AMD acknowledges Ryzen stuttering issues on Windows 10 and 11 are caused by fTPM bug

Are you experiencing intermittent stutters on your AMD computer? You are not alone, the Santa Clara-based company has acknowledged that it is a known issue that affects Ryzen systems running on Windows 10 and 11.

This is not the first time AMD has run into trouble with Microsoft's operating system, a similar problem was discovered and fixed in October 2021.

The new issue, occurs on computers that have the Firmware Trusted Platform Module (fTPM) enabled. As you may know, TPM is a mandatory requirement to install and update Windows 11. This has prevented users with older computers, that don't have the security module, from upgrading to the new operating system, though there are several ways to bypass the restriction, should you feel the need to do so.

But here's where it gets interesting, Windows 11 is not the only OS that is affected by this bug, Windows 10 is also impacted. Betanews reports that AMD has issued a statement to address the intermittent system stutter problem.

Article PA-410 released by the company explains that the systems that have the fTPM module activated, may be computing extended fTPM-related memory transactions in SPI Flash memory (SPIROM), and that this leads to temporary pauses in the responsiveness of the computer. Does that sound a bit too technical? Don't worry, I got you, the translation is that the computer lags or stutters randomly because the fTPM chip is working in the background continuously.

It is good to see that the issue has been acknowledged but, AMD has not announced which Ryzen motherboards are impacted by the stuttering issues. It is not clear how many systems could be affected by this bug.

AMD says that it is working on fixing the Ryzen stuttering issues, the bad news is that it is going to a while for it to arrive. The chipset maker will provide a system BIOS update to patch the fTPM performance issues, and expects a fix to be available in early May, 2022. The microcode for the firmware will be based on AMD AGESA 1207 or newer.

What about users who are facing problems right now? Well, AMD has mentioned a workaround that users may try. Affected users can optionally switch from fTPM to a hardware TPM (dTPM) module. This fix is not exactly user-friendly, as it requires a TPM 2.0 header on the motherboard. The other issue is that the hardware chip, the TPM module that you need to buy, is not exactly cheap. Techpowerup says that these TPM chips can cost about $50 to $100.

If that does not deter you, you can try switching to TPM. But before you do so, you will need to make sure that BitLocker has been disabled, because the security feature relies on TPM-backed encryption systems. AMD has also advised users to take a back up of their data before switching from fTPM to dTPM.

Many AMD users who bypassed the TPM requirement for Windows 11 say that they have not faced this problem on their computer. While they won't have the additional security features that the chip provides, I think that having a usable computer will ultimately be preferable.

Do you have a Ryzen computer? Are you facing stutters while using the system?

AMD acknowledges Ryzen stuttering issues on Windows 10 and 11 are caused by fTPM bug