I have a question regarding Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. I'm using Windows 8, Windows 8.1 since few days without problems, I have no driver issues or other problems. However, I have a HD 4870 1GB, and my question is whether Windows 8 and 8.1 is the best choice for me, or at least Windows 7 for best performance? I use the computer mostly for playing games and for the most part for surfing, so flash videos, etc. I do not know whether there are differences in performance between browsers in Windows 7 and 8 because of the hardware acceleration and others. GA-MA770-UD3; AMD Phenom II X4 920; 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB Thank you!
For best performance in gaming,you need to use an OS which consumes very little RAM & Windows 8.1 does consume very little RAM..even less than Windows 8...so,you should have no problems with Windows 8.1 for playing games
Windows (7) Thin PC is pretty good. Window XP would work but there is that problem with no more support coming up soon.
Yes,but he won't get any of the Directx 10 features in Windows xp & he is a gamer...that means he would like his games to have better visuals...so,it's either Windows 7 Thin PC or Windows 8.1 that he can use to get good performance
To be honest, I do not see any major differences in performance between Windows 7 and 8 (8.1) at Games. Perhaps I should mention that I do not necessarily play the latest games (Dota 2, CSS, TF2 and WoW). However, I've experienced at the browsers performance differences, as it is sometimes frozen or YouTube videos or Flash videos were shown quite slow and jerky. I think it is up to the drivers for my graphics card (13.1 Legacy), which may be the reason? I thought there would be differences in hardware acceleration between Windows 7 and Windows 8.1?
I will say there is nearly no different, and about hardware acceleration it just the same in win7 and win 8.1, and actually AMD's hardware acceleration may give you more headache then performance.
Damn. Then there is certainly no way to solve the problems or? Well that was then something good and I can stick with Windows 8.1, I thought maybe it would be the operating system.
It depends on the driver support. Your hardware specifications are suitable to run both w7 and w8 / w8.1. 4GB of RAM is enough for w7, you can even run the 64 bit version. The performance depends on the graphics driver. If you like w8 more than w7 and your system is STILL fully supported to get w8 / w8.1 drivers then go for w8. Else go for w7. A good driver support / availability (also for the chipset) is more important for your needs than the OS'es RAM usage. w7 device drivers are highly probable more developed for older devices.
I would go with Windows 8 instead of 7 because it's more stable. But I use Flight Sims only and here under Windows 8 FS-X and Xplane 10 run better than in 7! Sure, it's also about the overall config. Best way to find out is testing on your own on your computer which would the only result I would trust!
People report issues all the time with the unsupported Catalyst legacy drivers running under W8. Stick to W7 not only because you may have issues in games, but because bug reports mention web browsers, video acceleration, metro apps crashing etc. Also math has been beaten and proved that 7 > 8, so it shouldn't be a hard choice. You should also skip Thin PC, it's not lightweight enough to sacrifice features like search, .NET etc.
Only major con with versions of Windows post-XP x64, is cracking and popping sound, which I suspect is from Microsoft killing hardware accelerated audio.