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Windows 7 or 8 for gaming desktop pc??
Hello, I am building a new gaming desktop PC and I am wondering which would be better to instal Windows 7 or 8??
This desktop will only be used for gaming, price is not an issue, performance is.
I am sorry if this was posted already, other threads seemed to be for labtops or duel boot, which I am not doing.
Thanks for whomever answers!
Comments
The performance difference between the two as seen in numerous benchmarks is miniscule. Having said that, as with any newish OS, your biggest obstacle is driver support.
Having said that, I reccomend Windows 7 (64-bit obviously) personally. Windows 8 was designed for tablets and phones and pawned off to desktop users as a viable OS.
I'd stick with Windows 7.
Using Windows 8 has a very unfortunate side-effect: It causes you to go out and buy a Mac. You won't be able to play most of your games on a Mac.
I think Windows 8 will be a better pick once you get acclamated to it and make adjustments to some of the worse features of it like how it handles programs started from the Modern UI, and the traditional desktop.
Windows 8 will be faster then Windows 7 and cheaper. So if you care about performance then Windows 8 is what you want.
If you have multiple monitors, then definitely Windows 7. Multi-monitor support of Win 8 is abysmal.
If you have only a single monitor, then you could really go with either one. The driver support isn't that much different, and performance diffence is minimal. Windows 8 would have faster booting time and some nice new features speaking for it, whereas Windows 7 has interface better suited for large monitor, less bugs and it's more polished. The difference isn't large.
Assuming you're used to Win 7 already but haven't learned to use Win 8, there's no reason why you should switch and le-learn the OS. Microsoft will have launched Win 9 and adjusted the interface from Win 8 anyway before Win 7 starts getting old.
EDIT: Make sure to get 64 bit version of Win 7 (or Win 8), not the 32 bit version. /EDIT
Bold statements. Care to back those up with facts?
From a performance standpoint, the difference between them is a rounding error.
I'd personally recommend going with Windows 8 for most people, as I'd expect Microsoft to try harder to fix problems for longer in a newer OS rather than an older one. But if you have strong feelings about it either way, I wouldn't criticize going with Windows 7. They're not actually all that different, even. Do you prefer Windows NT 6.1 or 6.2?
Performance is about the same.
Win8 has FastBoot and some other nifty things that make it feel a bit faster, but don't really yield any gaming performance.
Apart from LiveTiles/Metro, there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two.
I upgraded my gaming desktop and laptop from Windows 7 to Windows 8. No driver problems, no gaming problems, no problems with 3 monitor support, no decrease in performance, no problems with anything that I can find.
The start screen took a tiny bit of time to get used to. Now I actually prefer it. I can get to anything I want faster than I could in Windows 7 (just start typing and it brings up everything on the fly, no more clicking through menus and sub-menus to find stuff, not to mention placing programs in the start screen!), and I can hit the Windows key to simply go back to good ole desktop if I want. If you're incapable of learning a new interface you can even get software to make the interface act like the old one.
I was hesitant at first to make the switch because I've heard so many people say "Omergard the start screen SUX!! You can't do anything! It's impossible to blahblahblahblah". Yeah, those people must be spouting what some other people heard some other people mention from some other person that saw a screenshot from someone that copied it and put an out of context comment on based on what they heard from someone that knew someone that saw it once.
Unfortunately it DOES take a little while for a person to learn how to do things a little differently than what they've done for the past 20 years. I'm glad I gave it a chance, personally.
i was running Windows 8 for a bit. i bought the upgrade for it. I noticed that everything you open that isnt a App from Microsoft opens up a desktop for it. In which having The start menu and desktop should have problems with some programs as to resources.
If you play games that use game guard or a program like that it will detect the start menu as a hacking program or third party. I dont know about it now cause i used it about a month ago when i tried to get onto lineage 2.
I really only had that problem with it. But what changed my mind is my wife bought me a graphic tablet for me and it didnt work . Only got it running like a mouse. Using anything with pressure is a no go.
I'll try it again when they get the Graphic tablet working properly.
Having said all that . Performance and minor ( i mean really minor) problems i dont see why you wouldnt go to windows 8.
Could always buy windows 7 and windows 8 upgrade, if you dont like windows 8 you have windows 7 already.
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http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/3412/4/gaming-in-windows-8-vs-windows-7-whats-the-difference-in-performance-conclusion
Average of 1% performance difference in favor of Windows 8. Some modern games run substantially better on Windows 8.
I will have to read the entire article but the page you linked to was the conclusion which stated that they were the same. While I will take the time to read the whole thing, the final page may not be what you want to link to because many will simply read that and nothing more leaving with a sense that you have no idea what you are talking about.
[quote]Originally posted by Cleffy
I don't think that link really corroborates your claim:
There were some differences in individual tests, but overall, I think 1% is likely to be within the margin of error.
Now you may have a point about the longevity - driver companies may increasingly start to focus on Win8 performance and just maintaining Win7 compatibility - but that isn't happening now, and didn't really happen with WinXP, even when we saw Win7/8 debut, WinXP drivers still perform fairly well relatively.
Winblows 8 is just another WinblowsME. It will blow over quickly as this one falls flat.
Stick with Winblows7
I am using windows7 and I will not upgrade till next time I upgrade my computer, but building a new computer you should allways use latest version of windows,it allways is a litle bit better than previous.
Stick with 7. Three computer savy guildies 'upgraded' to Win8 when it came out, all three have reverted to Win7 now.
Buying a new tablet? Win8 sure... Desktop? Win7 all the way.
Windows 8 is not designed for desktops, its designed for tablets.
As others have said, the performance difference is miniscule, but the usability of Windows 8 on a desktop is just not good. Tablets great, desktops rubbish.
Personally I hate everything about Windows 8, it is an even worse mistake than Vista if you ask me. It tries to do lots of things, and doesnt do any of them well.
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
In that article, if you'd remove both the highest result in favor of Win 8 and the highest result in favor of Win 7 as measurement errors, you'd end up with opposite result and Win 7 would be about 1% faster. The writer of the article understood it, and wrote that 1% difference off as measurement error, stating that speed is the same.
Whoops linked to the article that didn't explain what happened in Crisis 2. In Crisis 2, you can't turn off the VSync in Windows 8. So the natural result is your fps will be around 60. On the other hand games like Batman Arcum Asylum and Civilization V that more heavily use newer features in DirectX 11 show a substantial improvement mainly due to the adjustments made in how Windows 8 handles the new instructions.
Now the OP asked for the best performing OS in games. To me the one that scores better even by 1% is the better performing OS. Even outside of games it reacts faster.
No, you have a few outlier games. There are several DX11 titles that did not show any "Substantial Improvement", and in fact, were slower in Win8 by more than 1% - such as 3dMark, Heaven Benchmark, and Max Payne (depending on which video card you look at). And the Vsync bug in Crysis... I doubt - an Average framerate of 64 doesn't indicate to me that Vsync is stuck, just that the particular title is an outlier. They don't say anything about Vsync in the article that I could find.
There are no major changes in DirectX 11 in Win8, aside from the inclusion of 11.1 (which is what Microsoft touts as part of it's great graphics overhaul in Win8, along with a lot of hardware level improvements to graphics for Metro apps, which most games won't use).
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2011088/pc-gaming-performance-on-windows-8-a-hard-data-analysis.html?page=2
There is a difference between using a feature and saying you are using a feature. Some games like Crytek, Metro 2033, and Dirt 3 are used to tought the technology but make poor use of optimizations, threading, and proper usage of a feature. Games like Shogun, and Civilization 5 that are well threaded strategy games see major benefits from Windows 8. It is not just a coincidence. It is one of the things Microsoft worked on with Windows 8 in thread scheduling. Ontop of this Civ was re-optimized for a Windows 8 scenario so its actually making use of the benefits of the OS. Microsoft did make efforts at the kernel level to increase the performance on Windows 8, and some of those effects can be seen in how games handle simple DirectX11 functions. The real thing to note is that alot of engine developers are still living in 2006. They still have not focused out of developing DirectX9 games due to the longevity of the current console generation. That will change this year with the addition of the new XBox, and Playstation.
This is why if you want a better performing OS for games it will be Windows 8. Sure its benefits on current gen gains are within the margin of error. On older games it performs worse. But in upcoming games it will perform better. I think the real thing to think about is what OS will get you to reaching 60 fps. If its an old game poorly optimized for threading and using DirectX9, it will perform worse but you are already at 60 fps. In a current gen game that makes poor use of DirectX11 features because its also targeting WinXP machines and old consoles, it will see a benefit within the margin of error and still hit 60 fps. In an upcoming game that may not support DirectX 9 and is written with next gen consoles in mind, it will stand a greater chance at getting to 60 fps then Windows 7.
Do you mean every other literally? As in?
WinXP = Good
Vista = Bad
Win7 = Good
Win8 = Bad
Win9 = Good?