Windows 8 - Take it, or leave it?

Is Windows 8 worth getting if you're a gamer? I have a pretty new laptop and was wondering, seeing as it's 30,- untill the end of the month.

Any thoughts?

If you have Windows 7 then no.

I have Windows 8 and I like it a whole lot. I feel like it's a bit faster, a little bit more responsive, and it boots whole lot faster than Windows 7. The whole "Metro start menu" thing actually isn't so bad - in fact, I also like that whole lot.

That said, there's not a whole lot going for it beyond those things. It's not like the jump from XP to Vista where a whole lot of new features were introduced, nor is it like the jump from Vista to 7 where a whole lot of old things were fixed; it's basically just a bit of a speed upgrade and a start screen instead of a start menu. Also, it has its own antivirus software and firewall built in that I haven't had to worry about once - 8 is supposed to be a good bit more secure and thus far that has held true.

Still, unless you've got the disposable income to spare, it's not much more than an incremental upgrade.

It's good, it's better than Windows 7, and be honest, do you give a flying fuck that the start menu isn't there? Even my grandmother stopped using that with Windows 7's taskbar.

It's snappier, it uses less RAM, it boots a hell of a lot faster, explorer is a LOT better, and most of the driver issues have sorted themselves out at this point. I'm no longer having any compatibility issues with any games or software or drivers.

Plus, the new "start screen" or whatever is kinda cool. Metro apps can send you notifications, so if you have the Giant Bomb app that isn't shit, you can be notified whenever new, original GB content is posted, which is awesome. Same thing with your calendar or the mail app. I think you can push in any ol' compatible email/calendar but I could be wrong, I use hotmail, or what used to be hotmail, so I could be wrong. Beyond that, I don't know how useful all that is, but the other improvements are what I paid for. Being able to check the weather and latest news with a press of a button is nice, and notifications are awesome, but that's about it. If you don't care about the rest, then it may not be worth it, but hey, it'll be supported for longer than Windows 7, and it's possible (read:almost certain) that the next DirectX will be exclusive to Windows 8. You mind as well just get it, if you plan on gaming on your laptop. It already has an exclusive update to DirectX 11. It's mostly behind the scenes, no new real features that you'll really care about, but it does mean for some better performance in places I think. It's more of an indication of the future plans for DirectX I think, namely that 12 will probably be exclusive or superior on Windows 8.

It's cheap, I'd do it. It's not bad, like most fuckheads will try to convince you. Those same people never touch their start menu and have 3000 icons on their desktop, so they aren't really people to talk to. The only possible negative is the change of the start menu, and it's not worse, it's just different. To me, that's an improvement because I occasionally actually use it now. I never used the start menu before. You get a bit of a performance boost in areas, the actual desktop environment is greatly enhanced, and you will have an OS that will continue to be supported for longer than Windows 7 will, in all likelihood. Even if Windows 8 is short lived.

And again, it's super cheap. Nothing's wrong with it. I'd do a quick check of compatibility for any applications you use, but for games most of the quirks have been worked out.

@believer258: You're right that it's an incremental upgrade, but it's also priced accordingly, at least for now. Unless you're really strapped for cash, $30 isn't going to break the bank. I think it's worth the upgrade over Windows 7 for being snappier and having an all around better interface.

@believer258: Thanks for the insight! :) So you say it is indeed an improvement, just not a big one? They had a special with computers bought after June 2012, to get it at 15 bucks.. would you say that it would be worth it? Does it affect gaming at all?

@MordeaniisChaos: Awesome stuff! Thanks! :) There has been a whole lot of negativity surrounding it, but it's not that bad then!

I am currently on Vista ( I know, I know)

Firstly, should I upgrade?

Secondly, Is it an easy process to upgrade to Windows 8 via download? That would be great.

It boots up crazy fast, and if you really don't like the Start Screen you can get a good enough free Star Button app.

Moreover, there is going to be a crazy 400% price increase soon (if that hasn't happened already), so if you're going to get Windows 8 do it quick.

@BamurDeadd said:

@believer258: Thanks for the insight! :) So you say it is indeed an improvement, just not a big one? They had a special with computers bought after June 2012, to get it at 15 bucks.. would you say that it would be worth it? Does it affect gaming at all?

The only issue I've had with gaming is that I had to go to the directory for Dragon Age Origins, Steam version, and run it as an administrator. Otherwise, I have had no issues with the current version; keep in mind that I did use the consumer preview for a while and GFWL did not work for me at all. Neither did the original Crysis. And I haven't tried either of those yet, but all of the games that I have tried work without issue. Like @MordeaniisChaos said, at $15 it is worth the upgrade but I was thinking the OEM version at $100, which is the one I bought because Microsoft doesn't appreciate it when you try to upgrade, um, "naughty" versions of Windows 7.

So, yeah, go for the $15 upgrade.

Once you get it setup proper it's fine.

There needs to be a option to default to the traditional desktop on start up though, booting into Metro is my only irritation with it and it kinda makes it useless to business users as the majority of those applications will never get ported over to metro.

@believer258: I'd say you should just set windows to run EVERYTHING as admin, because I don't believe Windows 8 is the only cause for needing to run DA:O as admin. I remember having to do that for some reason with Windows 7. Now, the game runs fine for me on Windows 8 and I haven't had to deal with any issues. GFWL games have all worked fine, and I've played the original Crysis, because I bought W8 with a new, kick ass PC and wanted to try it out.

During the Consumer Preview or whatever, I had a couple of issues, but it was pretty much always "you need to turn off your 360 controller to play this game you'd never use a 360 controller with" or "minecraft." Now, no issues. And again, running as admin is always a good idea. Windows 7 had plenty of issues with things needing to be run that way too, it's just the way things are on Windows now.

@BaconBuTTy: It's super, super easy. It should bring all of your stuff over, and there's a lot less clicking through settings to install it so you can pretty much just say "upgrade my windows!" and it'll run all the way through the install after you tell it if you want to keep your stuff or have it all shoved into a folder. So there's less setup keeping you at the computer while it installs. It also seemed to install really quick for me, compared to past operating systems.

And if you're on Vista, make the upgrade. It's a huge improvement over Vista, even if you're ok with Vista, Windows 7/8 are wayyyyyy better. And Windows 8 is way cheaper than Windows 7.

@Kidavenger: I agree, but at the same time, if you don't log off frequently, its not that bad. Just hibernate instead of shutting down completely. My only real issue with seeing that is that you can't just hit the key to get to the traditional desktop, which is a bit odd. I never shut my PC down, I just hit the hibernate button on my keyboard. It starts up even faster than booting up, and it stops using power, so it serves that purpose just fine. And it'll even survive a loss of power most of the time.

@MordeaniisChaos said:

It's good, it's better than Windows 7, and be honest, do you give a flying fuck that the start menu isn't there? Even my grandmother stopped using that with Windows 7's taskbar.

It's snappier, it uses less RAM, it boots a hell of a lot faster, explorer is a LOT better, and most of the driver issues have sorted themselves out at this point. I'm no longer having any compatibility issues with any games or software or drivers.

Plus, the new "start screen" or whatever is kinda cool. Metro apps can send you notifications, so if you have the Giant Bomb app that isn't shit, you can be notified whenever new, original GB content is posted, which is awesome. Same thing with your calendar or the mail app. I think you can push in any ol' compatible email/calendar but I could be wrong, I use hotmail, or what used to be hotmail, so I could be wrong. Beyond that, I don't know how useful all that is, but the other improvements are what I paid for. Being able to check the weather and latest news with a press of a button is nice, and notifications are awesome, but that's about it. If you don't care about the rest, then it may not be worth it, but hey, it'll be supported for longer than Windows 7, and it's possible (read:almost certain) that the next DirectX will be exclusive to Windows 8. You mind as well just get it, if you plan on gaming on your laptop. It already has an exclusive update to DirectX 11. It's mostly behind the scenes, no new real features that you'll really care about, but it does mean for some better performance in places I think. It's more of an indication of the future plans for DirectX I think, namely that 12 will probably be exclusive or superior on Windows 8.

It's cheap, I'd do it. It's not bad, like most fuckheads will try to convince you. Those same people never touch their start menu and have 3000 icons on their desktop, so they aren't really people to talk to. The only possible negative is the change of the start menu, and it's not worse, it's just different. To me, that's an improvement because I occasionally actually use it now. I never used the start menu before. You get a bit of a performance boost in areas, the actual desktop environment is greatly enhanced, and you will have an OS that will continue to be supported for longer than Windows 7 will, in all likelihood. Even if Windows 8 is short lived.

And again, it's super cheap. Nothing's wrong with it. I'd do a quick check of compatibility for any applications you use, but for games most of the quirks have been worked out.

@believer258: You're right that it's an incremental upgrade, but it's also priced accordingly, at least for now. Unless you're really strapped for cash, $30 isn't going to break the bank. I think it's worth the upgrade over Windows 7 for being snappier and having an all around better interface.

I completely agree with this plus I got it for $15 so I'm not complaining. Great upgrade.

@Colourful_Hippie: Hell, I paid $100, got a shit copy, and had to wait another week and a half to get a disc to fix my system, and I still love it.

I also got a free Chalupa meal out of it, because I was able to keep the original copy that had a busted disc, and as a result, ended up with an extra product key. Traded it to a mate for some Taco Bell. Best deal ever.

It's a good upgrade. I got it for free, but I would have paid the £25 for the upgrade if I had to.

I like the desktop look better than the Windows 7 faux-glass thing.

Considering the myriad issues current games seem to have running on 8, I'd stick to 7 for the time being.

As others have iterated here, I think it works well, but if you already have Windows 7, it might not be worth the coin for the upgrade, since its features are only slightly tooled-up from Win7. Of course if you happen to be using a tablet or tablet/PC hybrid, then that's a different story (it would have probably been pre-loaded onto those anyway) Personally, I was a bit skeptical when I got a new laptop that came configured with Win8 because I liked Win7 so much. I was concerned about that "every-other-windows-OS" curse (Win M.E., Vista) that was going on in the past decades. When I asked about getting the laptop with Win7, the dude told me that a downgrade would require me to buy the 7 os, so I went with Windows 8, and I'm glad to say I don't regret it. That's not to say It doesn't have some growing pains right now (patches and the like), but I really like the way it handles system updates. Verdict: Good OS. If you have Win7, don't bother until you're forced to by compatability issues.

@believer258 said:

If you have Windows 7 then no.

I have Windows 8 and I like it a whole lot. I feel like it's a bit faster, a little bit more responsive, and it boots whole lot faster than Windows 7. The whole "Metro start menu" thing actually isn't so bad - in fact, I also like that whole lot.

That said, there's not a whole lot going for it beyond those things. It's not like the jump from XP to Vista where a whole lot of new features were introduced, nor is it like the jump from Vista to 7 where a whole lot of old things were fixed; it's basically just a bit of a speed upgrade and a start screen instead of a start menu. Also, it has its own antivirus software and firewall built in that I haven't had to worry about once - 8 is supposed to be a good bit more secure and thus far that has held true.

Still, unless you've got the disposable income to spare, it's not much more than an incremental upgrade.

You used the word 'whole' seven times in that post! That was exhausting for my brain jaw.

I haven't used it, but I installed it on my friend's computer when I built it, and it seems pretty great.

@Ravenlight said:

Considering the myriad issues current games seem to have running on 8, I'd stick to 7 for the time being.

Which games and which issues? I only heard of GFWL games having issues but that got remedied (at least for me atm) simply by installing the latest version of the GFWL client. Would be good to know which games have problems myself just so I can start searching for any possible solutions for them.

@Ravenlight said:

Considering the myriad issues current games seem to have running on 8, I'd stick to 7 for the time being.

Which games and which issues? I only heard of GFWL games having issues but that got remedied (at least for me atm) simply by installing the latest version of the GFWL client. Would be good to know which games have problems myself just so I can start searching for any possible solutions for them.

What about League? Does that run on Windows 8? Honestly not at all worried about the other games installed. Does Photoshop CS2 work?

What about League? Does that run on Windows 8? Honestly not at all worried about the other games installed. Does Photoshop CS2 work?

@ZeForgotten: Awesomesauce! DEMACIA!

it's perfectly fine if not much faster than other os. you can very simply get the normal start button from windows 7 and runs just the same

@MordeaniisChaos said:

@believer258: I'd say you should just set windows to run EVERYTHING as admin, [..]

Wow, no. Don't do that. Why would you do that? Trust me, that makes your computer a lot less secure. It's much better to just learn how to live with UAC, it actually works fine.

@BamurDeadd: Just use this website to check for any programs or drivers you are uncertain of: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/win8/CompatCenter/Home?Language=en-US

Overall, programs that works on Windows 7 will work on Windows 8. The only issues I've seen are stability issues, especially with Borderlands 2. Unfortunately I can't tell if it's just an immature driver, if the game is poorly optimized for the GTX 600 series of cards, or if it's the operatingsystem. It's also Worth mentioning that the Windows 8 Fast Boot feature can cause issues with the root codes in some programs, since the system goes into hibernation instead of shutting itself off.

@Snail said:

It boots up crazy fast, and if you really don't like the Start Screen you can get a good enough free Star Button app.

Moreover, there is going to be a crazy 400% price increase soon (if that hasn't happened already), so if you're going to get Windows 8 do it quick.

Why the hell would they do that the large majority either hates or is on the fence about Windows 8. That seems nuts.

@ZeForgotten said:

@ShiftyMagician said:

@Ravenlight said:

Considering the myriad issues current games seem to have running on 8, I'd stick to 7 for the time being.

Which games and which issues? I only heard of GFWL games having issues but that got remedied (at least for me atm) simply by installing the latest version of the GFWL client. Would be good to know which games have problems myself just so I can start searching for any possible solutions for them.

Sounds like a good idea actually, I wanna know too, just to be ready for the headache of making the games work. So far, out of the 70-something games installed with steam all of them work fine so I'm glad I haven't run in to any problems yet. Not even a GFWL problem. Then agian, having my software updated is always the first order of business for me

The one example I can remember is that Planetside 2 has driver issues specific to Windows 8. Taking a look at the Steam forums, I'm sure I could find some more examples. For the most part I think that most OS-specific issues are easily solvable but it's the headache that comes from having to troubleshoot small issues that I'm personally avoiding by not upgrading yet.

@Demoskinos: 400 percent price increase seems like a stretch, or I Guess it Depends, but it will indeed become more expensive soon. It has been this cheap since it was first released in October, & Microsoft has had several deals with W8 for over 6 months now, it only feels natural to close this deal at this point, or what do you think? If someone are on the fence of purchase, then I would say go for it now, it's good, & it will only become better with time.

its pretty bad bro i just stick with 7

@Demoskinos said:

@Snail said:

It boots up crazy fast, and if you really don't like the Start Screen you can get a good enough free Star Button app.

Moreover, there is going to be a crazy 400% price increase soon (if that hasn't happened already), so if you're going to get Windows 8 do it quick.

Why the hell would they do that the large majority either hates or is on the fence about Windows 8. That seems nuts.

Actually, it's returning to it's intended price. The super low upgrade price was announced as a time limited offer right from the start.

@BamurDeadd said:

Is Windows 8 worth getting if you're a gamer? I have a pretty new laptop and was wondering, seeing as it's 30,- untill the end of the month.

Any thoughts?

Save your money and wait for 9.

If you have the money go for it, if you're trying to balance a budget, don't. It's fine, I've been using it for months now and like it very much but other than feeling a little snappier than Windows 7, it's not a big difference.

I use Windows 8 (with Start8 to get rid of most of the metro stuff) and it works great. It boots crazy fast and a lot of other things like the task manager and file handler are much improved over 7. If getting a new PC I say just go with 8, UI aside it is just a better OS than 7 in my opinion. Not a giant leap forward, mind you, but better enough to justify the purchase.

@FritzDude: Borderlands 2 just doesn't seem to run great on the 600 series. It runs ok for me, but I get occasional drops in framerate. PhysX in particular is just horribly optimized, mostly because there is way too much cloth in the game. But yeah, I have a 680 and it's all over the place. Some areas rarely get above 60 fps, hovering around 55-60, others can be worse, some are well past 60. I just don't think the game is well optimized.

@Anund: I've done it for years, never had a problem. If you take part in risky behavior, then yeah, avoid it.

There isn't really an easy way to do it in Windows 8 across the board (Turning UAC all the way down just makes it silent, it does not elevate anything) so you'd just be doing it with trusted things anyway.

@Ravenlight: That was another of the games that suffered (doesn't any more as far as I can tell) from issues with 360 controllers. That's the only issue I've had with the game on Windows 8, it's the issue that Jeff had, and it's not like you need it connected to play the game... If you have a wireless one, as long as its off, you can play, which is what I have.

I've also played a lot of GFWL stuff, and as long as you manually install the client, which you should do anyway, because otherwise you'll be miserable trying to install it even on windows 7, because it just reboots your game a million times with update after update to the stupid GFWL client, you'll be fine. I've played Iron Brigade, Dark Souls, Red Faction, and whatever other games I have with GFWL on Windows 8 with no problems. I installed the client "manually" instead of through a game, and it's been fine. And again, if you try and let a game install it for you, it's usually an awful experience regardless of OS. Unless they fixed that or something, anyway. It's been forever since I trusted anyone but myself to install the client lol.

Who the hell was asking about CS2? Dude, upgrade! lol. Seems to be though, according to the one vote each of the CS2 software bits got... lol.

@Ravenlight said:

Considering the myriad issues current games seem to have running on 8, I'd stick to 7 for the time being.

I've got about 200 games. I've tried most of them out, and most of them are popular, common, recent games. Most of the recent major games included. Never had any issues since I started using retail Windows 8 with software updated. If you run into issues, it's probably something like not having an up to date driver somewhere, not actually a compatibility issue that can't be fixed. Even during the beta/preview, myriad seems like an exaggeration, especially considering the answer to half of them was just to unplug/turn off your 360 controller or wait for an updated GFWL client. Everything I had issues with before retail has worked perfectly since retail. If anything, I've had less crashes because I'm not running a piece of shit machine.

I think it is just fine.

If you have Win7 you don't need it, otherwise it's okay. Still haven't found any good use for the Metro stuff and I'm mad that they ruined Minesweeper but it's not the end of the world

@MordeaniisChaos said:

@Anund: I've done it for years, never had a problem. If you take part in risky behavior, then yeah, avoid it.

There isn't really an easy way to do it in Windows 8 across the board (Turning UAC all the way down just makes it silent, it does not elevate anything) so you'd just be doing it with trusted things anyway.

I have heard this so many times from people who "don't need anti virus software", because they "know what they are doing". It's a little bit like not using a seatbelt in your car because you know how to drive (except, of course, the consequences are much less severe when things turn bad).

You seem to have a handle on your computer. UAC is here to stay and it serves a good purpose so learn to make the most of it :)

@OfficeGamer said:

@believer258 said:

If you have Windows 7 then no.

I have Windows 8 and I like it a whole lot. I feel like it's a bit faster, a little bit more responsive, and it boots whole lot faster than Windows 7. The whole "Metro start menu" thing actually isn't so bad - in fact, I also like that whole lot.

That said, there's not a whole lot going for it beyond those things. It's not like the jump from XP to Vista where a whole lot of new features were introduced, nor is it like the jump from Vista to 7 where a whole lot of old things were fixed; it's basically just a bit of a speed upgrade and a start screen instead of a start menu. Also, it has its own antivirus software and firewall built in that I haven't had to worry about once - 8 is supposed to be a good bit more secure and thus far that has held true.

Still, unless you've got the disposable income to spare, it's not much more than an incremental upgrade.

You used the word 'whole' seven times in that post! That was exhausting for my brain jaw.

Sorry, I'm generally a better writer than that but, hey, this is an informal forum and I don't always double check my posts.

@Anund: UAC isn't going to stop bad things getting on your computer, it just stops things that only go bad when you run it. Plenty of things can do bad things to your PC. I prefer to make sure the bad stuff doesn't get ON the computer in the first place. If UAC was the fix-all protection method, there wouldn't be, what, two other built in security walls in windows? Defender and the Firewall. Plus, my router runs a firewall. An extremely good one. Peer to peer stuff is blocked, yadda yadda.

UAC doesn't check for viruses, it just asks you if something can run most of the time. I've never had it do anything but ask if I am ok with running Steam or something harmless like that. I'm not not going to use Steam just because UAC popped something up.

If you think UAC is keeping your computer safe, you are sadly, sadly mistaken. It has NEVER stopped anything for anyone I know, it's just been a nusance. It says it'll tell you if something tries to make changes, but other than in the early days of Vista, I never saw it work. And that was on my grandmother's computer, which she let be used by a few younger kids, so no one who used it knew anything about internet security. It was a mess, and you saw the occasional thing saying "hey, this is making changes!" but now, UAC isn't that important unless that PC is used by a lot of people or an idiot, like my grandma, who obviously didn't really know what to avoid and all that.

Most arguments for UAC will state that for single user or educated user machines, UAC is not something you need to have on. For someone like me who does a lot of stuff that triggers UAC warnings for stupid, stupid reasons (I wouldn't mind UAC if it was smart about what could trigger it), it's just annoying and it wastes time. If you never see it, fine, leave it on, and yeah, it might protect you. But I've run many computers with and without UAC and if anything, those with UAC have been much, much worse off at the end of their lifes. My personal computers that have only been used by me? Never really had any viruses, and I've been making myself PCs connected to the internet since I was 9.

UAC is useful for computers that see a lot of traffic all over the place. But for me? Never had an issue in all these years of having it available except when it was fuckin' on.

It certainly isn't a step down. For the sake of compatibility going forward, I'd recommend getting it before the price goes up.

It's better than Windows 7 but not $40 better.

It's totally fine.

@believer258 said:

@OfficeGamer said:

@believer258 said:

If you have Windows 7 then no.

I have Windows 8 and I like it a whole lot. I feel like it's a bit faster, a little bit more responsive, and it boots whole lot faster than Windows 7. The whole "Metro start menu" thing actually isn't so bad - in fact, I also like that whole lot.

That said, there's not a whole lot going for it beyond those things. It's not like the jump from XP to Vista where a whole lot of new features were introduced, nor is it like the jump from Vista to 7 where a whole lot of old things were fixed; it's basically just a bit of a speed upgrade and a start screen instead of a start menu. Also, it has its own antivirus software and firewall built in that I haven't had to worry about once - 8 is supposed to be a good bit more secure and thus far that has held true.

Still, unless you've got the disposable income to spare, it's not much more than an incremental upgrade.

You used the word 'whole' seven times in that post! That was exhausting for my brain jaw.

Sorry, I'm generally a better writer than that but, hey, this is an informal forum and I don't always double check my posts.

No no it's cool I was just pointing out that there's a whole lot of (w)holes in your story. Whole.

Windows 8 is faster and more lightweight than Windows 7 is, but not by much. Depending on how fast your system is, that might be worth considering. Otherwise, there isn't currently a huge reason to upgrade to Win8 if your comfortable with Win7.

@MordeaniisChaos: The problem is that it worked perfectly before when it first came out. I then took a break, & after updating pretty much everything - drivers, the game, BIOS, W8 - I came back to a game that had a lot of issues with performance. I have yet to find the root of the cause.

Windows 8 is fast and that's all i will say about it. For now I'm just gonna stick with 7.

It's good. If nothing else, if you can spare forty dollars you should purchase it while it's an inexpensive upgrade.

I install a ton of old games, both from GOG and from my own collection, and the obstacles I've had to overcome are identical between them. Basically, every compatibility issue you've experienced with 7 will likely happen with 8, and the same fixes will work as well.

I'm not terribly fond of the Start Screen, but I bought Start8 (living in the past, I know, I know), added several folder shortcuts to it and the Start Screen, and essentially avoided it altogether. Working like that, it's really just a faster Windows 7. It boots faster than its OS 10.8.2 sister.

I'm afraid to do this upgrade from 7 to 8 because it's to much like a tablet. I have a laptop so I would want something for a laptop not a tablet. I know I'll eventually do it I just don't know if I really want to jump on it early or just wait to the very last minute. I like the idea of something new and different, but still not sure if it's going to be worth it. The thread has been helpful so far. Thanks guys.

@FritzDude: Try rolling back your video card drivers. I haven't tried Borderlands 2 on the latest drivers from nvidia, I don't think, so maybe there's a weird issue there or something.