windows 8 worth it?

[Sheridanjohn]

This really depends, windows 7 has been around for a fairly long time, alot of problems with game compatabilities have been sorted whereas windows 8 is new so there may be problems that solutions will be more complicated to figure out.
However i would go windows 8 > windows 7 in a new build due to rumours that 7 isn't going to get a SP2.

[Schmiggy]

I see a lot of people saying this, yet so far I think there's like.... two games (and not super commonly played ones) that perform marginally worse on 8 over 7.

I suppose it depends where you look, but the general consensus as far as performance goes (from the benchmarks I've looked at) is that windows 7 is still the superior OS for gaming. Windows 8 does beat out 7 with some games however it's generally by a matter of 1-3fps (often less than 1), when 7 beats 8 however it is almost always by a much more considerable margin than 1-3fps. That said, 8 is still in its infancy.. with driver/software updates I have no doubt we'll see far less disparity between performance, I don't however see 8 performing better on average than 7 any time soon though.

As for game compatibility, again, from the benchmarks I've looked at (only 3 independent benchmarks so take it as you will) they ran into issues with 2-3 games out of their selection. From memory I'm pretty sure each one of them ran successfully, however above certain settings and/or resolutions some textures just wouldn't load (in Sleeping Dogs to the point where it was unplayable). Not just that, but certain games require being started in compatibility mode - now, that's not exactly a big deal, it takes two seconds.. but when gaming performance either isn't as good as it is on 7, the same as, or marginally better and with some games having issues rendering certain textures/resolutions on 8.. it doesn't exactly give a person much reason to jump ship from 7 to 8.
If there was a frame rate increase in most games on windows 8 over 7, even by a margin of 1-3fps.. maybe.. but that just isn't the case, not at the time of writing this anyway.

Further, people just have absolutely no reason to shift to 8. It offers nothing over windows 7 that is worth the monetary outlay. The faster boot times are good, but people either have a SSD, or they will be investing in one with their next build (when people are most likely to shift OS), making the faster boot moot.

Just so I'm clear - Windows 8 is a good operating system, I purchased it for my laptop at $15. But unless you're one of those people that craves the new and unknown or loves the new interface, I see absolutely no reason for a desktop user to put themselves through learning a new system, trouble shooting any compatibility issues (however few), and forking out an absurd amount of money for something that does very few things better than 7 (and some things considerably worse).

It absolutely baffles me why anyone would spend as much as Microsoft is asking now, at this stage in the OS's life - give it a year, then have a think about it.

[Lemmiwink]

That's probably more than rumours. Support for it is being discontinued in 2013 and I doubt they will increase it's lifetime like they did with XP SP3 since there is a viable alternative this time around. (With XP the only alternative was vista, which required alot of machine power to run smoothly)

[Schmiggy]

This really depends, windows 7 has been around for a fairly long time, alot of problems with game compatabilities have been sorted whereas windows 8 is new so there may be problems that solutions will be more complicated to figure out.
However i would go windows 8 > windows 7 in a new build due to rumours that 7 isn't going to get a SP2.

Being rumours, I'd take that with a grain of salt, however even if that happens to be the case.. is there anything in particular about windows 7 that you think it needs a SP2?

I would not recommend you to buy Win7 at this point. Win8 is already better and will get significantly better over the next year or two. Buying Win7 now would be a waste of money considering you'd want to upgrade in 5-6 months anyway.

I'm curious about windows 8 being better, is that based on personal experience? or through thorough testing? Not even remotely suggesting you're wrong.. just from the benchmarks/reviews I've seen (from reputable sites) and my own personal experience it seems otherwise. Windows 7 being out for as long as it has, it's had time to have bugs worked out along with compatibility issues, and is an incredibly stable OS.

[Lemmiwink]

Being rumours, I'd take that with a grain of salt, however even if that happens to be the case.. is there anything in particular about windows 7 that you think it needs a SP2?


I'm curious about windows 8 being better, is that based on personal experience? or through thorough testing? Not even remotely suggesting you're wrong.. just from the benchmarks/reviews I've seen (from reputable sites) and my own personal experience it seems otherwise. Windows 7 being out for as long as it has, it's had time to have bugs worked out along with compatibility issues, and is an incredibly stable OS.

The thing about those reputable sites and the benchmarks isn't that they are wrong per se, but they are old. I test my system alot in all kinds of benchmarks (overclocker, I use fraps for FPS testing) and recent results from me compared to my 3 months old win7 results looks like this for fps. (Win 8 results 1 week old, 2.2.13, all settings at highest settings @1080p, you can see my hardware in my sig)

Windows 7

Skyrim Min: 68 Max: 102 AVG: 87
WoW Min: 44 Max: 106 AVG: 81
Witcher2 Min: 38 Max: 67 AVG: 59

Win8

Skyrim Min 74 Max 105 AVG 93 (Noticeable difference, alot less drops, very smooth)
WoW Min 44 Max 106 AVG 84 ( I couldn't tell the difference here but the AVG fps was up a bit. All tests performed during a fly through in Pandaria)
Witcher2 min: 41 Max: 68 AVG: 61 (Less drops in FPS, playing through intro on both)

My experience with newer games like AC3, Sleeping Dogs etc is that Win8 is very smooth and doesn't suffer any performance loss in any game. It actually feels alot smoother and more responsive.

Reason for not more results: Had a harware change from my second last Win7 results to the last one. It wouldn't be fair nor correct to compare results from that one. Last one only contained 3 games.

[Azerox]

If you have a tablet, yes but not for a desktop and not even for a laptop.

I have used Windows 8 since start, personalized it and it looked and worked good.

Then my HDD crashed, not because of W8 ofcourse > but i decided to install Windows 7 again.

What a delight, everything feels 'normal' again and now i have it i notice i realy missed it.

[chazus]

Haven't experienced any problems except for one "games for windows live"

In my experience, Games For Windows Live is the biggest pile of horsecrap. I have several games (Bulletstorm, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet), that simply cant be played because their servers are down. I've tried on 3 computers, 4 different internet connections, and 4 different OS's to try and fix it. I gave up. Thankfully, I only spent a few bucks on them.

Any issues with GFWL I would blame on GFWL before the OS

[Haadesda]

Waste of space.. WTB gaming support

[lordmatthias]

I upgraded to W8 when it was going for $15. The Metro UI is kind of Meh, but the boot times are GREAT (~10 second boot time on SDD). I have yet to run into a problem with gaming (albiet I ran all the windows updates as soon as I installed the OS). I even keep all my steam games (about 1 TB of games) installed on my raid array which was not touched when I upgraded to windows 8. All I had to do was run the steam repair utility and as well as a few game repairs (just needed to patch basically), and ALL my games have worked thus far, and even kept all my saves . Admittedly I haven't tried all the games yet, but thus far I have been extremely pleased with the compatibility.

[Deleted]

Windows 8 in 3 minutes