Gaming on Windows 8?

So I'm considering partitioning my drive and trying out Windows 8. If I like it, I'm considering just upgrading from 7 all together. But I have a few questions;

One: will all my steam games currently work with Win8? The main ones I find myself playing are Dota 2, CS:GO, and Tribes: Ascend. But of course there are a wide variety of games that I play. I'm also in to Diablo 3 at the moment.

Two: is it true that Win8 is less resource intensive? That's a large reason I want to try it, to be honest. The resources I have, the better my computer will run.

Three: are there any current driver issues I should know about? I have the R1, if that makes a difference.

 

Pretty much every program that works with Win7 should work with Win8.

Windows 8 does start up and shut down a little quicker than 7, but I think it should be about the same resource-wise while running.

I don't know of anything specific, but drivers are not final yet. Expect some rough bumps along the way.

 

I agree Win 8 does have a faster startup and shutdown, and the resource also use much much less, I think it is about 40% less compare to Windows 7 on my laptop.

 

I'm running it on mine, but the User Interface makes it totally unusable as a day-to-day OS. So far I've had no driver issues, and performance seems almost identical as Windows 7. I'm dual-booting and I wouldn't recommend it, the DualBoot process is Win8/Win7 is a nightmare. You basically boot into Windows 8, and if you want Windows 7, it kicks out a reboot request with a boot string modifier.

So you have to boot, then Reboot to get into Windows 7

 

I've been using Win 8 for about a month now. I installed a program to get back the Classic start menu and honestly win 8 is just a snappier version of Windows 7 in my opinion. You can avoid metro altogether and just use a leaner version of Windows 7 in the form of Windows 8 so just go for it .

FYI: installing Windows 8 on the r2 can cause a weird booting problem, they are fixing this with a bios update but just a head's up. Mine eventually fixed itself but it was damn frustrating in the beginning, haven't had problems since.

 

What application are you using?? I know there was one for the Dev.Preview, but I didn't think it worked for the RTM???

 

Start8 for Windows® 8 - Bringing back the Windows Start menu

 

By UI, you mean that Metro UI? If so then 100% agree with you, this is one of the main reason I dont think I'm going to upgrade to Windows 8, unless M$ allow option to disable it or bring back the Start menu button (I know that there're custom button available, but it is not native).

 

I am using Classic Shell, least pretty of them all but have had no stability issues so I stuck with it.
When I boot Windows 8 it shows me the metro UI briefly and then shuts it down and I'm at the traditional desktop with my clam shell start button .

 

I think Classic Shell is the best so far. I like it more than Start8.