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Windows 11 is already used by 24.71% of PC Gamers. 2.94% growth in August alone.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/windows-11/gaming-pc-adoption-milestone
It may be hard to believe, but the Windows 11 one year anniversary is fast approaching and the number of users adopting the newest operating system from Microsoft shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the OS has just achieved a new gaming PC adoption milestone.

According to the Steam Hardware and Software Survey: August 2022, a quarter of the gaming PC population running a Microsoft operating system are now using Windows 11, 24.71% to be exact. Its share among Windows users grew by 2.94% this month, and it’s enjoying an impressive showing across the entirety of Valve’s platform too.

However, it still has a long way to go before it overtakes its predecessor, with Windows 10 occupying a comfortable 71.76% market share even after a 3.65% decline. Time is most certainly on the side of Windows 11 though, as the dominant operating system only has another three years ahead of it before Microsoft ends support for it.

The impending Windows 11 update 22H2 could draw more users to the platform, but its features such as Auto HDR and DirectStorage that should more obviously benefit gamers.

Windows 11 has been heavily favored and quickly adopted by PC gamers, and the best part is, it's mostly organic and they didn't have to pull a windows 10 and force updates on people who didn't want it, giving them choice and freedom just like they promised and definitely didn't lie about, Auto HDR is coming soon which will add more sass to the games graphics and colors, deeper hues can really make the colors vibrant.

I will say it's pretty impressive growth, I'm assuming at least half this board has already been forced moved to upgrade to Windows 11 so they can enjoy the many benefits and features that Windows 10 doesn't have that are more beneficial to the gaming community.

Have you made the upgrade? What do you like most about Windows 11 gaming?
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
I use it and like it.

My gf wants it but doesn't have tpm 2 on her board.
 

kiphalfton

Member
I hate it and will be downgrading back to W10 next time I do a clean install. The UI sucks. I don't know what is so fucking hard about giving options to keep the start menu the same as it's always been. Then icon symbols for copy/paste/new folder/etc. I swear they dumb stuff down as much as possible, but in the process making it more convoluted somehow.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
I got a notification I could switch to 11 but turned it down. Is it a smooth transition. Is it gonna fuck everything I have on 10 or does it carry over? Never done anything like this before.
 

FritzJ92

Member
I hate it and will be downgrading back to W10 next time I do a clean install. The UI sucks. I don't know what is so fucking hard about giving options to keep the start menu the same as it's always been. Then icon symbols for copy/paste/new folder/etc. I swear they dumb stuff down as much as possible, but in the process making it more convoluted somehow.
Lots of software to use to change the start menu. Into what you like while keeping the Windows 11 game features still available.
Icons are easier to use and remember than a word. It’s the reason GUI is so important.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
AutoHDR actually works really great, that alone makes the upgrade worth it if you are playing non-HDR games on a good HDR screen.

Other than that, it’s Windows. I haven’t seen anything that is dramatically better or worse than Windows 10.


On a side note, what is it about operating systems that brings out the massive hyperbole in people? It’s never like “there are some things I like, some things I dislike, and I was able to adapt to the changes pretty easily.” Instead it’s like “FUCKING MICROSOFT, everything they have changed since Windows XP has been a mistake, it’s literally unusable, I will NOT downgrade any of my 16 PCs with this turd, Windows - - works fine and I’ll run it on my system until MS kills it!!!”
 

DeaconOfTheDank

Gold Member
I ended up making the switch to 11 so I could apply changes to HDR static metadata using CRU and make sure HGiG was producing properly tone-mapped HDR image for my LG C9 OLED. Also, this guide is very extensive for anybody looking up how to setup "correct" HDR on PC - https://www.reddit.com/r/OLED_Gaming/comments/mbpiwy/lg_oled_gamingpc_monitor_recommended_settings
For some reason by gaming laptop is not upgrade compatible so I'm still rolling on Win 10.
Not sure if this applies to you, but I had to enable TPM 2.0 through the BIOS before I was able to update. I only figured this out after running the PC Health Check app to see why my fairly modern PC wasn't qualifying for the upgrade.

I hate it and will be downgrading back to W10 next time I do a clean install. The UI sucks. I don't know what is so fucking hard about giving options to keep the start menu the same as it's always been. Then icon symbols for copy/paste/new folder/etc. I swear they dumb stuff down as much as possible, but in the process making it more convoluted somehow.
+1 - had to use a registry hack to get the old context menu back. Really don't like the new design.
 

Flakster99

Member
Well earned IMO.

The OS has been great for gaming, and I love the customizability of the UI. I've had very few crashes/ hiccups here and there, but so far, so good.
 
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Spyxos

Member
I will wait until the last second. Everything running really smooth now. Not really interested to run into problems like last time as i moved over to win 10 (win 10 update killed my graphics card.. not even kidding....)
 

ManaByte

Member
In before "I still use Windows 7".
sassy dance GIF by Neurads
 

Stuart360

Member
Wont be upgrading from windows 10 for years yet. I hate changing OS as it is lol and i only upgraded to 10 about 2 years ago.
Plus seen a lot of compatability problems with some apps and older games.
 

Paasei

Member
Zero reason to upgrade and also zero reason to not. Whenever it’s time for a fresh Windows install, I go to W11.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Haven't used it in a gaming PC yet (don't have a supported CPU), but I've been using it for day to day stuff for almost a year and it seems to work quite nicely. I'd figure gamers on intel naturally gravitated that way since the efficient cores are scheduled better over there.
 

ClosBSAS

Member
love it only thing i dislike is that it takes 2 more clicks to do anything lmao. that stupid option to show more options, my god.
 
+1 - had to use a registry hack to get the old context menu back. Really don't like the new design.
Yes, it fucks the glimmer of iterative productive usability rhythm that Windows 10 had. And makes it worse than 7. Meaning it's a Windows 8 with better marketing, which is the sole reason reviewers didn't spit on it from the get go.

Not one GUI change is for the best.
Zero reason to upgrade and also zero reason to not. Whenever it’s time for a fresh Windows install, I go to W11.
I disagree. If you actually work on Windows you lose a lot of usability.

It limits your "previous version/file history" backup capabilities to force you to buy OneDrive, I have a second SSD doing that on Windows 10 and if I were to move to windows 11 only the my documents folder could be synced that way. I don't work like that and while I could adapt and just put all my files in there it's not cool that I have my flexibility limited for no reason. They also tried to scrub and replace the file history local tool with shortcuts to OneDrive.

Local account is more and more frowned upon by Microsoft that every update edges closer to not allowing you to have a local account at all (right now it's only possible with workarounds like turning off the internet altogether while setting the computer up). They want to know who the user is and force him to have a Microsoft Account (web account), meaning less options and a shitload of crap to go wrong. Fuck them.

Start Menu on bottom means heavy mouse travel distance when you use the file bar and close/window/minimize the apps on top. They took away the option to have it on top, side, or anything other than bottom, because it broke their weather feature.

Sidebar is gone. Calendar is dumbed down (you can't make appointments anymore). Small icons are gone for the people that dislike huge bars and actually benefit from the work space difference.

It has no redeeming features whatsoever.
AFAIK, there is a way to install without having tpm 2.0.
Plenty of ways, there are even official ways.

It doesn't even feel mandatory if you consider that every new PC running Windows 11 in china is not using TPM 2 and every brand is selling them with Microsoft's silent approval. They're just being pricks elsewhere, because they want people to buy new computers. TPM 2 doesn't matter enough that a big market like China stays on Windows 10, doesn't even translate to a lot of added security.

Best security is being always offline or something, as I said above they want local accounts gone, how is a computer secure if I can change it's password when it's turned off just by going online on any other device? Their security is a joke.
 
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Haven't upgraded yet. My laptop is compatible for an upgrade but, I just don't know if it's worth doing right now.

Would depend on if W11 is more lightweight than 10 in terms of resources used on the CPU & RAM side. Does it have a smaller install partition on the SSD? Is it smoother? Runs faster (especially with disconnecting certain USB devices; 10 is oddly slower at this than 7 ever was)? Is it more or less stable than 10? Compatible with all the same applications as 10 with no strings attached?

Those are the big questions for me. If it wins out on all of them, I might upgrade sooner rather than later, otherwise just better off waiting.
 

Fredrik

Member
For some reason by gaming laptop is not upgrade compatible so I'm still rolling on Win 10.
My desktop PC is also not compatible, it’s something about the filesystem, so I’m still on Windows 10. I’m not sure what I’m missing though, W10 works great.
 
i upgrade to 11 when it went public last year and it ran mostly fine but there were some things that annoyed me so i went back to 10. a few months later after some updates I tried 11 again but ended up back on 10. third time giving 11 a try and i'm happy with it now. no issues with it and i'm on the beta channel with 22H2 which should be out in a few weeks i think.

i don't think i could go back to 10 now. if you want a solid mature OS that will just get security updates then stay on 10 but i feel that 11 is stable enough now for me to use daily. i don't hate the start menu and file explorer is superior to what's in 10, tabbed explorer is so useful!

not sure what the difference is in gaming. i didn't notice any differences in performance but if you want the latest gaming features then 11 is a must.

no doubt some will hold onto 10 for dear life just like they did with 7 which is ironic. there's nothing wrong with staying on 10 as long as you don't mind no new features. i don't want to be stuck in the past though and finally i can say goodbye to 10.
 
Would depend on if W11 is more lightweight than 10 in terms of resources used on the CPU & RAM side. Does it have a smaller install partition on the SSD? Is it smoother? Runs faster (especially with disconnecting certain USB devices; 10 is oddly slower at this than 7 ever was)? Is it more or less stable than 10? Compatible with all the same applications as 10 with no strings attached?

Those are the big questions for me. If it wins out on all of them, I might upgrade sooner rather than later, otherwise just better off waiting.
No difference. My guess is that any improvement that they do to Windows 11 in the immediate future they'll rollback to Windows 10 sooner or later as the kernel is basically shared so far aside from a few superficial differences, they didn't branch the code as that could introduce bugs and make things more difficult to maintain while they are still actively developing it with windows 10 update 22H2 still forthcoming. When they stop making new service packs they'll probably branch the code and the difference will be increasingly bigger.

tl;dr: If you're running Windows 10 and up to date you're essentially running Windows 11 without the bullshit. Think how Windows Me was Windows 98, Windows XP was Windows 2000 and Windows 8 was Windows 7. With GUI changes on top.

Which is why this year they didn't even try to make DirectStorage exclusive to Windows 11. If they didn't, I'd bet a cow that the community would either enable it on Windows 10 or make an unofficial installer of all the dependencies so it worked on Windows 10 after all. DirectX 12 has a small update only available for Windows 11, but doesn't really improve anything low level, adds dynamic refresh rate on the API and that's it.

In regards to partitions and SSD's... File system is the same as has been since 1993 and hasn't had any changes since Windows XP in 2001 so there are no low-level improvements. Journaling is the same as Windows 8.1 onwards.
 
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xrnzaaas

Gold Member
I'm good, I also waited long to switch from Win7 to Win10 but with Win11 there's even less incentive to switch before Win11 only games will start coming out.
 

Trogdor1123

Member
How do I know if I can update? I have a computer using a 3700x on 570x mobo. Would that work? I also have a spare 5800x sitting here I could drop in but I was hoping to use that in a new build.

Any insight?
 
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