[The Tech Buyers Guru] Does the OS matter (in games)? Windows 7 vs. 8.1 - Surprising!

[seitur]

If someone could offer definitive, 100% proof that Skyrim would run stable under Windows 8.1, I might consider installing it on my main gaming machine. Even with all the work required to un-Metro the OS into something usable, playable Skyrim might be worth it.

Śkyrim is working great on Windows 8.1. No problems with compatibility at all.

 

[pmv]

You're about 2 months late on the tired old "ermagerd so much work!" stuff. Windows 8.1 update did the un-Metro work for you.

Not really. "Blue" didn't do a lot for desktop users - you still have to deal with the start screen and all the other intrusions of Metro into the desktop. Seems as if all it did was (a) make the invisible 'start' button visible (b) let you boot straight to desktop and (c) let you use the same wallpaper for desktop and start screen (which seems to me like a small change that could have a significant effect on the experience).
You still have to put a start-menu replacement in, and put up with a few remaining eruptions of metro-ism.
Maybe 8.2 will go further.

Anyway, it will be interesting to know if the BF4 result is just an idiosyncracy of that game or if it will crop up again. In everything else the differences are too small to worry about, I think.

 

[magomago]

That is such a horribly written article. Most FPS advantages are about 2-4 FPS, hardly significant in any material sense, yet they talk about how Win8 isn't making a strong case for itself. When there are bigger advantages (~10FPS) exist at an absolute magnitude of roughly 100 FPS, which is, again, not really relevant.

TLDR: Poorly written article that thinks 58FPS vs 60FPS is relevant for an OS; and I laugh at 130 FPS vs 140 FPS.

 

[wand3r3r]

That is such a horribly written article. Most FPS advantages are about 2-4 FPS, hardly significant in any material sense, yet they talk about how Win8 isn't making a strong case for itself. When there are bigger advantages (~10FPS) exist at an absolute magnitude of roughly 100 FPS, which is, again, not really relevant.

TLDR: Poorly written article that thinks 58FPS vs 60FPS is relevant for an OS; and I laugh at 130 FPS vs 140 FPS.

I can't even make sense of your post.
Are you saying windows 8 isn't worth upgrading to? What are you disagreeing with here?

 

[magomago]

That is such a horribly written article. Most FPS advantages are about 2-4 FPS, hardly significant in any material sense, yet they talk about how Win8 isn't making a strong case for itself. When there are bigger advantages (~10FPS) exist at an absolute magnitude of roughly 100 FPS, which is, again, not really relevant.

TLDR: Poorly written article that thinks 58FPS vs 60FPS is relevant for an OS; and I laugh at 130 FPS vs 140 FPS.

I can't even make sense of your post.
Are you saying windows 8 isn't worth upgrading to? What are you disagreeing with here?

I'm saying the differences between the operating systems are pretty much irrelevant unless you only play BF4.

All those benchmarks show this over and over again: 2-3 FPS at 60 FPS mean nothing, and 10 FPS at 100 FPS means little as well.
10 FPS at 30 FPS would be something to write about, but there are no examples of this.

The real conclusion should be:

"The differences in gaming between Win7 and Win8 are minimal and should not be a factor in determining which OS you want to use. The exception to this rule at the moment is BF4 for less than clear reasons; whether it is taking advantage of the new OS, or simply has a bug in Win 7 that will be resolved in the future, BF4 experiences significant and relevant increases in FPS when using Win8.

Our Verdict? If you aren't playing BF4 competitively, go with whatever you get cheaper or stick with Win7 if you already have it; if cost differences are also marginal, Win 8 will be supported longer as the newest Operating System from Microsoft."

Instead they wrote this, which suggests that Windows 8 isn't a good gaming OS unless you play BF4, but it MIGHT be better in the future.

As a wise investment for today's games, we'd say Windows 8.1 doesn't make a strong case for itself, unless you're a competitive Battlefield 4 player, that is. Now, that could change in the future, especially if more games tap into the changes under the hood in Windows 8.1, as Battlefield 4 apparently does.