Modern AM5 System On Windows 8.1 ▀ Real World Experience, Benchmarks And Of Course Some Ranting

UPDATED ON: 2026-06-11

I was never a fan of Windows 8, especially the 8.0 operating system.
Yes, it is fast, but the overall concept, ergonomics, and looks were quite pathetic.
However, since the appearance can easily be changed, I decided to reconsider my opinion.
Frankly speaking, I planned to do this around October to match the EOL (End of Life) of Windows Server 2012 R2,
hoping that server updates could somehow be ported to the desktop version.
But the inability to install Windows 7 on an Intel Optane P5800x forced me to speed up my plans.
So, yeah, I’m upgrading to Windows 8.1 in 2026! How cool is that?

Jaw flappin’ minimized to bare minimum, so enjoy pure extract of the knowledge.

» POSITIVE SIDE

• native NVME support
• ultra snappy performance on modern hardware
• FireFox runs surely faster, despite the fact that i am using hacked video driver
• faster boot/shutdown even in stock version [instantaneous boot]
• latest version of DirectX11 [DirectX 11.2]
• more software runs natively without using kernel extenders like VxKex [compared to Windows 7]
  So, you can enjoy latest NodeJS 24.16 LTS, Git 2.54, Vegas 2022 and even V2Ray!
• less popular than Windows 7 means smaller attack vector [actually it is the least popular Windows operating system]
• embedded ISO support
• almost 100% UEFI support
• no stupid AERO messages about “slow performance” when you are in a fullscreen DirectX application

» NEGATIVE SIDE

• VxKex sometimes is not working maybe because software mainly targeted Win7
• Hacked Tor 14 & 15 throw some errors upon startup but work just fine

» VARIOUS TWEAKS + TIPS FROM ECLIPSE BOARD

Disable all power saving, hibernation, fast startup and superfectch.
Last two things are totally useless on modern hardware.

• [SERVICES]
• [TASK SCHEDULER]
• [GROUP POLICY]
• [REGISTRY]

» WINDOWS 8 COMPATIBLE TWEAKERS

• [Ultimate Windows Tweaker 3]
• [Windows Privacy Dashboard]
• [DISM++]
• [TCP-IP Optimizer]
• Windows 8 Manager [older not accessible version by Yamicsoft]
• CCleaner v5.32 [older not accessible version by Piriform]

» PRIVACY TWEAKERS

• [Privacy Tweaker]
• [BlackBird]
• [Destroy Windows Spying]
• [Performance Counters]
• [SpeedyFox]

» WINDOWS 8 => WINDOWS 7 TRANSFORMATION

• One of the [best transformation] packs on the internet.
• Change [accent color for selections] in file explorer
• Install [desktop gadgets] if you are up to them.
• Bring back [Start button] .
• Return Aero task [[ALT]+[TAB] switcher]

» THINGS TO UPDATE AND TO KNOW

• [LegacyUpdate]
• [DirectX9 Final] [June 2010]
• [Visual C++ Libs]
• [Actual Window Manager]

I’m not sponsored and is using cracked version of it, but i feel that i should leave a credit to this amazing software.
Be aware that explorer multi tab addon do not play nicely after transformation to Windows 7 looks.

» ESSENTIAL BENCHMARKS

Testbed machine: Ryzen 7950x / 64Gb 5800Mhz RAM / GeForce 3090Ti

Tested operating systems
[1] ► Windows 8.1 x64
[2] ► Windows 7 SP2+ ESU x64

GFX SETTINGS:
2560x1600 32Bit color [where possible], ULTRA+ settings, Anti-aliasing is turned OFF

Take a note that during testing [hacked version] of 3090Ti’s driver was used,
because officially there were no drivers for Windows 8.X available.

Mixed results, in some cases Windows 7 better in some Windows 8

Benchmark is just too old for Windows 8.1

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Windows 8.1 wins here

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Almost toe-to-toe results

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Slight advantage of Windows 7

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Almost toe-to-toe results, again

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The most modern benchmark, Windows 8 wins here

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Slight Windows 8 advantage

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Slight Windows 8 advantage here

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Windows 8 wins this bench

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Windows 8 wins this round by a very tiny margin

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Windows 8 wins here

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Windows 8 wins here, again

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For storage benchmark check this [article] .

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