The February KB4482887 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1809 is causing major graphics performance issues in multiple games, from FPS drops and mouse input lag to severe stuttering and lag spikes according to numerous user reports.
Microsoft also confirmed the problem when it added a new known issue to the list available on the KB4482887 Cumulative Update page:
After installing KB4482887, users may notice graphics and mouse performance degradation with desktop gaming when playing certain games (eg: Destiny 2).
Microsoft also confirmed that it is currently working on a way to mitigate these issues and that an update will be provided with an upcoming release which will more than likely come during next week's Patch Tuesday.
Microsoft's solution: uninstall the KB4482887 update
Until that happens, Microsoft recommends that gamers experiencing FPS drops in some games and overall performance issues related to mouse movement to uninstall the February Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1809: "As a short-term resolution, users can uninstall KB4482887 to regain performance."
Microsoft's acknowledgment of the issue put a lot of minds at ease given that a lot of the impacted users were reinstalling their games and mouse drivers, as well as trying to either update, remove, or revert their graphics drivers in an effort to fix the problem, only to find out that there was no change in performance.
In addition, a Microsoft representative using srepaka as a Reddit handle, also confirmed that the gaming degradation issue is "likely not related to Retpoline (Spectre mitigation) since it's not enabled for retail users yet (as of 3/4/2019)."
The Microsoft rep also asked users affected by this known issue in the KB4482887 update to submit feedback using the Feedback Hub app under "Power and Battery" and "use the 'recreate my problem' option to include 'Performance' data" to help Redmond pinpoint the root cause of the problem.
Folks seeing gaming related performance issues with this KB, please submit feedback using this link: http://aka.ms/submitgameperformancefeedback
Please reply back with the link to feedback so we can find your feedback easily.
The Retpoline Spectre mitigation was backported to Windows 10 KB4482887 cumulative update but is being slowly rolled out over time while its performance is tested as part of large-scale public use.
Uninstalling the KB4482887 update
Microsoft says in the update's details from the Microsoft Update Catalog that "This software update can be removed by selecting View installed updates in the Programs and Features Control Panel."
To full step by step procedure needed to uninstall this update requires users to open Control Panel, go to Programs > Programs and Features, and click on View installed updates in the left sidebar.
Next, right-click on the KB4482887 update's entry in the list and confirm when asked: "Are you sure you want to uninstall this update?"
Comments
JohnC_21 - 3 years ago
Did Microsoft's QA take a trip to an alternate universe?
Yojji - 3 years ago
What QA? If they can get users to test for free, why pay people to do it? The only downside for them is getting bug reports laced with expletives.
GT500 - 3 years ago
Software development companies release public test builds because it isn't physically possible for them to test on a wide enough range of hardware with a wide enough range of installed software to imitate all of the computers their software will be used on by customers. Internal testing will always miss issues, simply due to the fact that testing can't reproduce every possible scenario that the software will be used under. This is where public beta testing comes in. If users can find and report problems before they end up in a final release, then final releases will be more problem-free.
GT500 - 3 years ago
Funny, I'm not having any issues. Performance in Anthem was actually better after installing the update, both before and after manually enabling retpoline. Granted I have the FPS capped at 60 due to Anthem's CPU usage issues, so perhaps I just didn't notice FPS drops since my GPU wasn't being taxed as much? I did notice the GPU usage seemed higher.
That being said, SteamVR performance doesn't seem to have suffered. I can also run Black Desert Online on "Ultra" quality settings without issues, and maintain a framerate of around 60 FPS at 1920x1080.
I haven't tried any other games since installing KB4482887 though, and I don't have any of the Destiny games so I can't test those.
badtoad - 3 years ago
Until it hits them in the wallet bad quality will continue.
GT500 - 3 years ago
Hasn't Microsoft's revenue been steadily decreasing every year since 2001?
badtoad - 3 years ago
I believe your right but it must be peanuts to MS.
GT500 - 3 years ago
I was just looking at Microsoft's gross profit over the years, and it looks like after peaking at in 1998 or so it dropped substantially, and stayed around the same for most of the 2000's. Sometime around or after 2010 it started slowly going back up, with a huge surge in their net profit over the past few years (getting bigger each year), and for the most part surges in their gross profit as well (although it was down a few billion in 2016).
In 2018 they had the largest surge in both net and gross profit, so they're clearly doing something right. Possibly corporate services, although I wasn't able to tell from the charts on Microsoft's investors portal. I do know that a lot of companies have moved to Office 365, or at least are using Microsoft's services to filter incoming mail for spam and threats, and everyone I've talked to seems to be happy with these services.
serghei - 3 years ago
Their commercial cloud revenue cloud revenue growing 48% year-over-year to $9.0 billion (out of a total of $32.5 billion) as they said in FY19 Q2 earnings summary (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-announces-earnings-for-second-fiscal-quarter-of-2019/)
So, yeah, their cloud services are now a third of the revenue and growing each year.