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Why are no models offered with Windows 10 anymore?

General

We ask for your understanding that the support of chip suppliers and technology partners for Windows 10 is gradually being phased out. 

We no longer provide any Windows 10 support for models introduced since 2023. Additionally, this already applied to the some models even before 2023.

  • XMG FOCUS (from M22)
  • XMG NEO (from E22)
  • XMG PRO (from E22)
  • SCHENKER WORK (from E22)
  • SCHENKER VISION (from E22)
  • SCHENKER MEDIA (from E22)
  • SCHENKER KEY (from E22)

This list includes all models since the twelfth generation of Intel Core processors and all models since the AMD Ryzen 7000 series.

E- and P-Cores since Intel Core 12th Gen

The 12th and 13th generation of Intel Core differs from previous generations in that it now has two different types of CPU cores for the first time:

  • Performance cores (P-Cores): trimmed for high performance
  • Efficiency-Core (E-Cores): trimmed for high efficiency, i.e. low energy consumption

This combination of different CPU cores is also called the "Big.LITTLE" concept. This hybrid design was first introduced by ARM in 2012. In the meantime, this principle is also being used by Apple and since 2021 for the first time also by Intel.

Hybrid design must be supported by the operating system

The interaction of these CPU cores is ensured by the new "Intel Thread Director": this technology distributes the computing tasks (i.e. the running programs and processes) between E- and P-cores in such a way that less urgent background tasks are executed on E-cores and computationally intensive tasks on P-cores. A background article can be found here:

The "Intel Thread Director" requires combined interaction of hardware and operating system.

  • Microsoft has introduced support from Windows 11 onwards. To our knowledge, backported support under Windows 10 is not planned.
  • On Linux, basic support has been provided since Linux kernel 5.18. See also: Which XMG laptops are Linux compatible?

What happens if I use Windows 10?

If you use these hybrid CPU models with Windows 10, then you sacrifice the intelligent load distribution between the different CPU cores. Tasks are then assigned to the cores relatively arbitrarily, as Windows 10 cannot distinguish between E- and P-cores. This inevitably has a negative impact on battery life and performance:

  • When single-threaded tasks are arbitrarily assigned to an e-core, performance will suffer. The E-cores offer less performance than the P-cores.
  • When less urgent background tasks run arbitrarily on P-cores, battery life will suffer. The P-cores have a slightly higher energy consumption compared to E-Cores.

Single-thread-focused scenarios include gaming as well as many content creation workloads. Although a lot of software today is optimized for the simultaneous utilization of multiple cores, there is usually one thread (the "mainu201d thread), which has a particularly high load. If this is then arbitrarily assigned to an E-core, the performance is bottlenecked. This may also have a negative effect on the performance of the other, related threads.

Workloads that are distributed evenly across all threads/cores include, for example, software video encoding (H.264, HEVC, etc.) and CPU-based rendering (Blender, Cinebench, etc.). In these special cases, the arbitrary distribution between E- and P-cores has no negative effect. But in all other operations, which are rather limited by single-thread performance, the performance loss due to Windows 10 is quite clear.

Can I bypass the E-cores?

On some models, it is possible to disable the E-cores via BIOS setup. This can prevent negative performance effects for single-threaded applications, but at the same time you would also sacrifice a large amount of multi-core performance, because, with the E-cores being disabled, there are fewer cores available overall. The negative effect on battery life is also still present, because then really all tasks are executed on P-Cores.

For the desktop segment of Intel Core 12th Gen, Intel offers some desktop CPUs that have only P-Cores included. In the mobile segment, however, this is not the case: all mobile processors of the Intel Core 12th Gen are hybrid designs with of E- and P-cores and therefore require the "Intel Thread Directoru201d in Windows 11.

Recommended action

Due to the unalterable technical circumstances, we do not conduct internal tests of Windows 10 on those 12th/13th Gen systems. We can therefore not say whether there are any other drivers (e.g. audio or other peripherals) that do not run properly under Windows 10.

In addition, Intel does not offer official Windows 10 chipset driver support since 12th Gen. Current chipset drivers can still be installed. But it cannot be ruled out that the support will be completely discontinued at some point in the future.

We therefore recommend running Windows 11 on laptops with Intel Core 12th/13th Gen and following.

Can I still install Windows 10 myself?

For customers who want to manually install Windows 10 on these models, we provide the following information:

  • Customers can try the Windows 11 drivers from our download portal for the respective laptop model and install them under Windows 10. Most drivers will install without issues. However, we do not guarantee that all drivers can be installed.
  • We cannot guarantee that future software, driver or Windows updates will still be compatible with the device.
  • In the event that running Windows 10 with current or future software, driver, or Windows updates is not satisfactory, we recommend upgrading or doing a clean installation of Windows 11. A corresponding article can be found here: How to do a clean Windows reinstallation
  • There is no risk of hardware warranty loss due to the operation of Windows 10.
  • If, as part of a warranty complaint, it turns out that a complained problem only occurs under Windows 10, but not under Windows 11, an upgrade to or a new installation of Windows 11 will be offered as part of the warranty fulfillment.