Windows 8 and gaming

I recently upgrading from Windows XP to 7, so I really don't plan on upgrading to 8 (perhaps 9 eventually).
Windows XP is great, and 7 is pretty decent, but in the long run I'd prefer to not have a dependency on Microsoft's OS and it's upgrades.
I'll be waiting for the Linux kernel that completely succeeds Windows in functionality, program compatibility, and user interface.
Of course, I could be waiting a while (or forever).
One can dream.

Sleeping Dogs's running faster on Windows 8. That's the only game i've found significant change, other games seem to run same.

Stealth Bastard free edition crashed on Windows 8 on many levels. On Windows 7 it' all good.

But it's the only problem I've had. So yeah, +1 for Windows 8.

Most of the people who hate on Windows 8 haven't actually used it, they're just jumping on the bandwagon because it got some bad reviews... mostly dealing with the (admittedly) horrible metro UI. But seeing as how there are dozens of free programs that disable metro UI and bring back the start menu (classic shell is what I use), it's not THAT big a concern. In fact, ever since I've done that I haven't noticed a single thing worse about Win8 than Win7. No game problems. Better task manager. Better multi-monitor support. Better search. Ok I guess it's a little annoying that I have to use my windows live account to sign in, but whatever. A username/password is a username/password.

I see no advantage in Windows 8 big enough to warrant switching operating systems, so I don't.

I'm using windows 8, and it does perform slightly better in most games. That's my personal experience though, I know that many users are having more issues with it than I am. The only thing I find to be an issue with windows 8 is the initial driver headache. I had many issues installing old devices, but that's typically resolved by using either the vista or 7 files.

I installed win8 yesterday.
Performance-wise, I see absolutely no difference with win7. (both on boot time or ingame perfs)
Compatibility-wise, I need to run Dark Souls in compat mode, but that's the only game not working natively I've found atm.
My biggest problem with this OS is Metro and the Hot Corners. They're probably cool if you're on a tablet, but a PC is not a tablet, silly Microsoft !

To everyone who is butthurt about what GabeN said, remember he said it was a "catastrophe" for developers and their profits.

been using windows 8 since November last year. like it very much,my pc run much smoother than Win7.

some games cannot be run on windows 8, like Serious Sam Random Encounter (sound issue). other than that, all my games can be played normally.

Windows 8 is actually quite good surprisingly!

I believe Gabe referring to the rumors that people would stop using a mouse and keyboard and used only a touch screen... That would be terrible for games! In reality Win 8 is the same as Win 7 for gaming, I haven't encountered any problems since I upgraded to Win 8.
As for the start menu, Microsoft finally made a start menu that is useful and fast. Try it and after one hour you'll wonder how did you ever used the old one.

I'm using win8 for quite a long time and I haven't experienced any bigger problems with games, everything works smooth.

I think the issue is that microsoft really marketed windows 8 as a tablet OS first and foremost. This ended up being not entirely true, but I could understand game devs being apprehensive about it, especially with this whole "App" format they're trying to push.

It does have a load of usability issues, however.

When I just recently built my new PC I went with win8 for a few reasons. It was cheaper than win7 and some of my group members said they liked it. So I watched some of the videos on it and thought it looked cool. I've now used it for like a month and haven't had any problems with it. I love the interface and it's really quick. I also love the Steam app where I can put game tiles on metro and just click on them to start the game.

It does take some getting use to as I'm still learning the tricks but I definitely won't be switching back.

Never had an issue with Windows 8, games run smoothly and they work.

If you haven't worked it out by now, let me point it out:

Microsoft works in cycles of bad/good versions...

Win 3.1(1) - Good - not nearly as good as the much older Amiga Workbench, but still OK.

Windows 95- Bad. Bug-ridden and unfinished

Windows 98- Windows 95 which actually worked.

Windows ME- WTF happened? Should never have been released. It had a fucking memory leak, for god's sake.

Windows 2000- Really good.

Windows XP- Bad. Bug-ridden and unfinished (are we seeing a pattern here?)

Windows XP SP2/SP3- Good and stable. A slight change to the pattern.

Windows Vista- Bad. Bug-ridden and unfinished, that memory hog is back. Even the Microsoft Ex-Staff ammitted this was dumped and released too early as just a stepping stone for Windows 7 which was already started before it.

Windows 7- Good, a patched version of Vista with user feedback.

Windows 8- Bad, a tablet piece of rubbish with mixed interfaces. It's like Windows 7 with additional crap to test on top like the metro, bloatware, always connected online features you don't want, and a built in purchase system to make more money off you. Unified ecosystem in which hackers will later on have a field day accessing!

Windows 9- Skynet (refer to Terminator movies).

+1

I tried the one game on win 8, Mirror's edge. It crashed. I reinstalled win 7. -_-

Answer to the title: is amazing!

I just bought a new laptop and it came with Win8. I went into it expecting to hate it but once you learn it, it's not so bad. I haven't had any problems with gaming. Lack of conventional start menu is fixed by just rearranging the apps on the Win 8 "start menu" (not sure what to call it). It's not any slower to bring that screen up than it is to bring the old start menu up. Metro apps do annoy me but that's why you can just choose not to use them. I do feel like it gets a lot of hate because people don't like change. It changes some things that we are very familiar in and that frustrates people (certainly frustrated me). But if you take the time to learn where things are then it will once again become something familiar. To be certain it DID make some odd choices... such as putting the shut off/restart button under Settings but again, it's just something you learn.

Other than that I really don't notice much differences. It runs everything I want just fine.

i tried it for ONE (i want to stress that point) day on the laptop i bought recently and it had bugs galore for me. i couldnt use my 670GTX graphics card nor could i use the full 3.4GHz on my ivybridge quad core as it refused to clock it above 2.4GHz.

i tried loading a few games (BOI both steam and non steam since i bought a retail version and darksouls are the two main) and they both lagged to the max (got 15fps max on dark souls and very laggy not sure what fps for BOI)...

after i tried installing windows 7 back over the hard drive it told me that it was "invalid files" and as it turns out you can not directly install win7 back over win8 as files in win8 stop you. i had to connect the hard drive to my computer as a slave to wipe it completely and then install win7.

since i put win7 on it has had very few problems (the only problem is i cant remove internet explorer as it is restricted by something dumb and i plan to use it anyway for a DL program i use on videos called "orbit") i have been able to use the full 16GB of RAM and the 3.4GHz processor as well as the GTX graphics card. i PREFER (again i want to stress this as i know im a rare case) win7 because it has been so much easier for me and with games i get zero lag (darksouls now has a lowest fps of 30 due to it being restricted at a max of 30, i've checked with fraps for proof and BOI only lags when i use more than 2 cores which it will on almost any system as it is designed for dual core in mind)

Windows 8 is amazing, it is very fast, has almost no bugs (No more than Win 7) runs games smoothly, does not overheat my laptop and has a very nice interface

The people mostly who hate windows 8 for gamingoverall have not used it or didn't bother updating driversinstalling previous directx for capability (or validate steam files for it). You generally get a fps increase and work well.

Now as a whole it's better than seven but the Metro UI and trying to be a tablet doesn't work on a PC.

I 'dislike' it for it seeming to have a lot of problems with....'free' games. Havent kept any updates for some months now, dont know if it works with them now or not...Gonna wait for Linux to be more 'game friendly' without having to use programs to run.

I have Win 8 64bit and is genial . My pc :

8 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce GT 635M 2GB
core i7
750GB HDD