Windows 8 vs 7 - Gaming Performance Radeon HD 7970

Final8y · 27 Oct 2012 at 10:12

Windows 8 is coming out soon, very, very soon. Microsoft's latest operating system will be released ... Tomorrow, in fact. So we wanted to know how good this new OS will perform with games. So we decided to compare it to it's predecessor. Going from Windows XP to Windows Vista/7 we did notice that the performances were as near as makes not difference, the same. So, what have we done? Right we took some (15) games and a almost a handful of theoretical benchmarks and checked wether there are suspicious thing going on or not.

http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=903&sel_lang=english

Bottle · 27 Oct 2012 at 10:35

It's far too early for a comparison such as this. Let the drivers for Windows 8 develop a bit. It happens with every new OS release.

psychodil · 27 Oct 2012 at 10:36

So no performance change then from windows 7 overall?

flopper · 27 Oct 2012 at 10:37

His conclusion is wrong.
"So Microsoft ... what have you done?"

All new OS versions alter some of its layering and kernel and how it works.
so its fair to say that windows 8 alters this a bit more than what you could see between for example Vista/windows 7 as windows 7 was a refined Vista still did match similiar gaming perfromance.
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/windows_7_gaming/page12.asp

I expect windows 8 down the line be a better OS for gaming both for nvidia and amd cards than current windows 7. When the team learned to write the driver properly for windows 8 according to Microsofts guidelines.

biuro74 · 27 Oct 2012 at 10:41

flopper said:
When the team learned to write the driver properly for windows 8 according to Microsofts guidelines.

Which will never come. They (nVidia/AMD) will never learn, and will force own solutions. And will produce WHQL drivers with issues, like it was few times :/

MOOGLEYS · 27 Oct 2012 at 10:49

Apart from 3D no longer working on Dirt 3 I have not noticed any difference or performance losses with a 7970 and Win 8 over Win 7.

spoffle · 27 Oct 2012 at 10:51

Any performance difference will be negligible anyway. The best thing is that Microsoft has written a new scheduler which will see performance gains in the future.

Kaapstad · 27 Oct 2012 at 16:47

On the PC I think Win 8 is going to be a turkey and I suspect a lot of people will stick with Win 7. I think the new interface will be great on a phone or tablet but not on the PC. If older games don't run as well as newer games on Win 8 I can not see that changing in the near future.

If Microsoft had put as much effort into making Win 8 more efficient than Win 7 as they have into trying to make it look pretty it might have been a good thing.

All Win 8 says to me is

Classic Bloatware.

delta0 · 27 Oct 2012 at 21:35

Most of the windows 8 drivers are beta at the moment so it is not correct to make a comparison just yet.

psychodil · 27 Oct 2012 at 21:38

Kaapstad said:
All Win 8 says to me is

Classic Bloatware.

I agree with this.

Wish they would just release a standalone OS, which is stripped down for gamers so we could dual boot.

shankly1985 · 27 Oct 2012 at 22:21

I'll give it 1to2 years and we will see win9, I can see win8 failing big time they shouldn't of mixed desktop with touch.
My bet next windows will be split touch version and desktop version. Win8 will fail like vista.

psychodil said:
I agree with this.

Wish they would just release a standalone OS, which is stripped down for gamers so we could dual boot.

Gregster · 27 Oct 2012 at 22:28

Could you imagine us gamers using touchscreen? We would have arms like popeye

psychodil · 27 Oct 2012 at 22:35

^^ you would with your 3 screens

Stanners · 27 Oct 2012 at 22:42

I was under the impression that the core of each operating system was the same so there will not ever be much difference gaming wise between win 7 and 8.

NZB · 27 Oct 2012 at 23:40

Even if there does end up a bit of a difference in gaming performance i still can't see many people moving from 7 to 8. Look how long it took people to start migrating from XP and there were clear reasons for them to do so even to crappy vista and more so 7. Win 8 just doesn't have any must have features at all and very few "Oh, that might be handy" ones either. DX11.1? Should have just called it DX12 for marketing and at least that might have prompted the clueless a little.

humbug · 27 Oct 2012 at 23:48

I did try Win 8 in RC and i couldn't stand it.

Its an OS designed purely for Tablets and then ported to Desktop, its almost as if Microsoft intentional designed it to be bloody hateful on PC.

danceMB · 28 Oct 2012 at 04:53

As soon as I saw what they was doing as Windows 8, it is purely designed for tablet users, not for PC users at all, which is why I am going to stick with my beloved Windows 7, and will not be upgrading until they make a new version, which is built purely for the PC.

Microsoft will learn that PC users dont really want it, when they see sales figures flop when it comes to new system builds, with Windows 7 being the OS of choice

Beren · 28 Oct 2012 at 07:40

I really want to put a piledriver build together in a few months, so I am watching with interest to find out how the new scheduler works out... it could make AMD 8 core chips a lot more competitive especially against the i5... but I wont be holding my breath!

Stanners · 28 Oct 2012 at 08:51

I have installed windows 8 and have to say I am finding it a better experience than when I tried the preview a while ago.

Besty · 28 Oct 2012 at 10:09

gregster said:
Could you imagine us gamers using touchscreen? We would have arms like popeye

Until I saw my 4 year old trying to game on my PC by touching the screen I would not have believed in what Microsoft are doing.

It is actually a very modular OS and can be stripped down just like Linux could from day one, one of the benefits of the back-end re-write that started with Windows 7.

As soon as 3DMark Next comes out and does better on Windows 8 than 7 we will all flock like flies to a neon light :>