Evaluating upgrade to Windows 10

[Lurka]

Hello,
new PC Lenovo T470
CPU Intel Core i5 2.4 GHz - 8 GB RAM
Intel HD Graphics 520
Windows 7 Pro x64

Do you think that having Windows 10 with DX12 and all the rest is worth the hassle of reinstalling everything from scratch?

You may wonder why I have Win7 OEM on a recent machine designed for Win10. That's because Microsoft, after yelling "Windows 10 for everybody!", still allows manufacturers to install Win7 OEM through some twisted "downgrade rights" agreement eligible for a free upgrade to Win10.

I have my Windows 10 recovery image ready to install, though it's my least favorite option. I can happily rest on Win7 for another couple years, but obviously support is declining quickly, defective device drivers are no longer updated, etc... so do you suggest to upgrade?

Thank you and goodbye,
Lurka

[KHg8m3r]

I would say yes, upgrading is probably good for you.
For one thing, it'll fix D3D LogicOp support problems: https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2017/10/02/...by-stenzek

Also, you don't need to reinstall from scratch. If your recovery disk is a Windows 10 install disk, you can just do an "upgrade" using it where it installs over your files

[leolam]

Note that Dolphin doesn't have a D3D12 backend anymore, so if you're considering reinstalling everything, I'd actually suggest installing Linux because you get a good Vulkan driver (anv).

Obviously, this may not be a possibility for you. But if you don't have anything that *requires* Windows, IMO Linux is a good choice, especially for Dolphin. You even get some extra advanced features that are not available on other platforms and Wii hardware generally works much better (for passthrough / real Wii remotes).

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

That's a Core i5-6300U which already supports Vulkan even on Windows 7 (though the Linux Vulkan driver would still work better).

Switching to Windows 10 really won't improve anything with Dolphin at all.

[Lurka]

Thank you for replies.

Win10 upgrade is actually a UEFI boot recovery image, no setup option from inside Windows. Only plain brutal boot -> raze -> install.
That's ok, I never "upgrade" an OS, I believe only in full reinstallation.

I tried release 6380 with Vulkan on Win7, but Dolphin insta-crashes when loading games .  
No problem, OGL and D3D are working. Some games have glitches, but it's just a matter of setting the appropriate backend.

Bye,
Lurka

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

I tried release 6380 with Vulkan on Win7, but Dolphin insta-crashes when loading games .  

This isn't a surprise since Intel's Windows drivers are...sub-par to say the least.  And considering their codebase similarity, I wouldn't be surprised if results are similar with DX12 on Win10.

Really the Linux + Vulkan route would be the best in terms of performance, but I don't know how practical that is for you.

[TKSilver]

You could always try a "live CD" version of linux to see if you would want to dual boot into it for this emulator or maybe for some other things. If you like linux (or at least don't hate it) creating a dual boot without touching your currently installed OS is easy (assuming you have some space to make a partition on your hard drive).

Testing linux first is also a good idea since not all laptop manufacturers are good at supporting their devices and you might not be able to get reliable drivers for all the hardware.

[KHg8m3r]

Dolphin needs certain dependencies installed to compile on Linux which last time I checked don't work on a live CD or USB

[TKSilver]

The lice CD was more to test the laptop's compatibility with linux then to actually try running dolphin off of. Not to mention to figure out which linux is the one the OP would find the easiest (or most useful) to work with to use as a base for emulators.

[Lurka]

Hi,
testing now on Windows 10 (Dolphin 6392) with Intel Graphics 520 and driver 22.20.16.4836
It looks fine with IR Native, 4xSSAA and 4x AF. On Win7 I already had performance issues with 2xSSAA.
It also resolved D3D rendering issues that I reported in thread Missing some lines in OpenGL rendering

Bye,
Lurka