What's the difference between Windows 7 and 8.1?

[Tankattack]

I plan on picking up windows 7 for my new gaming desktop, performance wise what's the difference between the two? This isn't a post about preference or UI, just how they each preform.

 

[DComander1x]

Windows 8 has a better scheduler, so chips with multithreaded cores will receive a slight boost, and it starts up faster, as it doesn't fully shut down, unless restarted.

 

[EonW]

There is really little difference. See here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-8-gaming-performance,3331.html

and here:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/buying-advice/windows/3466588/windows-7-or-8-which-is-best-for-gaming/

 

[Tankattack]

Windows 8 has a better scheduler, so chips with multithreaded cores will receive a slight boost, and it starts up faster, as it doesn't fully shut down, unless restarted.

How big of a boost is it? I assume it couldn't be very much. Is the boost worth learning how to use windows 8?

 

[DComander1x]

Windows 8 has a better scheduler, so chips with multithreaded cores will receive a slight boost, and it starts up faster, as it doesn't fully shut down, unless restarted.

How big of a boost is it? I assume it couldn't be very much. Is the boost worth learning how to use windows 8?

About 5 to 10% at most.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/windows_8_Review?page=0,4
Quote from Link - "Cinebench 11.5 and X264 HD 5.0.1. Both are multithreaded like mad, and both show about a 5 percent advantage in Windows 8. This could quite possibly be a sign of the improved scheduler in Windows 8."