Battlefield 4 & Windows 8.1 - what an improvment it is!

[BD231]

I said nothing of the sort.

All Microsoft operating systems have bloat, but with Windows 8/8.1, Microsoft implemented a new memory handling algorithm and thread scheduler which mitigate the bloat in a big way due to more effective use of resources.

And while Windows 8/8.1 may technically have more bloat than Windows 7 (due to the apps), it's still faster and more secure in practically every conceivable manner.

oh, so 8.1 is indeed more bloated but the fact that it feels slower in many perceivable ways has nothing to do with bloat it's just new algorithms, scheduling and apps.

 

[Carfax83]

oh, so 8.1 is indeed more bloated but the fact that it feels slower in many perceivable ways has nothing to do with bloat it's just new algorithms, scheduling and apps.

Just curious, but how does 8.1 feel slower? Did you upgrade, or do a clean install?

I did a clean install, and Windows 8.1 to me is like greased lightning. Upgrades from my experience result in reduced performance and stability compared to clean installs.

 

[slag]

I have no framerate issues with an i5-2500k @ 4.2 ghz and an old nvidia card a 460 1gb model. Beautiful at 1600x1200, full everything. No SSD and I'm on Windows 7. I don't think your operating system is the issue because I'm not using cutting edge anything and it plays great.

 

[lozina]

I have no framerate issues with an i5-2500k @ 4.2 ghz and an old nvidia card a 460 1gb model. Beautiful at 1600x1200, full everything. No SSD and I'm on Windows 7. I don't think your operating system is the issue because I'm not using cutting edge anything and it plays great.

I hate you.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Just curious, but how does 8.1 feel slower? Did you upgrade, or do a clean install?

I did a clean install, and Windows 8.1 to me is like greased lightning. Upgrades from my experience result in reduced performance and stability compared to clean installs.

I did an upgrade and it's way faster than 7 except for loading start up items.

 

[BD231]

Just curious, but how does 8.1 feel slower?

Bloat.

 

[destrekor]

No it's not Windows 8 itself that fixed your stuttering problem, it's Windows 8's handling of multicore processors. All you need to do is disable core parking in Windows 7 and it fixes the stuttering issue. This info was posted in the BF4 thread. Absolutely no need to buy Windows 8.

That is only one thing of many.

Stuttering is one thing, pure performance is another. It's not entirely about how Windows 8 addresses cores, it's also about the entire kernel itself.

I haven't seen numbers on Windows 8.1, but Windows 8 is basically the fastest version of Windows, ever, in most if not all areas tested. This is a significant improvement over Windows 7, which was itself faster than previous versions.

I had cores unparked in Windows 7, and I also did an upgrade install. I at first actually think I had lost framerate in Battlefield 3, but that was solved in time. That was also at the time Windows 8 launched.

Everyone always want to find something wrong with a new iteration of Windows, and refuse to accept that, beyond the face of it (much like in Windows XP, and especially so with Vista), there's a world of improvements under the hood. Extremely beneficial in just about everything you do type of improvements.

 

[destrekor]

Bloat.

Odd. As I stated in my other post, I'm fairly certain I upgraded form 7 to 8 on the SSD, as opposed to clean install.

I not once have ever thought "gee, this is slower than before."
I've also not once ever thought, "gee, this is exactly the same as before."
No, I've only ever thought, "damn, this is much faster."


You got something wrong, somewhere. It can be a nightmare to get kinks unkinked instead of simply wiping and starting over. I had a driver conflict that absolutely ruined things for me for the longest while.. ended up finally narrowing it down, but damn that was frustrating for a few weeks.

If it honestly feels slower, I'd get into really looking into where the problem is. It is NOT the OS, I can guarantee you that. Drivers, a necessary registry change for something you needed forever ago that Windows has fixed but now conflicts, driver conflicts (like mine, it could be a damn keyboard driver), bad boot configuration or something. I've actually gotten a few kinks with older software and what I presume is something that happened with 8.1.
GPU drivers are also notorious - that's one I need to change because it's not as stable on my system as previous releases. I think there's a new WHQL driver so I'll be grabbing that sometime soon.

 

[Fire&Blood]

Just posting this since it made me chuckle:

 

[tential]

Windows 8 just handles CPU Parking function better. It has nothing to do with DX11 vs DX11.1

If you know how to correctly turn it off then Windows 7 runs BF4 great. Mine ran so poorly before turning off Core parking that I gave up at rank 6.. now I can't get enough of the game.

Interesting to note. I just have always used Windows 8, I actually LIKE the interface now. I find it much quicker than Windows 7 to get to "apps" that I use often.

Curious, is there any difference between Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 on BF4?

And when will we hear ANYTHING about Mantle? I heard it was supposed to be out around now? WHen is it coming...

 

[Maximilian]

Just posting this since it made me chuckle:

lmao

 

[alcoholbob]

Does the Windows 8 folder grow uncontrollably over time in size? I use a 64GB SSD as my OS drive and literally install nothing except Foobar, Windows Media Player HC, and Microsoft Office, and Windows 7 keeps growing steadily, I usually have 30 Gigs free from a fresh install of 7 Ultimate, after a month or so I'm down to 7 or 8 gigs free, and this is with virtual memory locked at 2GB and restore points disabled.

Even accounting for the games files that occupy My Documents (maybe 4-5GB), my Windows 7 folders tends to see a growth of 15GB or so after 1 month of doing nothing except surfing and gaming. Disk cleanup doesn't seem to help at all either.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Does the Windows 8 folder grow uncontrollably over time in size? I use a 64GB SSD as my OS drive and literally install nothing except Foobar, Windows Media Player HC, and Microsoft Office, and Windows 7 keeps growing steadily, I usually have 30 Gigs free from a fresh install of 7 Ultimate, after a month or so I'm down to 7 or 8 gigs free, and this is with virtual memory locked at 2GB and restore points disabled.

Even accounting for the games files that occupy My Documents (maybe 4-5GB), my Windows 7 folders tends to see a growth of 15GB or so after 1 month of doing nothing except surfing and gaming. Disk cleanup doesn't seem to help at all either.

Not mine. Didn't grow at all.

 

[tential]

Does the Windows 8 folder grow uncontrollably over time in size? I use a 64GB SSD as my OS drive and literally install nothing except Foobar, Windows Media Player HC, and Microsoft Office, and Windows 7 keeps growing steadily, I usually have 30 Gigs free from a fresh install of 7 Ultimate, after a month or so I'm down to 7 or 8 gigs free, and this is with virtual memory locked at 2GB and restore points disabled.

Even accounting for the games files that occupy My Documents (maybe 4-5GB), my Windows 7 folders tends to see a growth of 15GB or so after 1 month of doing nothing except surfing and gaming. Disk cleanup doesn't seem to help at all either.

I had an issue in Windows 7 where a folder that monitored my music would grow uncontrollably. It had to do with thumbnails for my music being saved over and over again. This is why I moved over to Windows 8. I got tired of deleting this folder. It would take DAYS to delete the folder due to how many files wouldbe in this folder. Each file was the minimum size for a file, it'd take ages it sucked.

 

[Coffinmaker]

Anyone using a GTX460 to run BF4?