[H] Battlefield 4 Windows 7 vs 8.1

[(sic)Klown12]

[H]ard OCP just put up their 7 vs 8.1 MP comparison. Seems that both camps get a small increase moving to the new OS, but nothing ground breaking.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/24/battlefield_4_windows_7_vs_81_performance_review/1

 

[BrightCandle]

In the Beta the difference was incredible, in the region of 50% or more.

In the conclusions however they do say that the Windows 7 machine isn't smooth, presumably because just like in beta it is periodically dropping frame rates and producing a poor experience periodically. This is one game where Windows 8 is required really, the poor performance on Windows 7 is just poor.

 

[Teizo]

They just need to patch it. There are more W7 users than W8 users. They'd be foolish to not get it right for W7 users.

I'm getting the game on sale this Black Friday, but I won't install or play it until they finally get the performance right.

 

[krumme]

In the Beta the difference was incredible, in the region of 50% or more.

In the conclusions however they do say that the Windows 7 machine isn't smooth, presumably because just like in beta it is periodically dropping frame rates and producing a poor experience periodically. This is one game where Windows 8 is required really, the poor performance on Windows 7 is just poor.

You are overeacting even for the nv cards that have low min framerates under w7. I recommend people read the excellent review at H themselves.

Looking forward to mantle

 

[Childs]

They didnt bench Windows 7 with core parking disabled, because he apparently didnt know about it and doesnt want to rerun the tests.

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040411285&postcount=25

 

[blackened23]

I've benched a ton of games where core parking had no meaningful impact. I don't know if having all of the latest patches for Win7 makes a difference, but yeah, no difference.

Also I'm sure Brent was "aware" of core parking. The goal of the benchmark was to test Win7 more or less out of the box compared to Win 8.1 out of the box. It's not like core parking is going to double your performance or anything like that in Win7 - i'm pretty sure Win 8.1 is just better for BF4.

 

[Childs]

I've benched a ton of games where core parking had no meaningful impact. I don't know if having all of the latest patches for Win7 makes a difference, but yeah, no difference.

Also I'm sure Brent was "aware" of core parking. The goal of the benchmark was to test Win7 more or less out of the box compared to Win 8.1 out of the box. It's not like core parking is going to double your performance or anything like that in Win7 - i'm pretty sure Win 8.1 is just better for BF4.

It made a significant difference in my testing. And its already been acknowledged by dice that the performance difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8 is the way cores are handled.

My test
Dice Employee on reddit

If |H| is going to tell people to spend $$$ to upgrade to Windows 8, they should at least amend the article to say maybe try disabling core parking first.

 

[moonbogg]

It made a significant difference in my testing. And its already been acknowledged by dice that the performance difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8 is the way cores are handled.

My test
Dice Employee on reddit

If |H| is going to tell people to spend $$$ to upgrade to Windows 8, they should at least amend the article to say maybe try disabling core parking first.

This has me confused. Windows 8.1 gave me a massive increase from windows 7 but others report what you say as well. A good BF lemming would simply buy an AMD card and windows 8.1. I'm half way there.

 

[Childs]

This has me confused. Windows 8.1 gave me a massive increase from windows 7 but others report what you say as well. A good BF lemming would simply buy an AMD card and windows 8.1. I'm half way there.

I dont like the AMD (Mantle) + Windows 8 combo. I uninstalled Windows 8, even though I bought 2 copies when it was $40. And I'll believe Mantle when I see it...wont be fooled by AMD again. Yeah yeah, still ticked off with that 3D Now! bs. I can always buy a faster video card, but what I have now runs good enough. But prejudices aside, you can get Windows 7 running BF4 fine by disabling parking. It was mainly i7 users who saw issue, as MS released an AMD multicore CPU fix in Windows 7 which basically disables core parking. That was before BF4, so it must have really hamstrung AMD CPU owners.

 

[Termie]

For more analysis on this issue, check the article in my sig (or this link: www.techbuyersguru.com/ochtgaming3.php).

Core unparking helps somewhat in Win7, but not as much as just upgrading to Win8 does. And it's not an HT issue, it's an overall efficiency issue. HT doesn't seem to work better in win8 than in win7.

 

[thilanliyan]

Yeah yeah, still ticked off with that 3D Now! bs.

Wasn't 3DNow an AMD thing, whereas the graphics cards are more ATI than AMD?

 

[Subyman]

I used Windows 8 for about a year, but when I put my new system together I went back to Windows 7. I'll take the 3fps hit to not have to use the start screen.

 

[imaheadcase]

Hey look another meaningless squiggly line graph. Piled on top of a rez that most people don't play on. Go hardocp, keeping it classy still.

Thread crapping is not allowed. -Moderator Shmee

 

[96Firebird]

Ignoring the MP results, since I don't like the method of testing, the "Test Range" results show a slight improvement going to Windows 8.1. Looking at the graphs, it looks like the runs were as similar as they could get for the different benchmarks.

However, it is not enough to sway me to go to 8.1. Didn't really like it when I tried it out on my roommate's laptop.

 

[Carfax83]

It's a shame they didn't use the 331.82 drivers. They have some optimizations for BF4 that might have swung the benchmarks in NVidia's favor..

Also, a DICE employee stated this on REDDIT concerning better performance on Windows 8/8.1 and lag on Windows 7:

We are investigating this at DICE. Some of the graphic lag is related to how the OS handles the CPU cores. The main reason the game runs better in Win 8 is due to better handling of the cores.

We will get back to you when we have investigated this.

Source

If you're a gamer, you're doing yourself a disservice by staying on Windows 7. Windows 8 is just a much more efficient OS..

 

[Childs]

Wasn't 3DNow an AMD thing, whereas the graphics cards are more ATI than AMD?

Its the same kind of thing. You need devs to specifically target it or else you'll never see the benefit. If BF4 is the only game that uses it, its not worth changing graphics cards. Everyone was supposed to use 3D Now!, but no one really did. Mantle is just as sketchy as far as support goes, and we haven't seen the benefit in an actual game. Buying a card based on something that doesnt exist is kinda foolish. Dice can't even make a stable game, so coding at a lower level will probably make things worse.

 

[Enigmoid]

Just throwing this out there.

Siege of Shanghai. Same settings.

BF4 IQ review

Win 7 vs 8 review

Why the big difference on the R290X?

 

[24601]

It's a shame they didn't use the 331.82 drivers. They have some optimizations for BF4 that might have swung the benchmarks in NVidia's favor..

Also, a DICE employee stated this on REDDIT concerning better performance on Windows 8/8.1 and lag on Windows 7:

Source

If you're a gamer, you're doing yourself a disservice by staying on Windows 7. Windows 8 is just a much more efficient OS..

Or just turn off hyperthreading entirely.

/fixed

Hyperthreading on a truly real-time application like a game is such a bad idea in so many ways.

 

[Silverforce11]

Because MP testing is very variable, in a run you could have more fighting, tanks, helis, explosions and buildings falling etc. I would not be surprised if there's +/- 25% variation (or more).

 

[Techhog]

Or just turn off hyperthreading entirely.

/fixed

Hyperthreading on a truly real-time application like a game is such a bad idea in so many ways.

Introduce bottleneck, eliminate variable. Effective.

That said, I'd still say that upgrading from 7 to 8 is a total waste of time and money.

 

[24601]

I feel bad for keeping this a secret, but this is the config I use

RenderDevice.TripleBufferingEnable 0
WorldRender.MotionBlurEnable 0
WorldRender.MotionBlurForceOn 0
WorldRender.MotionBlurFixedShutterTime 0
WorldRender.MotionBlurMax 0
WorldRender.MotionBlurQuality 0
WorldRender.MotionBlurMaxSampleCount 0
RenderDevice.ForceRenderAheadLimit 0
PerfOverlay.DrawFps 1

Mah PC Master Race Advantages!!!!!

They Wither!!!!!!!!!

If you didn't already understand what these settings do already, you shouldn't use them.

 

[lavaheadache]

Hey look another meaningless squiggly line graph. Piled on top of a rez that most people don't play on. Go hardocp, keeping it classy still.

Thread crapping is not allowed. -Moderator Shmee

Funny that you say "most people". To me it has been an everyday thing for about 4 years now, and a few of my friends can say the same thing. You're on a tech forum, 30"ers are more common than you think and most of us can make sense out of those pesky squiggly lines.

heck I do a lot of problem solving in my head with similar type graphs.....


--- unless you are make reference to the graph being meaningless due to it being of BF4 multiplayer. Even then I would imagine then "averages" would remain just that, an average

 

[Teizo]

If you're a gamer, you're doing yourself a disservice by staying on Windows 7. Windows 8 is just a much more efficient OS..

Upgrading OS's for a measly 2-3 fps which could easily be accomplished with an updated driver or patch from Dice makes very little sense.

 

[XiandreX]

I used Windows 8 for about a year, but when I put my new system together I went back to Windows 7. I'll take the 3fps hit to not have to use the start screen.

You don't need to use the start screen with classic shell and 8.1 puts you straight to desktop (well kinda just short a real start button).

As for Windows 7 vs Windows 8 for BF4... lets wait and see how it holds out long term as far as performance is concerned. I know many people are skeptical but I doubt developers would jump on Mantle if the performance increase was not tangible.

 

[Bateluer]

You don't need to use the start screen with classic shell and 8.1 puts you straight to desktop (well kinda just short a real start button).

8.1 can boot directly to the desktop, but there's about 50 ways for it to take you back to the damn Start Screen. The 'Start' button they added is akin to a dick slap in the face. ClassicShell, Start8, StartIsBack, etc, are pretty much requirements to use Windows 8 and not go blue in the face with rage and frustration.




EA dropped the ball with BF4. Everywhere I go, I hear how buggy and unstable it is. AJ had a nice rant video about it. Once they clean their crap up and drivers progress a little, there'll be almost no difference between the two OSs. 3fps isn't worth moving to Windows 8 and spending half the day fighting with the OS to do basic tasks.