• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

New Gaming build, Win 7, 8.1 or 10?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

alexisvx

Registered
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Hi,
I currently have win7x64 bit and am upgrading my mobo, cpu, case and psu. I will be using that computer mainly for gaming. I have read that the improvement for gaming from 7 to 8.1 is marginal if at all noticeable.
What do you recommend I use on my new build, go for 8.1, or go for my current 7 and wait for 10 to come out and then decide?
I obviously don't want to spend money on getting 8.1 and then regret not having waited for 10. What do you hear on what 10 will be like for gaming?

I will be running:
i5 4690k
GeForce GTX 650Ti Boost 2GB
Asrock Z97 Extreme 4
8GB RAM DDR3 1333
 
Win 8.1, as there is no support for DX12 in Win7 and Win 10 is not out yet.
 
I wouldn't mess with 10 for a gaming build till it's officially released. Still quite a bit of bugs that they are working out.
 
Since you have Windows 7 right now, maybe hold off on paying to upgrade until Windows 10 comes out in 2015. However, look at the game releases and when you think you will need it because the wait for Windows 10 may be as long as a year from now, I would not be surprised if it were close to this time of 2015, 10-12 months from now.
 
If you already have a copy of Windows 7 I would use it for the build and wait on Windows 10 to see if it is a step forward or a step backward for your purposes. Wait a few months after Windows 10's official release to see what others are experiencing with it rather than being an early adopter. The DirectX 12 capability of Windows 10 needs also to be waited on to see if it comes close to living up to it's hype and even if it does you will need to replace hardware in order to take advantage of it.
 
If you already have a copy of Windows 7 I would use it for the build and wait on Windows 10 to see if it is a step forward or a step backward for your purposes. Wait a few months after Windows 10's official release to see what others are experiencing with it rather than being an early adopter. The DirectX 12 capability of Windows 10 needs also to be waited on to see if it comes close to living up to it's hype and even if it does you will need to replace hardware in order to take advantage of it.

The GTX 6XX cards support DirectX 12.
 
The OP has a 6xx series of cards not 4xx series (but you are correct).

As far as AMD, no idea on that... would have to search (and walking out the door... g'night!).
 
Wait for Windows 10. If this is a gaming computer, shouldn't it be able to play the newest games?

DX12 is basically here, just hold on a little longer. Intall Windows 7, and enjoy the normal start menu for the time being.
 
The OP has a 6xx series of cards not 4xx series (but you are correct).

As far as AMD, no idea on that... would have to search (and walking out the door... g'night!).

After a little research on the web, apparently, DirectX 12 will be fully supported on "select" R7, R9 and HD 7000 GPUs, the ones that have "GCN Architecture". But they don't say which ones those are in those groups. They have also come out with "Mantle" technology which supposedly makes vast improvement in the CPU translation element during gaming.
 
Personal question: Now that you're googlin', does it say anything about Radeon HD 7870?
 
Personal question: Now that you're googlin', does it say anything about Radeon HD 7870?

Good question. I have an R9 280X and wonder if it has GCN capability. The information is pretty sketchy right now it seems. I did find out that one card that does have the GCN is the R9 285X with the "Tonga" core, a new entry in the R9 product line. It seems that the series of GPUs I mentioned in the above post will have new models that have it while the existing ones don't.
 
i also have r9 280x, and am pretty sure it has GCN
now take this bit with a grain of salt, as i pulled it off wikipedia, but heres a list of GCN cards
A GPU implementing Graphics Core Next 1.2 is found on the R9 285 (Tonga Pro) branded products.
A GPU implementing Graphics Core Next 1.1 is found on R7 260 (Bonaire), R7 260X (Bonaire XTX), R9 290 (Hawaii Pro), R9 290X (Hawaii XT), and R9 295X2 (Vesuvius) branded products.
A GPU implementing Graphics Core Next 1.0 is found on R9 280 and 280X, R7 240, 250, 250X, 265, 270, 270X, and R5 240 branded products.
A GPU implementing TeraScale 2 "Evergreen" (VLIW5) is found on R5 235X and "below" branded products.
 
i also have r9 280x, and am pretty sure it has GCN
now take this bit with a grain of salt, as i pulled it off wikipedia, but heres a list of GCN cards
A GPU implementing Graphics Core Next 1.2 is found on the R9 285 (Tonga Pro) branded products.
A GPU implementing Graphics Core Next 1.1 is found on R7 260 (Bonaire), R7 260X (Bonaire XTX), R9 290 (Hawaii Pro), R9 290X (Hawaii XT), and R9 295X2 (Vesuvius) branded products.
A GPU implementing Graphics Core Next 1.0 is found on R9 280 and 280X, R7 240, 250, 250X, 265, 270, 270X, and R5 240 branded products.
A GPU implementing TeraScale 2 "Evergreen" (VLIW5) is found on R5 235X and "below" branded products.

Yes, it would seem you are correct: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units

Will the earlier versions of GCN work with DX12, however? Yes, the chart linked above shows they do.

By the way, GCN is not a requirement of AMD's Mantel technology. How widely games will implement waits to be seen.

What's up with this "TeraScale2"?

TeraScale: "TeraScale is the codename for a family of graphics processing unit microarchitectures developed by ATI Technologies/AMD and their second microarchitecture implementing the unified shader model following Xenos. TeraScale replaced the old fixed-pipeline microarchitectures and competed directly with Nvidia's first unified shader microarchitecture named Tesla." Wikapedia


So it's about unified shader technololgy. I guess it must be good. As you have guessed by now, GPU microarchitecture is not my strong point or my particular interest.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well they said that GCN-based products will support Direct-X 12.
My Radeon HD 7870 is GCN-based.

By law of Transitive Relation :D I'm in!
 
After a little research on the web, apparently, DirectX 12 will be fully supported on "select" R7, R9 and HD 7000 GPUs, the ones that have "GCN Architecture". But they don't say which ones those are in those groups. They have also come out with "Mantle" technology which supposedly makes vast improvement in the CPU translation element during gaming.
GCN was out two generations ago IIRC (7 series?). Mantle is an API (like DirectX) that is used on the Rx series of AMD GPUs, correct. It takes some of the load off the CPU that in turn should make for better FPS. Adoption has been a bit slow and not without hiccups, but when it works properly, there are significant boost to performance (for example BF4).
 
Thanks for the clarification, ED.

So this DirectX 12 seems it will not to be so hardware dependent. Seems like historically when a new DirectX version would be released it required a whole new GPU architecture. This DirectX 12 is compatible with Nvidia chipsets clear back to the GTX 450 series.
 
DX9 to 10 was a hardware thing I believe. DX11, 11.x, and 12 is not as it is not a huge API change like the jump from 9 to 10 was.

I goes clear back to whatever was Fermi, Kepler, and Maxwell based, yes.
 
Back