Is Windows 10 better for gaming? or should i stick with 8.1?

Hi,

I have AW 17 R2 i7 4710hq 980M. I was eyeing windows 10 since the free update will soon end by mid June 2016. However, my friends told me that Windows 8.1 is better for gaming? Is this true? I sort of like the look and extras you can get from Windows 10.

Thanks

 

1. Make a backup of your OS drive (first few small partitions and drive C) with Macrium Reflect.
2. Accept the risk of bricking your laptop.
3. If accepted make sure you don't have EVGA precision installed.
4. Upgrade to Windows 10 solely for getting Windows 10 license.
Then you can either double check that your license works by clean installing Windows 10 (just skip when it asks for key) and then recovering 8.1 by Macrium reflect or just recover it immediately.
As to strictly gaming performance... Win10 is the only one for Dx12 games. But who knows how many of those will be made.

 

Well, if getting "free" software is worth the risk of James D's point #2, then by all means go for it. IMO, the only thing wrong with 8.1 is the clowned-up UI, most of which can be remedied.

OTOH, Win 10 offers great funtionality but is also beautiful-looking spyware, trialware, bloatware, cr@pware. It is nothing more than a set of digital forecepts holding you fully dialated to recieve any old thang MSFT decides to shove up your OS.

 

Unfortunately Windows 7 and 8 have the same telemetrics now after a few windows updates.

 

My buddy is a coder at MS it mainly works on .Net but also has worked on Windows.
Windows 10 is basically a heavily updated version of Windows 8/8.1 etc. So really it comes down to personal preference in some ways.
With many of the most recent processors and chipsets the older Windows like 7 and before do not take full advantage of all of the processor features and really are not suggested.
Of course it will work but it seems to me that people desire to run a more "light weight" OS is a placebo.
This happend with XP too.

Soon it all wont matter lol. The next gen Intel processors will only work with Windows 10 so says Intel.

And to all you scaredy cats, I have installed Windows 10 on two 15R1, a 15R2, a 17R3, and a AW14.
No problems. I always do clean installs, not sure if that matters. Windows 8.1 is a good choice also but I personally think Windows 10 is fine.
Just don't have precision installed.

 

I recently upgraded to 10 on both my m13 and x51. While my m13 is currently out of comission due to my clumsiness, overall 10 has been a decent upgrade. I had tried installing it on my pc earlier last year before my graphics card had a proper update for it and that created some perfomance issues at the time but I have not had any issues at all now that things are updated and whatnot. It boils down to a personal preference but I do like the 10 OS much more overall. It is easy enough to get rid of the unwanted extras and opt out of the invasive information collecting if you look up a how to.

 

It should be noted that it is BEST to do a clean install of Windows 10...
I have updated to Windows 10 on about 30 - 40 systems at this point and I cannot tell you how many times I ran into weird things that happened as a result of an "upgrade".
The upgrade process with Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8/8.1 is no different then any other previous Windows. It still is sloppy and horrible. Who knows what mess lies behind the scenes.
A Clean install is the way to go. I personally will NEVER run a system on a "upgrade" install.
Highly suggested!

 

Great points...and I agree, a clean install is a must.

I run Windows 8.1 with a Classic Shell and absolutely love it. It's clean, simple and being able to apply my scripts to block Windows 10, telemetry, M$ spyware etc...brings some assurance.

Note: If security or privacy is important to you, it has already been proven over and over again that simply turning off things in Windows 10 does not do the trick. The intrusive updates will also keep coming back after you have uninstalled them if you don't have the proper configurations in place using certain respected apps. Even then, when you install the updates that seem to be okay, it is also coming out of the wood works that M$ is using some updates to create a back door, causing the intrusive updates to keep coming back. What's happening is absolute madness. If you need the nuts and bolts, just read the EULA for Windows 10.

If you don't want to read it all, here's the gist of it:

"Nothing is FREE...you're paying them by giving up your rights to anything that is on the computer, which can get uploaded to M$'s cloud and becomes M$'s property."

So it's all up to the individual. Personally, I will hold off and stay on Windows 8.1 Pro and/or Windows 7 as long as I possibly can. Because security and privacy is important to me, if we do get faced with the situation of having to run Windows 10< etc..in the future, then I will surely run Linux as my daily driver (as I am now along with OSX) and have Windows 10< solely for gaming.

There are tons of information on this issue with Windows 10 and its intrusiveness....I mean tons...documented...it's worth doing your due diligence. You'll quickly find out how much new rubbish they put it in that phones home to HQ and all the crazy amount of ports that ....well you get the drift....

 

How can Windows 10 brick your laptop? That's just nonsense.

OP, Windows 10 is a very good operating system. Is it better for games than 8.1? Probably not, but there's no harm upgrading to it in my opinion. I have upgraded all of my 3 Windows machines to W10. One was done as clean install, the other two as upgrades as I didn't want to re-install and re-activate my CAD software.

 

There is not going to be a Windows 11...
Windows 10 will be the last one. It will just be expanded and updated.
There are even rumors that Windows will become like the office products and be subscription based eventually.
I see where you are coming from but my point is eventually you have to accept Windows 10 for what it is lol.
Heck, then next intel procs will force you to. They will only work on Windows 10.

 

While I agree with Dee's depressing comments (and acknowledge his superior expertise), I do believe there wil be a "new version" eventually. The reason is that a "New version" of Windows is is a catalyst for consumer upgrade cycles. If we can get the "latest version" just by sitting there, why the heck would we go out and buy new hardware?

I also think (hope) that a market will emerge for paying for Windows with money just to opt out of the spying that iunlock cites. I remember when Windows cost $300 (and not your soul). I'd pay $300 if it kept the Redmond Thought Police off of my computer.

OS upgrades (rather than fresh installs) have bricked computers and required a fresh install and loss of data. Win10 isn't bricking machines by itself, although as iunlock pionts out MSFT reserves the right to brick your machine if it finds something on your HD it doesn't approve of.

 

A bricked device doesn't let you install an OS again. You must have a different opinion on what a bricked device is.

 

The thing is, people here discredit windows for having spyware. But the same telemetrics are being run in Windows 7 and 8 (only when you have not upgraded those versions).

Also there is software available to turn those things off. In the end games will require DX12 in the future and you need windows 10 for that.

 

Yeah that combined with a couple cool features I use a ton and really appreciate made me upgrade last year. I don't love Win 10, but I don't hate it either. Until linux becomes super easy and supports everything I do I won't move over to it, and I know that may never happen so unless it gets really bad I will stick with Windows.

Two super cool features that make my life easier that I never see others talking about are 1) the corner screen snap which makes it super easy to have 4 x 1920x1080 windows open on a 4k display without messing with resizing each time, and 2) the ability to pause large file transfers. I copy and paste large amounts of data all of the time, up to 8TB in a batch, and it's nice to pause it and play a game or complete something else then resume. You can even resume after going into standby (like if an error popped up overnight and the PC went to sleep waiting for user input).

 

On win7 and 8.1 you have to actually download the offending telemtrics, and you can still disable them in gpedit and/or remove the updates completely. Moreover, there is no requirement that you update at all.

If there is a method now for preventing ALL win10 forced updates I'm not aware of it. I assume much of the spyware can be disabled in 10 the way it can in 7 and 8.1, however as I understand it you must keep doing this, as MSFT will keep forcing re-enabling updates on you.

As said, there are a lot of cool features in win 10 and I would expect there will be plenty more to come. However, those who have installed win10 have agreed to a completely new relationship with MSFT. For the sake of a "free" copy of windows (current value $125), you have agreed to let a third party have control over your $2,000 computer. IMO, this is way beyond silly.

And yes, I guess we DO have differentdefinitions of "bricked"!

 

Microsoft brings nonsense to the real world.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...illing-alienware-and-clevo-lcd-panels.779449/

 

There will be an equivilent to a "new version" but it wont have a sequential naming scheme supposedly.
My buddy works at MS and also MS has announced that this will be the last named version of Windows.
i.e. They will call it the same thing and just create updates. They compared it to Gmail, Netflix and other things on the market. New versions of those things come out all the time but they are still called just Gmail etc. Thats what I meant. They also seem to be copying OSX so perhaps they will allow home users to get free version upgrades.
That would be nice.

 

LoL; having participated from the first post to the last post in that thread, I was about to post a link to it and ask if his question was actually serious?

Brother Fox is literally repairing my AW18's screen (as of right now) since that incident occurred way back when... Had to ship my machine out to him from Canada.. I was one of the lucky ones who could still boot ONLY via HDMI cable to external monitor.

 

That is actually believed to be an issue with EVGA Precision X that causes that.. Not 100% confirmed but it seems to be a common denominator.
I do not use Precision X on my laptops

I have updated 5 Alienware laptops to Windows 10 with zero issues.
I was anti Windows 8 for a long time and then anti Windows 10.
I recommend it for gamers and home users.
I have not been recommending it in certain business environments though.
Depends on the situation. Not because Im against it but because there is no need to go through the process usually.

 

Precision X was one of the reasons but there were other laptops which re-bricked almost immediately on clean installed OS (1 of 2 Fox'es laptops for example) so...