I'm doing a new build PC using the new Haswell-E processors. Its use is, almost completely, for 3DS Max, Zbrush and Photoshop. I have copies of windows 7 and windows 8, The interface on windows 8 has never really bothered me, so my choice is purely based on which leaves more system resources free for other software. Thoughts? Thanks for any help in advance.
There is not that much in it, I believe 8 pulls ahead of 7 slightly in benchmarks plus you have longer support on it and the possible free update to Win 10 when released which is very snappy.
Have to agree with Votick, I loved windows 7, Vista whilst I liked had a problem with the UI being a bit slow and XP was just too unstable, 8 is very good, so much so that I have to keep reminding my self that I have start menu now Im using Windows 10 TP Win8 UI is fast, its very stable, lightning quick boot times and its a breeze to use. Windows 10 -despite being an early build- has so far got both 7 and 8 trumped in the usage I've had from it.
W7 here, not seen a need to move to 8. That said there are rumours that W10 may come as a free update to W8 users, how likely this is or not I'm not sure but if that is the case then I'd go with 8. May be worth looking into whether that will happen before making your choice.
Mileage may vary when it comes to the UI, but under the hood 8(.1) is pretty definitively superior to 7. If you have both equally available and don't have a very strong preference for 7 then I'd certainly go with 8.
IIRC All the under the hood changes from 7 to 8 were aimed at making it better on mobile devices. On the desktop 7 and 8 perform much the same, 8 wins some benchmarks, 7 wins others, but we are only talking about a 1-5% difference in most cases.
Go for Win8.1, I say. If buying a license is not a concern, and nether is the Win8.1 UI, why not use the most up to date OS? EDIT: I don't think they've confirmed anything, but based on past experience it's a pretty safe bet that Win7 won't support DX12.
