Windows 10 and Gaming

Falthyron

It would seem Microsoft has started rolling out Windows 10. For those who are enabled for the upgrade, would you be so kind as to report back your findings in relation to gaming?

Have you noticed an improvement in performance with games you play quite regularly? Or have you witnessed a decline in performance?

What about compatibility? Are all your games running as normal or do you experience crashes to desktop?

What are the backup options? Are you able to roll back to Windows 7 and are you given a .iso file to restore Windows 10 should you need to?

Your help and information will aid those who are still sitting on the fence and wondering about whether or not we should take the free upgrade.

chrislad

I'm probably going to take the plunge later on, as I've heard a number of good reports from various media outlets. I'll report back once it's done. From all accounts, it seems it takes less than an hour to upgrade.

Robert ninja

The last time we tried to talk about this outside of the off topic thread it got moved to operating system forum. The mods don't seem to like us having dedicated discussion about W10 outside of there despite PCG being possibly one of the only real reasons for anyone to consider it because of its stranglehold on DX12 and cross-platform/buy features with MC's XBO.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing about experiences with it.

Falthyron

Robert ninja wrote: »

The last time we tried to talk about this outside of the off topic thread it got moved to operating system forum. The mods don't seem to like us having dedicated discussion about W10 outside of there despite PCG being possibly one of the only real reasons for anyone to consider it because of its stranglehold on DX12 and cross-platform/buy features with MC's XBO.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing about experiences with it.

Well, the purpose for this thread is exactly that. PC Gaming and the effects (be they positive or negative) of Windows 10. It is my primary reason for possibly upgrading. If it negatively impacts on the gaming experience I would like to hear about it so I can decide accordingly.

jumbobreakfast

Arma 3 may not work well until it gets patched: http://dev.arma3.com/post/sitrep-00116 (should be next week)
Oculus Rift drivers don't work properly yet either.

Project Cars is meant to run lot better on Windows 10 even though its still a Directx 11 game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzFe5OOHZko
So, current DirectX 11 games may run better and if converted to DirectX12 by their devs should run a lot better.
Windows 10 is meant to have a better memory allocator too which you may have heard talked about in Arma 3. It will be interesting to see if it makes a difference.

Dcully

Will we be able to have some way of keeping win 8.1 and new win 10 installed at the same time and use which ever?

dreamers75

Dcully wrote: »

Will we be able to have some way of keeping win 8.1 and new win 10 installed at the same time and use which ever?

There shouldbe an option to stick your W10 to USB and do a full install if so you can dual boot.

Will confirm later.

Shiminay

I think anyone who installs a Windows OS on their main PC without waiting till the first Service Pack is mad. I've got spare parts for a second machine in the flat I think, so I'm gonna try putting something together on that and might instal W10 on that for tinkering.

Lukker-

I've been on the preview build for the last month. I've had no issues so far. I reckon I've got at least 5% performance gains in some games. Seemed to get rid of microstutter in a few games like BF4 and GTAV too, probably to do with the way Windows 7 parks cores. Anyways I highly recommend it, I think alot of the legacy code in Windows 7 is starting to hold it back.

cherryghost

I get about 40% FPS boots in Project cars which is unbelieveable.

Internet Friend

Took the plunge last night, seems to be a very big improvement for gaming, much more stable and I've even noticed a bit of an improvement graphically.

Falthyron

Internet Friend wrote: »

Took the plunge last night, seems to be a very big improvement for gaming, much more stable and I've even noticed a bit of an improvement graphically.

I am just curious, what games did you notice the increase and what graphics card do you have?

chrislad

I set it up last night. Bad news is that Arkham Knight still doesn't start (0xc000007b error), and I've not tried anything else as I was busy and it took about an hour or so to do the update. I didn't really have any issues prior, so I'll try a few older and newer games tonight and see if I can see any difference or find any issues. It seems to start/load at around the same speed as W7 so far anyway.

TheDoc

Shiminay wrote: »

I think anyone who installs a Windows OS on their main PC without waiting till the first Service Pack is mad. I've got spare parts for a second machine in the flat I think, so I'm gonna try putting something together on that and might instal W10 on that for tinkering.

Or just impatient.

I upgraded last night after my raid in WoW. Was painless, took about 30 minutes.

No driver or compatibility issues to report. My main games all fired up no problems.

Got a slight FPS bump in my games too which is nice. But it "feels" like the fps has gone up higher. Things just appear to run smoother and slicker last night then they did beforehand. Not sure if its just new toy syndrome, but I notice the slightest of FPS twitch in world of Warcraft, and there was enough of a change for me to go " wow, cool".

Battlefield was the same. Havn't tried anything else, I'm sure I'll get around to it. But WoW is my main stay so its where I focus my attention.

Most notably was today running RDP from work how snappier Windows 10 is over 7. No input lag, could pretty much play a game straight up with no problems, which is a first for me.

Have moved over to Edge(the new browser) and going to use it for two weeks to see if I can keep it, or go back to Firefox. First impressions of Edge is it's snappy, lovely, and feels a bit nicer to read then Firefox.

also noticed it was showing better sharpness and quality on twitch over firefox. Which is nice since I watch Twitch.tv so much.

I only upgraded, will do a clean install Friday/Saturday. But no problems to report and so far pretty impressed with what I have seen, and havn't really gone under the hood.

It has some tablet specific stuff that's a bit rubbish on a desktop, like the app store(why would I ever use that) and a notification panel.

mahoganygas

According to some people on Reddit, Fallout 3 is not working on W10.

Gbear

mahoganygas wrote: »

According to some people on Reddit, Fallout 3 is not working on W10.

I couldn't get it to work on W8 either.

Internet Friend

Falthyron wrote: »

I am just curious, what games did you notice the increase and what graphics card do you have?

May as well just give my specs

AMD A8-6600k 3.9GHz Quad Core processor
MSI R9 270 Gaming Edition 2Gb
16Gb Ram

Briefly played GTA5, Alien Isolation and Shadow of Mordor. Ultra settings on all except GTA5 (everything on ultra except textures). Just noticed that GTA was much more stable and minor stutters I'd been getting were completely gone. Noticed an improvement graphically in AI and SoM (although could have been new toy syndrom like TheDoc mentioned).

I was previously on Win8.1, from what I've read Win10 is better at managing memory and there's other optimisation tweaks to the OS that seem to have an effect on gaming. Plus I downloaded the beta drivers from AMD. I've v-sync on still so not sure what the max fps I've been but they've all been sitting comfortably at 60 fps. Just from what I seen it looked like textures rendered better and there was an improvement in shadow detail, not sure if that would be to do with Direct-X 12, but I'm not complaining! Definite improvements in FPS anyway.

TheDoc

I actually havn't upgraded my AMD drivers, still on pre Windows 10 ones. And still convinced there has definitely being a noticeable improvement.

Running a R290 Trix from Sapphire.

Internet Friend

Probably something to do with whatever witchcraft microsoft have performed under the hood!

mahoganygas

Gbear wrote: »

I couldn't get it to work on W8 either.

Steam workshop have a step-by-step on how to get it working on W8.

Robert ninja

All this talk. Anyone have actual benchmarks? We'll probably have to wait longer for em', though. Maybe tek syndicate will do a piece.

Amirani

Shiminay wrote: »

I think anyone who installs a Windows OS on their main PC without waiting till the first Service Pack is mad. I've got spare parts for a second machine in the flat I think, so I'm gonna try putting something together on that and might instal W10 on that for tinkering.

There's not going to be any service packs on W10 according to Microsoft.

The_Valeyard

I've heard people having problems with xcom: enemy unknown, duke forever, Arkham Knight (no surprise) , AC: Black flag,

But I'm sure these issues will be sorted out soon.
Nvidia released a driver update last night

cherryghost

Well my FPS boost was under beta builds. I can't even get W10 RTM to install on my main PC anymore...

dreamers75

Has anyone got the USB for a clean boot? Via the legit download.

Sonics2k

Robert ninja wrote: »

All this talk. Anyone have actual benchmarks? We'll probably have to wait longer for em', though. Maybe tek syndicate will do a piece.

I've done a very quick one via 3DMark and annoyingly enough I've found my benchmark is a good 100 points lower. Exact same clock speed on both the CPU and GPU.

Core i5 4690k running at 4.2Ghz and GTX 970 running at 1202Mhz. Drivers all updated, so a bit annoying, but not a big deal.



Windows 8 I got 9686 and Windows 10 gave 9551

chrislad

I've run Evil Within and it runs perfectly. It does seem to load a bit faster, but that could be just a placebo effect. I didn't have any problems with any game (bar Arkham Knight) in Windows 7 - the same holds true for 10.

Skerries

this was posted by someone on Reddit today

I ran a set of benchmarks from all the games I have that include them or have 3rd party benching tools. First run was on a full, clean and updated install of Win 8.1 and Nvidia driver right before 10 went live. Second run was with a full, clean and updated install of Win 10 and Nvidia driver.
Test system:
Intel i7 4770k @4.4GHz, Nvidia GTX 770 2GB, 8GB DDR3 1600MHz, Crucial 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD 7800rpm.
Test conditions:
2560x1440 resolution
DX9, 10, 11 tested where applicable.
Motion blur: always disabled
Anti-Aliasing: Disabled unless otherwise stated
All other graphics settings at maximum unless otherwise stated
3 loops/runs.
Minimum, Maximum and Average fps shown unless otherwise stated
Average in bold, 8.1 on the left, 10 on the right.
ARMA II
Benchmark 1-8.1: 60, 10: 60
Benchmark 2-8.1: 25, 10: 25
Batman: Arkham City GOTY
DX9-8.1: 34/152/91, 10: 44/157/96
DX11-8.1: 44/121/82,10: 45/119/85
Bioshock Infinite
UltraDX11+DDOF-8.1: 23.41/95.98/57.58, 10: 22.84/92.41/57.76
UltraDX11-8.1: 42.3/134.65/72.05, 10: 45.75/128.68/72.15
Very High-8.1: 34.01/131.71/78.32, 10: 33.89/125.13/78.5
High-8.1: 47.54/383.48/98.31, 10: 53.44/216.41/98.38
Medium-8.1: 49.88/198.18/111.07, 10: 57.18/187.07/111.23
Low-8.1: 55.63/264.3/140.5, 10: 57.86/390/140.95
Very low-8.1: 50.85/342.86/193.68, 10: 56.77/265.47/141.46
Crysis 1 (pre release demo)
GPU Benchmark-8.1: 0/154/46.536, 10: 42/57/48.441
CPU Benchmark-8.1: 0/155/42.029, 10: 26/62/43.115
Crysis 2: Maximum Edition (Adrenaline benchmark)
min/avg
Times Square DX9-8.1: 21.3/51.9, 10: 21.5/52
Downtown DX9-8.1: 10.7/60.2, 10: 16/60.1
Central Park DX9-8.1: 17.3/61.3, 10: 18.4/61.5
Times Square DX11-8.1: 23.5/51.9, 10: 24.7/51.8
Downtown DX11-8.1: 17.1/52.2, 10: 18.9/52.5
Central Park DX11-8.1: 23.6/50.6, 10: 23.3/50.5
DiRT 3: Complete Edition
8.1: average min_fps="79.281265", 10: average min_fps="85.126541"
8.1: av_fps="96.182007", 10: av_fps="105.830589"
8.1: min_fps_ms="12.613320", 10: min_fps_ms="11.747217"
8.1: av_fps_ms="10.396955", 10: av_fps_ms="9.449064"
DiRT Rally (advanced blending off)
8.1: 54.14/86.28/63.15, 10: 51.88/76.99/63.42
FFXIV Heavensword
DX9 score/avg fps-8.1: 7431/60.620, 10: 7419/60.515
DX11 score/avg fps-8.1: 5323/41.546, 10: 5343/41.719
GRID 2
8.1: 55.15/93.23/74.93, 10: 56.45/92.5/74.45
HAWX 2
DX9-8.1: max 375/avg 225, 10: 393/233
DX11-8.1: max 287/avg 181, 10: 275/188
Hitman: Absolution
8.1: 50/92/61.151272, 10: 52/132/61.169300
Just Cause 2
Dark Tower-8.1: avg 68.813_, 10: 68.553_
Desert Sunrise-8.1: avg 80.65, 10: 81.34
Concrete Jungle-8.1: avg 64.22, 10: 65.226
Metro 2033 (original)
DX9-8.1: 9.3/90.53/43.33, 10: 9.99/91.3/43.67/43.67
DX10+AAA-8.1: 11.75/105.94/47, 10: 11.79/109.13/47.67
DX10+MSAAx4-8.1: 8.3/66.89/30.67, 10: 8.37/81.89/32.67
DX11+AAA-8.1: 11.81/106.8/47, 10: 11.9/103.12/46.67
DX11+AAA+DoF-8.1: 10.14/47.37/26.67, 10: 10.34/43.25/26.67
DX11+MSAAx4-8.1: 8.16/74.31/31.67, 10: 8.23/76.16/32
DX11+MSAAx4+Dof-8.1: 7.38/47.87/20.33, 10: 7.35/47.36/20.67
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition
8.1: 48.2/97.5/72, 10: 52.2/84.8/71.8
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat (AA on-MSAAx4)
Day-8.1: 47.2/97.8/67.6, 10: 50/97.9/68.2
Night-8.1: 45.9/116.4/74.4, 10: 46.5/117.6/73.3
Rain-8.1: 52.5/128.7/79.2, 10: 58.2/128.6/78.5
Sunshafts-8.1: 41.5/70.7/51.9, 10: 39.6/70.8/51.7
Streetfighter IV (AA on-C16xQAA)
score-8.1: 11135, 10: 11144
avg fps-8.1: 227, 10: 227
Tomb Raider (TressFX off)
8.1: 48/74/60.2, 10: 48/76/60.3
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II
8.1: 38.84/209.58/101.49, 10: 44.01/228.77/106.43
World in Conflict (DX10)
8.1: 56/194/102, 10: 58/193/106

Robert ninja

^

Sooo... ~5fps increase on average I think. Will probably rise with new drivers and updates for the OS and GPUs. Haven't even gotten to DX12 yet, either.

Venom

Robert ninja wrote: »

^

Sooo... ~5fps increase on average I think. Will probably rise with new drivers and updates for the OS and GPUs. Haven't even gotten to DX12 yet, either.

I reckon it will be only newer games that will see a difference with DX12 due to being coded for it or in the case of older pre DX12 games, the Dev team/publisher goes to the bother of patching them so as to take advantage of newer features in DX12.

Robert ninja

Yeah wasn't expecting old games to get DX12 patches at all. I meant new games with DX12 support... I wonder what the benchmarks for them will come out with when compared to DX11, and in what games.

EoinHef

Arma 3 is a game that will be moved over to DX12 from DX11. Would be able to make a direct comparison there. Dont know when that will be though,possibly middle of next year.

Also Ark:Survival Evolved will move over to DX12,thats another one that can then be compared directly.

Potential-Monke

Hope i'm not bumping an old thread (at what stage is something considered old?), but i'm wondering if any more have taken the plunge and would ye recommend? I don't know what to do yet, i'm very tentative about upgrading.

Sonics2k

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Hope i'm not bumping an old thread (at what stage is something considered old?), but i'm wondering if any more have taken the plunge and would ye recommend? I don't know what to do yet, i'm very tentative about upgrading.

I've been using it since about the day after release and haven't had any issues with gaming. A few minor niggles at first, but no issues at all these days.

Lemming

No issues here either with it. Have had a couple of third party vendor software issues, but that's not Microsoft's fault, and all either easily bypassed or resolved with eventual software updates. Nothing that stopped me gaming though.

dreamers75

No gaming issues but 2 annoying issues that kinda relate to gaming.

@"""""""""
2. Mic loses all settings in TS and has to be reset every 2 or 3 days so push to talk or voice activated stop working. Noticed it in game with Vermintide it sometimes works it sometimes doesnt.

have had none of these driver issues, MSI control centre controls my important drivers and have yet to have an issue with it.

grindle

dreamers75 wrote: »

@"""""""""
2. Mic loses all settings in TS and has to be reset every 2 or 3 days so push to talk or voice activated stop working. Noticed it in game with Vermintide it sometimes works it sometimes doesnt.

3. Optical Dolby surround not working outside of media players that passthrough to the receiver, meaning games have to be used with Pro Logic which isn't quite the same and requires that the game was mixed well with appropriate hard-panning.

A known issue since March and apparently the fix just reached Insider builds a couple of days ago. Bit of a horror show for a fully-fledged OS that's well past it's release date now.

Lukker-

Sonics2k wrote: »

I've been using it since about the day after release and haven't had any issues with gaming. A few minor niggles at first, but no issues at all these days.

Same as, no problems for me. It actually got rid of micro-stutter I was getting in GTAV and BF4 too.

TheDoc

Had my first issue over the weekend where Fallout 3(which I installed for first time) wouldnt work and was crashing all over the place.

Flicked the .exe compatability to Windows 7 and working fine since.

Canis Lupus

I just found one that seems to have no set fix.

Just bought Elite, put in the joystick, pewpewpewpew. Finish up playing, unplug joystick and mouse stops properly responding. Either beeps when you move and lags to **** or just beeps when you mouse click. In either case the mouse buttons become unresponsive and nothing recovers the situation other than a hard reset. Fun times but not the WORST bug ever seeing as all I have to do is not unplug the joystick until the pc is off.

Laviski

i have the same problem on windows 7
not just for windows 10.

Dave_The_Sheep

mahoganygas wrote: »

According to some people on Reddit, Fallout 3 is not working on W10.

I could get it working on Windows 10 with various stability fixes and mods, but it's far from stable and jumpy as ****. Performance is all over the place, and it crashes every 10 minutes or so on average. Sure it doesn't even support Windows 7 technically speaking.

Moon54

Fallout 3 does work with Windows 10, I'm playing it atm.
You need to download & run the Games for Windows Live client from;
http://www.xbox.com/en-IE/Live/PC/DownloadClient (Even though it's obsolete now)

After installing the client, set compatability mode of Fallout3.exe to Windows Vista SP1

Works perfect, Windows 10 will issue a compatability warning as you launch Fallout 3, but you just ignore it.

SeantheMan

Moon54 wrote: »

You need to download & run the Games for Windows Live client from;
http://www.xbox.com/en-IE/Live/PC/DownloadClient (Even though it's obsolete now)

Generic Dreadhead

Hate to be the guy to bump this, but whats the general feedback from Boardsies on Windows 10 for both general day to day use and gaming?

I've built 2 PCs, one which I use for gaming,m the other is for my missus who just uses it for internet browsing, mircosoft office and the Sims 3.

I'l appreciate any and all feedback

Noxin

I'm going for the update later today so will see how it goes. Doubt I'll be able to update you today though as I'll need to redownload my games etc..

cherryghost

As much as I hate Windows 10 I've been able to play some PS3 games on an emulator as the emulator requires DX12 for accurate emulation. So it's got that going

Kiith

I updated about 2 weeks ago. For the most part, it's been fine. I've had some crashes that i've never come across on Windows 7 (specifically related to Mass Effect 2/3 and the nVidia PhysX installation). Even had to fully power off the machine twice, which hasn't happened in a long time. Any other games i've tried have worked fine though.

It really doesn't like switching between different multiple displays though (at least for me). Any time i switch to expand to my TV (connected via HDMI), it won't pick up the TV's audio, and won't allow me to change it. I've to restart the machine just to get the sound sorted.

jumbobreakfast

cherryghost wrote: »

As much as I hate Windows 10 I've been able to play some PS3 games on an emulator as the emulator requires DX12 for accurate emulation. So it's got that going

Oh?....interesting!

Internet Friend

No problems gaming with windows 10, been on it a few months now and haven't any complaints to be honest. Saying that, I came from windows 8.1 so 10 is a great improvement across the board.

TheKells

I updated from 8.1 on my pc and have nothing bad to say about windows 10, I actually like it.

Updated my laptop which was windows 7 and that has seen a massive improvement across the board in both performance and battery life although that could be just coincidental as I did a clean wipe of everything on that.