Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Windows 7 or Windows 8? rMBP 2014 15" High End

chaofahn

chaofahn

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 21, 2014
51
4
Australia
Hi guys,

I was trying to avoid installing Windows as much as I could, but my work dictates that I use a program I don't have the Mac version of (unless I resort to other means). And thus my question is:

> Which version of Windows would you recommend? Windows 7 or Windows 8?

The program that I will be using is a V-ray for Sketchup, a 3D-visualizer and rendering program, and I will need to render architectural drawings. I have the Windows version but not the Mac one.

> Will using V-ray on Windows 7 be faster? Or will it be better on Windows 8?
> I've read the space requirements but both versions, but realistically how much space did each one take? I don't want to partition too much of my SSD for Windows.

My Mac is: 2014 15" rMBP, 2.5 i7 Intel Core, 16GB RAM with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M card.

Thanks in advance!
 
If you are using it for a single application, without needing to do web browsing on it, then my opinion would be Windows 7 in VirtualBox.

Windows 8 has a crap UI of course, but does have some security improvements over Win 7. So, if you are not going to expose yourself to the Web (browsing) while using your Win VM then I would just go with Win 7 which will provide a much more desirable UI. Too bad Win 10 isn't ready yet or that may be the way to go.
 
IHelpId10t5 said:
If you are using it for a single application, without needing to do web browsing on it, then my opinion would be Windows 7 in VirtualBox.

Windows 8 has a crap UI of course, but does have some security improvements over Win 7. So, if you are not going to expose yourself to the Web (browsing) while using your Win VM then I would just go with Win 7 which will provide a much more desirable UI. Too bad Win 10 isn't ready yet or that may be the way to go.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I'm fine with an annoying UI, I think the thing most important for me would be performance. Will there be a difference between the two? If I remember correctly, there was a performance difference for games when jumping from XP to Win7. I'm not sure if this performance bump also applies to 3D intensive programs, but surely it does?

I might have to use the web to download stuff lol Skype but that's probably about it.
 
Looking only at 3D performance (and ignoring startup, shutdown, file transfer times, etc.) the few benchmarks I've seen give the win to Windows 7.
And installing Windows via Bootcamp should be faster than trying to run it virtually from within OSx.
 
After running both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in VMware fusion I can say that in general use, Windows 8.1 was noticeably faster. For 3D effects you'll want to use bootcamp.
 
Traverse said:
After running both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in VMware fusion I can say that in general use, Windows 8.1 was noticeably faster. For 3D effects you'll want to use bootcamp.
Click to expand...

Is Windows 8.1 faster for 3D rendering? Or were you talking exclusively about the UI?

Gjwilly said:
Looking only at 3D performance (and ignoring startup, shutdown, file transfer times, etc.) the few benchmarks I've seen give the win to Windows 7.
And installing Windows via Bootcamp should be faster than trying to run it virtually from within OSx.
Click to expand...

Sauce please! :p
 
Windows 8.1 is better equipped to handle ultra-high-resolution scaling on a Retina display versus Windows 7.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back