Windows 7 & Haswell - What sucks

[Compman55]

I have read in various places that windows 8 is very optimized for the new haswell. I am planning on running windows 7 for a very long time and was wondering what the drawbacks would be running a haswell vs. a ivy bridge or sandy bridge.

 

[Ketchup]

From what I've read/remember, UEFI is a bit of a pain with 7, a good low-power sleep state will take a new power supply with Haswell, and Haswell will run the hottest of the three if you overclock.

Take note that I am not sure you can get a board without UEFI ar this point.

 

[escrow4]

You are giving up on the speed benefits with 8.1 along with better support for modern hardware - 11.2 etc. And Microsoft will increasingly focus on 8.1; 7 will get fewer and fewer platform updates in the future. At this stage too, no real reason to keep on using 7 either unless price is a factor.

 

[Compman55]

Would like to keep the focus on haswell vs windows 7.

I read about windows 8. I also have it running on an laptop to test stuff.

 

[Ketchup]

Dp.

 

[Berryracer]

I tried my Haswell on both Windows 7 and Windows 8.

On Windows 7 in benchmarks, the CPU doesnt perform as good so you're right. Windows 8 is more optimized to handle Haswell

 

[Ketchup]

I tried my Haswell on both Windows 7 and Windows 8.

On Windows 7 in benchmarks, the CPU doesnt perform as good so you're right. Windows 8 is more optimized to handle Haswell

Haswell is a faster processor. Period. You can look at the AT benchmarks for that. I don't know what 7 vs 8 has to do with that.

 

[Berryracer]

Haswell is a faster processor. Period. You can look at the AT benchmarks for that. I don't know what 7 vs 8 has to do with that.

With my previous Ivy Bridge CPU, which was slower than my current CPU (it was 2.2 GHz. only) I used to get a 7.7 score in the WEI


With the Haswell which is 2.4 Ghz., it gets 7.6 only, but in Windows 8 and 8.1 the scores are right @ 7.9

 

[Ketchup]

http://www.faqforge.com/windows/windows-experience-index-scale-changes-on-windows-8/

Most hardware enthusiasts I talk to/post with say this score is next to meaningless anyway.

 

[dagamer34]

It's more important to have Windows 8.1 if you are concerned about battery life. It will work better with Haswell in that regard.

 

[lamedude]

Win8 uses IB/Haswell's RNG for better (or worse if you wear a tinfoil hat) security.

 

[colonelciller]

At this stage too, no real reason to keep on using 7 either unless price is a factor.

wrong...
professional software costing thousands and thousands of dollars designed to run on windows 7.

thus 8 is a no go even if the interface was great, which it certainly is not

 

[Shawn]

wrong...
professional software costing thousands and thousands of dollars designed to run on windows 7.

thus 8 is a no go even if the interface was great, which it certainly is not

Eh, what works on 7 but not 8?

 

[Mushkins]

Eh, what works on 7 but not 8?

Proprietary business software, mostly. It's not so much that it flat out doesn't work on 8, just that it hasn't been fully tested/vetted to work on 8 without any critical errors yet. The company I used to work for was just transitioning to Windows 7 from XP last year, and their in-house software still wasn't officially ready for Win7.

Hell, they were still running proprietary software in OS/2 virtual machines when I left :/

 

[Concillian]

Proprietary business software, mostly. It's not so much that it flat out doesn't work on 8, just that it hasn't been fully tested/vetted to work on 8 without any critical errors yet. The company I used to work for was just transitioning to Windows 7 from XP last year, and their in-house software still wasn't officially ready for Win7.

Hell, they were still running proprietary software in OS/2 virtual machines when I left :/

We have one piece of equipment that the company who makes it went out of business and it uses a Win95 machine.

That one isn't allowed to be on the network. We get data on / off the machine with floppies... ulgh. Which means we need a 2nd tier go-between computer to copy the floppy data to USB stick.

Luckily we don't use it very often at all. If we used it more often we'd have probably replaced it with an updated model. It's hard to justify replacing a $3-500k piece of equipment though when you use it only a few times a month.

 

[PliotronX]

http://www.faqforge.com/windows/windows-experience-index-scale-changes-on-windows-8/

Most hardware enthusiasts I talk to/post with say this score is next to meaningless anyway.

Hrm! Having invested in Haswell this has piqued my interest. Is the Index indicative of real world improvements with Haswell in 8 vs 7 or is that just a fluke? Every benchmark I've seen has been a wash but that is across all systems. I personally would prefer not to run 8 to get the most out of my system but if it tangibly takes advantage of 8 there's always Classic Shell...

 

[crash331]

I deploy Server 2008 and (less frequently) Win 7 using MDT on UEFI all the time. Never really had an issue.

 

[glugglug]

Eh, what works on 7 but not 8?

• Media Center Extenders other than XBOX 360
• The majority of the media center add-ins (other than pre-releases for donators)
• External USB drives on Haswell - the Intel drivers for this can't be installed unless you hack the INFs and disable driver signature verification because Intel thinks the Microsoft built in one works (it largely doesn't). And I'm not talking about the Haswell sleep issues either. 8.1 fixed it for me, but only for a day & change. :-( Seems to work if I use a USB2.0 instead of 3.0 cable, but seriously, WTF... Actually my single drive enclosures still work with it, but the multi-drive enclosures only work with USB2.0 cables or if I put them on eSATA with a PCIe card for that.
• robocopy /Z option (OK it works, but on 8 this option makes it run 50x slower)
• Media Center Guide indexing without leaving the MCE window open - maybe this is why they reduced the number of days of data it downloads from 14 to 12....

and 8.1 gives you some new ones

• Windows Experience Index mentioned above is gone.
• g-mail in IE (but who uses IE anyway LOL)
• partner.microsoft.com login in IE (I got a bigger kick out of this one)
• Almost everything in the MC Extras Gallery, including the DCA tool that has to be run to activate CableCARD support
• Lightscribe Labeling apps (the installers work in 8, but in 8.1 they complain "The operating system is insufficient for this application", no idea why, even in compatibility mode).

for starters...

 

[glugglug]

Hrm! Having invested in Haswell this has piqued my interest. Is the Index indicative of real world improvements with Haswell in 8 vs 7 or is that just a fluke? Every benchmark I've seen has been a wash but that is across all systems. I personally would prefer not to run 8 to get the most out of my system but if it tangibly takes advantage of 8 there's always Classic Shell...

I know that for the graphics part of the index, it is largely based on your GPU supporting the latest DirectX/Direct3D that Microsoft is trying to promote, rather than true performance. A DX11 iGPU may get a higher rating than a DX9 dGPU in the WEI but not in the real world.

I don't know how much of that kind of thing there is in other parts of the index, i.e. maybe the new RNG or the latest encryption ior vector instructions could have a larger impact on the CPU rating than they should or something like that.

In 8.1 the WEI is gone. You can still run the WINSAT from the command line and it will produce XML files with the results, but they are no longer shown in the systme control panel.