According to the latest report, Microsoft said in June this year that it would consider adding Windows 11 support for Intel’s 7th generation and AMD Ryzen 1000 series CPUs. On August 27, Microsoft announced a list of hardware requirements, including support for 10 new CPUs of Intel’s 7th-generation Core processor series.
This announcement surprised many people because the updated CPU list includes support for a small number of CPUs. These new CPUs include i5-7640X, i7-7740X, i7-7800X, i7-7820HQ, i7-7820X, i7-7900X, i7-7920X, i9-7940X, i9-7960X and i9-7980XE.
In other words, Microsoft’s updated Windows 11 hardware requirements will only benefit flagship products such as Surface Studio 2 and Dell Precision. If you ignore the above model, only the 8th generation and newer processors can run Microsoft’s full operating system.
Microsoft admitted in a statement that using tools such as Media Creation Tool to download the operating system, old chips can indeed run Windows 11 informally, but Microsoft will not provide support for old hardware and may have performance issues. It is reported that Asustek has begun testing BIOS updates to expand support for some motherboards equipped with older Intel CPUs.
ASUS Testing Windows 11 Support For Some Older CPUs
In July of this year, Asustek released the motherboard guidelines for Windows 11 upgrade. According to the updated firmware page, the motherboards listed in the ASUS documentation are equipped with TPM 2.0, but ASUS also promises to support motherboards equipped with older Intel 6th and 7th generation processors.
ASUS recently released Windows 11-ready BIOS updates for a number of Z270 motherboards for Intel’s 6th and 7th generation processors. These updates are not included in the official CPU specification documents released by Microsoft.
ASUS confirmed that it supports Windows 11 in the BIOS 1501 update log of MAXIMUS IX FORMULA that supports 6th and 7th generation Intel processors. The changelog states, Windows 11 is supported by default, and there is no need to change settings in the UEFI BIOS.
At the same time, ASUS also revealed beta support for Windows 11, and there is the same BIOS update on STRIX Z270F GAMING. Windows 11 is supported by default, and there is no need to change the settings in the UEFI BIOS. Please note that this is a beta BIOS version of the motherboard and is still undergoing final testing before the official release.
