Week 2: Windows 8.1 Professional

 Windows 8.1 Professional

Installation and Use:

The installation process for Windows 8.1 was similar to that of Windows 10 and overall went smooth. Once the installation was complete however is when the problems started.

The first issue I encountered was that the default network drivers did not work. In order to resolve this issue, I had to boot up Windows 10 on my main SSD, download the drivers from my motherboard's website, and then reboot back onto Windows 8.1 and install them there. That resolved the network connection issue. 

The next issue I encountered actually ended up affecting my benchmarking. Windows by default only was detecting one of my two monitors. I knew this was because of the fact that there were 130 Windows updates that needed to be installed and because I was still using the default Windows graphics driver and not the latest one from Nvidia. 

After installing all 130 Windows updates, I tried installing Nvidia GeForce Experience which automatically detects and installs the correct drivers for your system. However, when I launched the software, it was unable to find any compatible drivers. I assumed this may have been an issue with the software and went to Nvidia's website to manually download and install the appropriate drivers. However, when I entered the search criteria: Windows 8.1 and RTX 3070 Ti, there were no drivers available. 

I guess since the RTX 30 series released last year and Windows 10 has been out for almost 6 years, Nvidia decided it wasn't necessary to include drivers for 8.1. However, there were drivers listed for Windows 7, so I may be able to benchmark the games that did not run once again on Windows 7.

In an attempt to get any functioning Nvidia drivers, I tried installing several different versions, including the latest drivers, the Windows 8.1 drivers for the RTX 20 series, and the Windows 7 drivers for the 30 series and none of them would install. 

Due to the fact that these Nvidia drivers would not install, both Metro Exodus and Red Dead Redemption 2 both refused to even open, and I was still unable to use both of my monitors. 

In addition to these problems, every time I installed new software, I would receive the following pop-up:

This would not inherently prevent me from installing the software, but it would get annoying.

Benchmarks

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

CSGO did successfully run on Windows 8.1, even without the Nvidia graphics drivers. 

When compared to the results from the Windows 10 benchmarks, there is not a significant difference in terms of the FPS averages. The average FPS for example was only 7 FPS lower than on Windows 10, which I believe falls within a margin of error. The other FPS metrics were even closer, being 3 or 4 FPS different than Win10. I think the driver issues did not have a large impact on this game because of the fact that CSGO is more CPU intensive than GPU intensive. 

Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition

Did not run. 

I attempted to both use the benchmark feature, and just run the game normally but neither would open. It would crash on startup. When I Googled the issue, the number one reason this happens is due to outdated or corrupted drivers; or in my case, missing drivers. 

I'm hoping that I will at least be able to benchmark this game again on Windows 7 considering there are drivers for 7.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Did not run.

When attempting to open this game, I received errors claiming that it was unable to find the appropriate graphics driver. I'm hoping that I will be able to benchmark this game again in Windows 7 as well.

Battlefield 3

I was honestly surprised that this game ran considering the driver issues I had with the previous games. I assume this may have to due with the age of the game. 

When comparing this to Windows 10, there once again is not much of a significant difference between the two. The average FPS for example is only 0.5 lower than on Win10. 

One interesting point is that the max FPS was once again all capped at 200.9, which continues to confirm my suspicion that there is a FPS cap of 200.

Valorant

This game I was less surprised that it worked. Valorant was developed to basically be able to run on a toaster so even with the driver issues, I'm not surprised it worked. 

Compared to Windows 10, the story remains consistent here. There is very little difference between 10 and 8.1 which can be attributed to margin of error. 

The average FPS is only 3 lower than on Win10. One point of note here is that the 0.1% low is actually a little higher on 8.1 than on 10.

Cinebench R23

This was by far the most shocking of the results from these benchmarks. As you can see here, the average score was 6186, which is a 16% increase over the average score of 5332 that was on Windows 10. 

This result was surprising considering that this test would be unaffected by the driver issues, and we are working with an older version of Windows. I was under the assumption that the newer version of Windows should hypothetically always perform better in these circumstances, however this shows a different story. 

I'm curious to see if this trend of higher Cinebench scores continues with other older versions. It may be because of less built in processes in the older versions of Windows than in 10. 

This was the only result from these tests that appeared to be more of a difference than from a margin of error, at a 16% difference.

Multitasking Test

This benchmark returns back to the trend of there being a very little difference between Windows 10 and 8.1. In this case actually, the average FPS is 6 higher than in Win10. This is the only game benchmark that resulted in a higher result over Windows 10, even if it still is within a reasonable margin of error. 

Conclusion

During this weeks benchmarks, I found that in terms of raw game performance, there is little difference between Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, at least in the games that ran. 

However, the driver issues with Nvidia's RTX 30 series makes Windows 8.1 unusable from a gaming perspective if you have an RTX 30 series graphics card, despite still being an officially supported version of Windows. 

The most interesting benchmark here was the Cinebench which showed a 16% gain in performance over Windows 10. 

The other benchmarks all fell within a reasonable margin of error but were almost all slightly lower than Windows 10, which may hint at a downward trend in performance for older versions of Windows, but we will see if that is the case in future posts. See ya next week :)