Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 was just recently released, and while reviews are flying rampant, most of them will go over the new iteration of the OS superficially or compare it to Windows 8.1 only. This review, will not attempt to do any such thing and is designed primarily for the users who will be upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 directly. Since most of this particular user base are gamers in nature, we will be focusing on the performance difference between the two OS-es as well. If Layout, UI and Apps aren’t your cup of tea, I would suggest proceeding directly to the General and Gaming Performance section of this review.
Let’s start with the beginning. Windows 10 has been an operating system, whose release (and success) has been desperately sought by Microsoft for many years now. After Windows 8 and 8.1 failed to move user bases, which had decided they rather liked Windows 7, this constitutes the final do or die move.
Thinking of upgrading from Windows 7? This review is for you
Infact, Microsoft is switching to a “Windows as a Service” model with the release of Win 10 and hoping that their leniency with (almost) free upgrades will be enough to make users migrate. Whether that was a good idea or not, Ill expound on it further in the conclusion. In any case, the version 10 of the windows will be the last one if Microsoft is to be believed. There will only be upgrades form now on – delivered electronically. It is abundantly clear that everything depends on the eventual migration of the Windows user base migrating to Windows 10. Before we go any further, take a look at the market share diagram below:
* Some Operating Systems with less than 1% market share not included. Data courtesy of NetMarketShare.
Windows 7 has an absolutely huge user base and its not really surprising. The OS was a phenomenal success, so much so that users are reluctant to shift. Leaving aside whatever the problem with Windows 8 and 8.1 was, it had no killer app to force migration to the platform. With Windows 10 however, I am sure Microsoft will be able to force the move thanks to the exclusive support of DirectX 12. With DirectX 12 acting as the killer app and the eventual future of PC Gaming, Microsoft is leaving the Windows 7 user base with very little choice except to shift.
So its not a question of whether this particular user should shift to Windows 10, rather when should he or she shift. It is this question that we will try to answer. We will be going over most of the aspects of Windows 10 and methodically comparing it with Windows 7 and even 8 and 8.1. By the end of this review, readers should be able to make an informed decision on when the time is right to shift to the shiny new platform. Windows 10 will come in three versions: Windows 10 Core, Windows 10 Professional and Windows 10 Enterprise.
[nextpage title=”Windows 10: Installation”]
There are two ways users can shift to Windows 10. The first option is by way of the compulsory update, which if you haven’t received by now, will soon. However, those who are not yet willing to shift now or want to experience Windows 10 on a trial basis first have to go through the bootable USB method. Since the update method is fairly automatic, I am going to assume you are the latter of the two. The first thing you will want to do is go to Disk Management and shrink an existing volume with spare capacity by around 30-50GB
Dualbooting Windows 10, an exercise in caution
Since the bootmanager and the active partition of a Windows 7 PC resides on a separate “System Reserved” drive, you don’t need to worry about the MBR failing. The old Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool still works and can be used to write the ISO of Windows 10 onto any USB memory stick. The installation of Windows 10 is fairly straightforward from that point onwards. You will be greeted with the installation setup wizard and you can choose the Custom Setup option to write the OS onto the newly freed space.
After the installation completes, the OS will boot into the familiar UEFI bios of Windows 8 and and will ask you to choose between the two OS-es. At this point you will be greeted with the after-setup options. The first thing the setup will do is ask for your Hotmail or Live email address. This approach has both advantages and disadvantages. The obvious thought that came to my mind is that Microsoft is primarily budging users to shift to its client, however, as you will see further in the review, there is more to it than meets the eye.
Another downside is that in the case of a phishing attack on your Hotmail address or the installation of a keylogger on your device will lead to both platforms being compromised. The security features also now offer many alternatives such as pins, retina and face scans (seriously, although special hardware is required). The futuristic feeling of it aside, such measures are at this obviously gimmicks, since the security can still be overridden by a password. So far, the windows is pretty much of what you would expect from a revised version of the windows 8 core code.
[nextpage title=”Windows 10: User Interface”]
The User Interface of Windows 10 is a refreshing distance away from Windows 8 yet, still oddly reminiscent
The desktop layout should seem pretty familiar to anyone coming from Windows 7 (and it has been specifically designed that way). The only thing readily different is the inclusion of the search bar which is powered in part by the digital assistant “Cortanna”. The search bar allows the user to not only search the desktop itself but the web too (the search engine uses is Bing naturally).
The familiar start menu has made a comeback as well, albeit with some modifications. The Apps are now integrated into the start menu and the layout has been shuffled about. Relevant information about your location as well as the native apps are on display (colored blue). A healthy selection of what Windows thinks might interest you is also shown on the right hand side.
The windows file explorer has also been given a subtle overhaul. Everything is much flatter and home screen has been changed a bit. To access the “My Computer” page users will now have to click “This PC” at the right. All in all this aren’t bad looking icon sets. Previews of images and videos are also enabled by default and the overall UI has hints of transparency to compliment the flatness that evolved from Windows 8.
The New Notification System
Windows 10 has a pretty upbeat notification system as well. Whenever a USB device is plugged in, a simple black message appears on the right hand side. Options are displayed only if you click them (which was one of the annoyances in Windows 7 I might add). Frankly speaking, this is one of the things I really loved in this update, that genuinely provide convenience to the user.
More desktop screens and window switching pane
Finally this is the screen that is accessible by pressing Windows Key + Tab. It not only allows users to add more virtual desktops (finally! and hallelujah) but allows fast switching between open applications. The exchange screen of Windows 7 had more eye candy, but this certainly has more utility and is once again, a difference I would gladly call advantageous.
[nextpage title=”Windows 10: Cortanna”]
The beloved AI of the Halo franchise has made its way onto the Windows platform. @Microsoft
It goes without saying, that Cortana is a Digital Assistant that you really cannot judge immediately. Microsoft has attempted to create something phenomenal (whether they have succeed, only time will tell) with Cortana. During the setup, the user is asked to give up privacy on all sorts of data such as Location, Emails, Web Browsing etc. One use that Microsoft has of that data is to feed it into Cortana to create a digital assistant tailored to you. While its not exactly Samantha from Her, its close enough.
Windows 10’s Cortana – “I am your shield… I am your sword.”
The digital assistant will comb through your emails and keep track of shipments, flights etc. It will even recommend things it feels are of interest to you including but not limited to places to eat and news. All of this requires an internet connection. Infact, Windows 10 is very much assuming that every single user will have access to a basic Internet Connection – without which the full experience of the shiny new OS is close to impossible.
Currently the AI has limited access to the readers data, but it is already significant enough for the appearance of predicting the user’s requirements. She is powered completely by the Bing Search Engine and will resort to search terms that she cannot understand and sometimes even terms she does. Although there are many bugs at this stage, the Cortana experience I suspect, will improve exponentially over time. Currently, users can entertain themselves by asking her snarky questions with (even snarkier) replies. An example would be asking her “Who’s your daddy”.
[nextpage title=”Windows 10: Apps”]
The store App
The store App is where applications and features of Windows 10 can be added or expanded. It contains Apps such as the Calender App and also a wide variety of games mostly linked to the Xbox platform. Windows 8 users should be familiar with it while Windows 7 users will not be.
The Album and Photo App
The photo viewer has received an upgrade and is now much more streamlined and pleasant to the eye. A parental Collection application is also present which will serve as the organizer for all the photos on the PC.
The People App
The people application aggregates contacts and offers them all in one place. This isnt very useful for someone with access to a smartphone although I assume thanks to Continuum, anyone in possession of a Windows Phone will be able to benefit quite alot.
The Movies and TV App
This application is Microsoft’s attempt to become an online movie rental store. With this application you can watch movies and tv shows online. This is a good alternative for people without access to Netflix.
The Groove Music App
Just like the Movies and TV show app, the groove music app wants users to buy songs and would serve as a store/organizer for any audio files on the PC. It can detect files already present as well. It is worth mentioning that Windows Media Player is still present on the installation by default.
The Mail App
Finally, we have the Mail App. Now this is something that is actually quite brilliant and should have been here ages ago. It is Microsoft’s native offline mailing client that is as useful as it is pretty. Simply signing in with your user and you will be greeted with the familiar inbox of your Hotmail or Live address. Unfortunately however, the application is still in its infancy and suffers from syncing issues – many of which can be frustrating. Its worth mentioning that even with the bugs, this is one App that is a must use for any Windows 10 user.
[nextpage title=”Windows 10: Edge Browser Performance Comparison”]
The webnote feature is a shallow feature that barely passes being called an obvious gimmick.
I really loved the name Spartan and when it was announced that Microsoft is changing the name of the Spartan Browser to Edge, I was very disappointed. Then we learned that not only will the new browser be named Edge, but it will have approximately the same icon as well – and that’s when the sneaking suspicion of a re badge arose. Thankfully, however, Edge Browser is not a re badge of the Internet Explorer. However, it is not entirely a new browser either.
Windows 7 vs Windows 10 – Edge Browser Benchmarks
Test Bench Specifications:
CPU: Core i7 2600K (3.4Ghz)
Motherboard: Asrock Extreme6 TB4
RAM: 8GB G.Skill RipjawsX
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 580
HDD: Western Digital 1 TB
OS: Windows 7 (64)
OS: Windows 10 RTM (64)
The benchmarks we chose for the test were:
HTML5 Test
Octane 2.0 JavaScript Benchmark
Kraken JavaScript Benchmark
Sunspider Benchmark
Peacekeeper Benchmark
The first test is the HTML 5 feature test, which will tell us to what extent the browsers can handle different HTML5 workloads. It is not exactly a pure benchmark, rather, a simple count of the HTML5 support. It should also show the browsers difference from its predecessor. Without any further ado the HTML5 Feature test:
*Higher is better
As you can see, Edge is considerably more advanced then the old Internet Explorer. The leader in HTML5 compatibility is Chrome, followed by Firefox, followed by Edge. This benchmark serves to show that Edge is not a simple re badge of the Internet Explorer brand, and it is at the very least an honest attempt at a significant revision.
The next test we have comes directly from the folks over at Futuremark and is one of the most extensive tests to determine browser performance. Peacekeeper is quickly becoming the go-to benchmark for measuring browser performance and is a valuable third part benchmark with no associations with developers of any browser:
*Higher is better
Here we see something interesting. Peacekeeper is unable to run 2 of its tests on the Internet Explorer, which was something I was expecting. What I was not expecting is that it was also unable to run the exact same tests on Edge as well. Infact, Edge actually ends up behind IE in the tests it did run. We see almost half the performance of Firefox and Chrome. Interestingly, Firefox actually seems to drop in performance after the upgrade to Windows 10 instead of going up – which we can safely attribute to the program not being updated for Windows 10 support.
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The following benchmarks are Javascript benchmarks. One was developed by the people behind Chrome (Google), one by the people behind Firefox (Mozilla) and the last a third party tool. These should serve as a neutral basis for determining performance without cherry picking any specific developer over the other:
*Higher is better
In the Octane 2 benchmark, the Edge browser really shines. It blazes through most of the tests and scores exceptionally high. The difference between Internet Explorer and Edge is night and day here. Both Firefox and Chrome benefit from the jump to Window 10 and show a performance increase.
*Lower is better
In the Kraken benchmark, the Chrome browser leads (ironically) the tests with Edge right there in toe, easily keeping up with its two aged counterparts. Once again, the difference between Internet Explorer and Edge is absolutely huge.
*Lower is better
Finally, we have the Sunspider benchmark, which is surprisingly the only benchmark in which the Internet Explorer actually scores higher than both Firefox and Chrome natively. Edge leads the testing and both Firefox and Chrome benefit from the upgrade to Windows 10.
In conclusion, Chrome has gained an obvious advantage after switching to Windows 10 while Firefox will eventually do so as well. Edge while in some cases is competitive, in others, it fares just as bad as Internet Explorer. This means that while it will now suffice for casual tasks, anything more intensive or complex and switching to a third party browser is advisable.
[nextpage title=”Windows 7 vs Windows 10: General Performance Comparison”]
This is the part of the benchmarking where we will focus on the general performance improvements seen in Windows 10 over Windows 7. This means we will be looking at the OS’ capability to handle and manage different workloads and utilization of memory. We will be going through a number of benchmarks but the crown jewel remains Futuremark’s PCMark 08. It is worth pointing out that OpenCL acceleration was disabled and tests were run in conventional mode to avoid bringing Nvidia drivers into play. Given below are the specifications:
Test Bench Specifications:
CPU: Core i7 2600K (3.4Ghz)
Motherboard: Asrock Extreme6 TB4
RAM: 8GB G.Skill RipjawsX
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 580 1.5 GB
HDD: Western Digital 1 TB
OS: Windows 7 (64)
OS: Windows 10 RTM (64)
Windows 10 general purpose benchmarks compared with Windows 7
Without any further ado, here are the benchmarks:
*Higher is better
Right from the start we notice that there is very significant difference in the Creative set of benchmarks. This indicates that Windows 10 has gotten that much better in handling loads that are Memory, CPU and GPU intensive in nature. However, the Work and Home sets of benchmarks either show no difference or an actual dip in performance. The dip could be due to the fact that Windows 10 is currently the bleeding edge so its driver support might not be perfect.
Following up we have the Cinebench R15 benchmark and a Linpack benchmark as well. These will test the processor management and utilization of the operating system:
*Higher is better
Windows 10 has a definitive improvement over the Windows 7 OS – which is something that is expected. The newer OS is more light weight in nature than Win 7 and shows an improve in compute. The difference (in my case) was not that huge – with Windows 10 showing about 0.5 of a GFlops of performance improvement over Windows 7. Finally we have the old but reliable WinRar benchmark in which Windows 10 nets a clear victory over its predecessor.
*Higher is better
[nextpage title=”Windows 7 vs Windows 10: DX12 Gaming Performance Comparison”]
Gaming performance on Windows 10 is all about the DirectX 12 API and since the humble rig I had been using does not support DX12 (Nvidia has yet to deliver on its promise of bringing DX12 support to Fermi), I had to bring in my colleague Jeff Williams on the scene. We originally planned to do a TITAN-X and AMD R9 Fury X pair up but unfortunately his card developed a bad case of pump whine and had to be RMA-ed and in its place is the old R9 290x. DX12 API has primarily one major feature – which is the reduction of the API overhead and boy, does Windows 10 shine on that count!
DirectX 12 makes Windows 10 something worth adapting
During the initial reveal, Microsoft had talked a lot about how the CPU overhead is a major problem and how the performance of GPUs is going constantly uphill while the performance of CPUs is not increasing proportionally. They also correctly noted that single core performance of CPUs is increasing at a snails pace. The answer is ofcourse to put more load on the GPU so no bottleneck is established, and the way to do it, is via a low level API. DX12’s main aim is to solve the major CPU overhead problem and it actually goes one step further than even Mantle. In an example that Microsoft showed, it is revealed that in DX11, core optimization was low. However in DX12 the workload is more spread and the actual work decreased as well.
*A diagram showcasing the disparity between CPU and GPU performance increase.
There are also much more subtle features such as memory management, advanced culling techniques, rasterization optimization multi core scalability swizzled resources and much deeper access controls. Directx 12 was slated to support Fermi, Kepler, Maxwell, and AMD GCN Cards, which are basically all the current gen GPUs. This is only to be expected as Nvidia killed support for all DX10 based cards just a few months ago. Before I get carried (further) away with my rant, here are the test specifications:
Test Bench Specifications:
CPU: Xeon 1230V3
Mobo: Gigabyte z97N wifi
GPU1: Geforce GTX TTIAN-X
GPU2: AMD R9 290x
RAM: 16GB 1600
SSD: 120gb ssd
Geforce Driver: 353.62
Catalyst Driver: 15.7.1
*Higher is better
First up we have the standard Firestrike benchmark. Now, we didn’t bother going into any more benchmarks or games because, you guessed it, there are no games with DX12 support out there. Infact the Firestrike Benchmark is based on the DirectX 11 API too – and surprisingly, it shows a loss in performance of the TITAN-X. This is probably a driver issue and is something to be expected considering the infancy of the Windows 10 platform and the immature drivers in play.
*Higher is better
Finally, here is the DX12 API overhead benchmark that I am sure all us have been waiting for. The difference between the drawcalls submitted by DX11 and DX12 is absolutely, mindbogglingly huge. DX12 will help PC developers unlock the coveted “to the metal access” that console developers have access to; leading to the full utilization of the Graphic Card in use. However, there is another side of the story for certain users with older hardware. This is something I discovered during my initial testing and was one of the main reasons I decided to ask Jeff for help.
[nextpage title=”Windows 7 vs Windows 10: Gaming Performance Bonus: The Fermi Paradox”]
This is the final section of the performance review and I will be switching back to the initial test bench to make a very stark point. Going against tradition, lets see the evidence first.
Test Bench Specifications:
CPU: Core i7 2600K (3.4Ghz)
Motherboard: Asrock Extreme6 TB4
RAM: 8GB G.Skill RipjawsX
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 580
HDD: Western Digital 1 TB
OS: Windows 7 (64)
OS: Windows 10 RTM (64)
*Higher is better
The first benchmark showcases the synthetic performance of the GTX 580 in two very well known benchmarks, namely Firestrike and Unigine Heaven 4.0. In both cases, the performance of the card falls after upgrading to Windows 10. I would also, at this point like to remind our readers that the TITAN-X suffered a similar fate in the previous section, which indicates a driver problem. Please also keep in mind that the API used for the GTX 580 in Windows 7 is the DirectX 11 API while in Windows 10, DXDIAG shows the API to be DX 11.2.
Fermi performance suffers after the Windows 10 upgrade
*Higher is better
The second benchmark deals with the maximum DrawCalls allowed per frame by the API. Surprisingly, in the case of Windows 7, single threaded DX11 allows for a maximum of 76, 800 calls per frame while after Windows 10, it is only able to achieve 49,152 draw calls. Thats a reduction of 36% by upgrading to Windows 10. Next up we have the maximum Drawcalls executed per second:
*Higher is better
Once again we notice a huge difference between Windows 7 and Windows 10 – and its not higher on the later side. Fermi’s performance more or less plummets in the Windows 10 OS, which seems somewhat counter intuitive considering the API was actually upped to DX11.2. The only problem with that reasoning is, that hardware is only as good as its driver support, and unfortunately for older cards, companies will not be interested in giving them the attention they deserve.
Nvidia had originally promised DX12 support for Maxwell, Kepler and Fermi – yet Fermi still has not received the DX12 patch that will allow it to finally feel at home in Windows 10. One can only hope however that problem will be resolved in a future update. This scenario should serve as a warning to any users with older Nvidia hardware who are thinking of migrating to Windows 10 immediately. The R9 290X we tested didn’t have any such problem and we don’t have any evidence to support that the same is true for AMD drives as well. Upon asking, Nvidia was not able to give us even a tentative date when asked about DX12 support for Fermi cards.
[nextpage title=”Conclusion”]
So that is it for the (mostly) quantitative part of the review. We can see that the platform is pretty bug ridden at the moment but still sufficient enough. The UI is reminiscent of the 8.1 aesthetic that was more or less forced down the throats of the users before and it seems Microsoft has yet to learn from its mistakes. That said, most of the unintuitive and clumsy parts have been removed – third party programs like Windows Blinds will have to account for any remaining deficiency.
Cortana is a hopeful addition to the Windows platform and while it still doesn’t quite live up to its name, its helpful enough to warrant its existence.
For Windows 7 users, Windows 10’s primary redeeming quality is the DirectX12 API
The Edge browser is a worthy browser in its own right, and while it shines in certain tests, its lack of certain key features (related to HTML5 and Codecs) is a crippling disadvantage which will mark the difference between users treating it seriously and just as another Internet Explorer (which its icon, once again showing Microsoft’s affection to delve in past mistakes, is awfully similar to Internet Explorer).
As far as the general performance increase goes, Windows 10 is lighter and faster than Windows 7. Although, the performance increase is in the single digits and limited mostly to processor and graphics intensive workloads. For the most part, there is on discernible difference between the Windows 7 Experience and Windows 10 RTM.
Finally, we come to Gaming performance and it is abundantly clear that this is the only reason that could actually force the Windows 7 crowd to shift (the gamers at the very least). DirectX 12 is an absolutely behemoth of an update and will result in performance increases measured in orders of magnitude in certain configurations. However, in this case, Nvidia Fermi cards (Geforce 400 and Geforce 500 Series) are currently at a disadvantage due to driver incompatibility.
Windows 10 is out and yes, people will eventually be forced to migrate to it; but on grounds of merit alone, it is a case of too little too late.
The post The Windows 10 Review for the Windows 7 User: Misses More than It Gets by Usman Pirzada appeared first on WCCFtech.