cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Wiping my PC - reinstall Windows 7x64 or buy Windows 8.1

fudspong
Explorer
While waiting for the DK2 to arrive I will be reformatting my PC so it's fresh and clean and less likely to have software conflicts with the 3D goodness.

I already have Windows 7 x64 but I was wondering if there's any advantage to installing Windows 8.1 instead, with performance, drivers or software compatibility?

It's quite an old PC:
i7 920
3GB DDR3
EX58-UD3R
GTX 670
120GB SSD C Drive, 3TB D Drive
No cash for new hardware yet, but hoping for an 800-series before Xmas and then saving for a new CPU/MB/RAM combo early next year.
25 REPLIES 25

KelvinNZ
Honored Guest
IMHO, I would wait for Windows 9 to come out, it will be more suited to the desktop user rather than tablet user.

This is just my opinion though. Windows 8.1 most likely won't give you great performance gain if any at all. I would stick with W7. It's proven.

cybereality
Grand Champion
Windows 7 will have better support most likely.
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV

freehotdawgs
Honored Guest
"KelvinNZ" wrote:
IMHO, I would wait for Windows 9 to come out, it will be more suited to the desktop user rather than tablet user.

This is just my opinion though. Windows 8.1 most likely won't give you great performance gain if any at all. I would stick with W7. It's proven.


Agreed 100%
Everyone I know who uses windows 8 says it sucks. Might as well just save your money and reinstall windows 7, it's still being supported and does the job just as well as 8 if not better.

Alci
Honored Guest
The only people who I've met said W8 sucks were people scared of any changes and gave up after 5minutes 🙂 Most of my colleagues are either on "ok" or "better" stance.

I'd personally choose Win8.1 over W7 anytime if it's just matter of choice (faster, better memory management, better ui, working hidpi support, multi monitor support, better remote desktop support, the best wifi support I've seen so far, etc. (and I have touch screen on nb, so I'm used to them even on working machine; not using metro on any of them) ).

It might not be worth reinstalling from W7 (but it's completely insane keeping WXP on new machine over W8, like some people on forums suggests) or buying them if you already have W7 and you don't desperately need any particular feature.

pierreye
Honored Guest
Based on the feedback, it seems that Oculus Rift had less problem with Win7. Also Nvidia and Intel had higher compatibility. Might take sometimes to iron out all the small issue on different combination of OS and Hardware.

AnotherAtreyu
Protege
Windows 8 is awesome. Being a power-user over the course of the last couple of decades and sticking with XP for far too long, I made the switch a few years back to windows 7.
Windows 8 is a rather large performance increase in most programs so far, but it definitely takes getting used to.
“If you are willing to look at another person’s behavior toward you as a reflection of the state of their relationship with themselves rather than a statement about your value as a person, then you will, over a period of time cease to react at all.” (~I really gotta remember this shiz~) ― Yogi Bhajan

Gigantoad
Adventurer
Windows 8 is lean and fast, go for it. Install Classic Shell and all the Metro stuff is gone. I'm suprised that in a community as tech-savvy and bleeding-edge as this there are still people using Windows 7. Configuring the Rift and figuring out how to get demos to run is about 100x harder than removing Metro from Win8.

TWhite
Explorer
"Gigantoad" wrote:
Windows 8 is lean and fast, go for it. Install Classic Shell and all the Metro stuff is gone. I'm suprised that in a community as tech-savvy and bleeding-edge as this there are still people using Windows 7. Configuring the Rift and figuring out how to get demos to run is about 100x harder than removing Metro from Win8.


This. I recently upgraded to 8.1 after spending years on 7 ultimate. With StartIsBack+ I basically have my good old classic windows experience with the improved performance and compatibility of 8.1.
CPU: i7 3770k 4.6Ghz GPU: EVGA GTX 780

Equinoxe
Honored Guest
Win 8.1 is good.
I don't have any problems at all with DK1/2 on Win8.1