Microsoft details speed improvements in Win 8

[happysmiles]

This alone to me is worth upgrading for

it's best to read the article but pretty much explains how the GPU will be used in many more things by default and how much faster it will be since in Direct X 11.1.
They've added new APIs that simplify GPU usage so that it's more efficient + saves battery and makes everything more responsive and smooth.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/...celerating-everything-windows-8-graphics.aspx

 

[nemesismk2]

All of this sounds very positive for Windows 8

 

[KeypoX]

I like the taste of benchmarks

 

[Kristijonas]

Not only is the UI better, but it's a performance improvement also, GJ MS! *eats popcorn waiting for w8 ragers*

 

[slayernine]

My god, Microsoft actually doing something to improve the battery efficiency and speed of their GUI. I'm shocked!

I think good things will come out of Microsoft's desperation.

 

[slayernine]

I like the taste of benchmarks

in the morning

 

[darkewaffle]

Man I use church clipart all the time... Win8 is gonna FLY for me!

 

[ninaholic37]

Great link. That's the thing I'm looking forward to most in Windows 8 (simpler and faster/smoother). It's great that their interest in lower performance tablets has gotten Microsoft to focus on an even more "efficient" OS.

From what I read, to achieve the results in this graph... you'll need a DirectX 11.1 compatible card with "a new graphics hardware feature called Target Independent Rasterization". I guess upgrading to Win8 on a common Sandy Bridge w/iGPU, for example, wouldn't benefit "rendering anti-aliased geometry" nearly this much %.

 

[MrMuppet]

in the morning

In the morning! to you too (and not in the Napalm sense).

edit: lol, misspelled "the"

 

[Jaskalas]

Not only is the UI better, but it's a performance improvement also, GJ MS! *eats popcorn waiting for w8 ragers*

You called?

I'd like some game benchmark comparisons.

 

[Spungo]

You called?

I'd like some game benchmark comparisons.

Things that stress the CPU already use the GPU as well. Flash video, games, blu-ray movies, CAD, photoshop. A computer that can't play blu-rays in Windows 7 is probably not going to play them in Windows 8 either.

 

[MrMuppet]

Numbers look good, but I'd rather have the start menu back tbh.

(Preferably an improved Windows Vista/7 start menu that also takes the shortcut folder path and executable filename into consideration.)

 

[JackMDS]

I wonder how many of the additional click (to get to the Desktop) is causing me Unbearable Anxiety are also on the list of people that leave their computers On 24/7? :awe:

 

[MrMuppet]

Yes, Metro is the new Unbearable Anxiety Causator or UAC. However, thankfully in Windows 7 I'm able to permanently turn UAC off from the control panel instead of having to do it every time I boot.

I wonder how many of the additional click (to get to the Desktop) is causing me Unbearable Anxiety are also on the list of people that leave their computers On 24/7? :awe:

Guilty and pretty funny, but I still want the (official) start menu back. You see, even keeping my computer on 24/7 won't save me from the eye cancer that is Metro every time I hit the Windows button or having to jump through hoops to get back to or even see the desktop again.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Yes, Metro is the new Unbearable Anxiety Causator or UAC. However, thankfully in Windows 7 I'm able to permanently turn UAC off from the control panel instead of having to do it every time I boot.


Guilty and pretty funny, but I still want the (official) start menu back. You see, even keeping my computer on 24/7 won't save me from the eye cancer that is Metro every time I hit the Windows button or having to jump through hoops to get back to or even see the desktop again.

I was under the impression that you could choose to boot into classic mode, which is the standard Windows interface with Start and all that stuff....?

That said, a 500+% boost in performance for anything is astounding.

 

[jhansman]

Don't know about benchmarks, but my install of the Preview on an aging 7200 RPM drive resulted in surprisingly quit response times, both in booting and program execution. Once I got past the Metro interface, I enjoyed my time with it.

 

[MrMuppet]

I was under the impression that you could choose to boot into classic mode, which is the standard Windows interface with Start and all that stuff....?

How?

 

[Spungo]

Don't know about benchmarks, but my install of the Preview on an aging 7200 RPM drive resulted in surprisingly quit response times, both in booting and program execution. Once I got past the Metro interface, I enjoyed my time with it.

Boot time is an obsolete metric since modern computers can sleep when not being used. I never turn my work computer off. At the end of the day I lock the computer then put it to sleep. In the morning it fires up in the blink of an eye and I can resume where I left off.
In my opinion, Microsoft should take a page from Apple's playbook and unilaterally change what some of the terms mean.
sleep mode should be called "shutdown"
real shutdown should be called "cold shutdown"
People everywhere would be blown away by how incredibly fast this new version of Windows is. It boots in 3 seconds!!

A lot of people don't know this but sleep and shutdown consume roughly the same amount of power. Lots of electronics have what are called "vampire loads" because the power supply contains a transformer. I will spare the details and summarize it by saying transformers consume power just by being plugged in. You may have noticed that the AC adapter for your speakers is always warm even when the computer and speakers have been off for several hours

 

[MrMuppet]

Faster boot times still help when restarting.

Also, a proper ("cold") shutdown is safe against power outages. Hibernation would work as well. But I think the default behavior actually is sleep in Windows 7?

 

[MrMuppet]

I don't know what the defaults are, but here's how:

 

[lxskllr]

That said, a 500+% boost in performance for anything is astounding.

I'm not necessarily impressed. It renders pictures fast, big whoop. Sometimes fast enough is fast enough. I agree with Jaskalas. Game benches need to be made.

 

[Spungo]

Faster boot times still help when restarting.

Also, a proper ("cold") shutdown is safe against power outages. Hibernation would work as well. But I think the default behavior actually is sleep in Windows 7?

Sleep is protected against power failures as well. What messes up hard drives and USB drives is write caching.
memory -> hard drive cache -> hard drive platter

Suppose you are working in MS Word and you save the document. You did the proper save procedure and Windows says it saved. Suddenly there is a power failure and your computer shuts off. Your Word document might have been destroyed because it was written to the hard drive cache and the drive lost power before it was able to write from the cache to the platter. This same issue has messed up a lot of USB thumb drives. Instead of writing to the drive immediately, the document is cached. The person pulls the drive out before the cache writes to disk. As far as the OS knows, it was saved and all of the data is there. It will only give an error when someone tries to open the file and Word says the file is garbage.

Sleep avoids this problem by clearing the cache before going to sleep. You can put the computer to sleep then pull the plug. It will say "hey you shouldn't have done that" but it didn't actually destroy anything. That Word document you saved before going to sleep is properly saved to the platter.

 

[Dominato3r]

I'm not necessarily impressed. It renders pictures fast, big whoop. Sometimes fast enough is fast enough. I agree with Jaskalas. Game benches need to be made.

They showed a 'game' but it looked like it was just untextured geometery

 

[Scooby Doo]

It shows the start menu 100% slower

Also do those start menu programs link themselves to the windows key? Last thing I want the windows key to do is bring me back to metro.

 

[wirednuts]

you watch win8 turns out to be by surprise the best [damn] os ever made by any company but its sales never take off because there is no start button. then, 2 years later they release windows 9 thats essentially win8 but they add a start button and advertise coca cola style by claiming "the best things in this world should never die" with rolling stones music in the foreground loud and clear. the 'new' os goes on to smash all software records and still, 10 years later everyone [really] HATES win8.

No profanity, please
-ViRGE