hardware's 2023 test found something similar.
What that actually means in practice: you probably won't notice your overall FPS counter reading a bit lower. What you might notice is an occasional stutter or hitch during a hectic moment, the kind of thing that feels random but is actually Memory Integrity's verification step briefly getting in the way. If you're a competitive player who's sensitive to frame-time consistency more than the big number in the corner, that's the part actually worth caring about, not the average.
Why the gap has been shrinking on newer hardware
The 2026 test results above (under 2% average impact) are a real, measurable improvement over the 5 to 7% numbers from 2021 through 2023. That's not a coincidence. Modern CPUs increasingly ship with dedicated hardware features built specifically to speed up the kind of virtualization checks Memory Integrity relies on, instead of leaning on slower software workarounds. Microsoft has said as much directly: current-generation processors handle the extra step "with little change to frame rates," while older CPUs relying on software emulation see the bigger hit. The benchmark history backs that up almost exactly.
Practical takeaway: if you built or bought your PC in the last couple of years, you're much less likely to feel this at all compared to someone still running a five or six-year-old CPU.
Which games and setups take the biggest hit
Not every game responds the same way. CPU-bound games, meaning titles where your processor is the bottleneck rather than your graphics card, tend to show the clearest impact, since Memory Integrity's overhead is a CPU cost. Fast-paced shooters that are already sensitive to frame-time consistency, where a single stutter can cost you a fight, are the genre most likely to make this noticeable. On the flip side, GPU-bound AAA titles running on a high-end graphics card tend to show smaller average losses, because your GPU, not your CPU's security overhead, is what's actually limiting your frame rate in the first place.
If you're already chasing performance problems that don't seem tied to any specific setting, it's worth ruling out other culprits too. Stuttering that shows up across different games regardless of settings sometimes points to a driver timing issue rather than Memory Integrity specifically, our guide on fixing DPC latency spikes on Windows 11 walks through how to tell the difference.
The setting you should NOT touch if you use WSL or Hyper-V
This is the part that trips people up. Memory Integrity and Virtualization-based Security aren't quite the same toggle, even though they're closely related. VBS is the broader foundation, and it's also what powers useful, unrelated features like the Windows Subsystem for Linux, Hyper-V, Docker Desktop, and Windows Sandbox. If you use any of those for work or development, ripping out VBS entirely to chase a few extra frames will break those tools.
The good news: you don't have to choose between gaming performance and your dev tools. Disabling Memory Integrity specifically, rather than turning off the Virtual Machine Platform feature underneath it, leaves WSL and Hyper-V working fine. If you're the kind of person running virtual machines or containers alongside your games, that distinction is exactly what you want to remember before touching anything.
Should you actually turn it off
| Your situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Newer CPU (last 2-3 years), casual or non-competitive gaming | Leave it on. The measured hit is under 2%, not worth the tradeoff |
| Older CPU, competitive or CPU-bound fast-paced games | Worth testing with it off, this is where the historical 5-15% numbers actually showed up |
| Machine also used for work, banking, or unfamiliar downloads | Leave it on regardless of hardware age, the security tradeoff isn't worth it on a machine handling sensitive stuff |
| You use WSL, Hyper-V, Docker Desktop, or VMs | Disable Memory Integrity only, never the Virtual Machine Platform feature |
One more thing worth doing before you touch this setting at all: benchmark your own actual games first. Every number in this article comes from someone else's specific hardware and specific game list. Your mileage genuinely will vary, and the only way to know if this is actually costing you anything is to run your own before-and-after comparison in the games you actually play.
How to turn it off, if you decide to
Search Core Isolation in your Windows search bar, open it, and flip the Memory Integrity toggle off, then restart. That's genuinely the whole process, no command line or registry editing required. If you're not sure whether it's currently on or how the auto-enable rollout affects your specific PC, our companion guide covers the full checking process and Microsoft's eligibility requirements in more detail.
If your PC has been feeling sluggish for reasons unrelated to this one specific setting, it's worth running through a broader check too, our Windows 11 running slow fixes guide covers the more common causes. And if you've already been tuning your system for maximum gaming performance, this pairs naturally with our breakdown of whether to turn hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling on or off, another Windows setting where the "just turn it on, it's free performance" advice isn't actually true for everyone.
The bottom line
The scary "Memory Integrity kills your FPS" framing is based on real data, but it's mostly old data from older hardware. On a modern CPU, the actual measured cost in real 2026 testing is under 2% average FPS, small enough that most people genuinely won't notice. The exception is competitive players on older, CPU-bound setups chasing consistent frame times, where the historical 5 to 15% hit to 1% lows was real and measurable. Test your own setup before assuming either extreme, and if you do turn it off, do it by disabling Memory Integrity specifically, not the whole VBS foundation your other tools might depend on.
How this was verified
Every benchmark figure in this article is attributed to a specific, dated, named third-party test: a 2021 four-CPU study, a separate 2021 ten-game test, PCWorld's 2022 coverage of a Tom's Hardware Red Dead Redemption 2 benchmark, Tom's Hardware's own 2023 RTX 4090 test, and independent 2026 testing using 3DMark, Counter-Strike 2, and Cyberpunk 2077, all cross-checked via live search on 2026-09-14. No benchmark in this piece was run by this site, and none of the figures are estimates or rounded guesses, they're what those named tests reported.
