Despite declaring Windows 10 to be the “final” version of Windows, Microsoft announced earlier this year that it would be releasing a new PC operating system in the final few months of 2021. Known as Windows 11, this new OS became available (at least for some users) on October 5.
As well as fixing some of the common problems with the old OS, it promises a number of security, productivity, and visual benefits over Windows 10, though nothing overly radical.
Another area Microsoft promises improvements in is gaming, though some have questioned the merits of this due to the trade-offs created by the overhead of some of the additional security features.
In recent years, the company has really been pushing PC gaming, slowly blurring the line between its Xbox console and Windows PCs. But with the release of Windows 11, is it still a good platform for gaming?
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Blockbuster Games
In addition to the security and productivity upgrades, Microsoft has shouted loudly about the new gaming technology that it has crammed into Windows 11. Much of this has been designed to focus on high-end hardware that can improve the playing experience for AAA titles.
Back in June, Microsoft called the new operating system “the best Windows ever for gaming”.
Its claims are based on the fact that it will support a “breakthrough” technology known as DirectStorage. Provided you have a compatible NVMe SSD, the right drivers, and have configured it correctly, Windows 11 should be able to load these huge games almost instantly.
The technology is already included in the Xbox Series S and X, though it is known as “Xbox Velocity Architecture” in the consoles.
Windows 11 will also support Auto HDR to offer up some of the best-looking graphics ever seen on a gaming PC.
There are, however, some claims circulating online that the security features introduced into Windows 11, including VBS and HVCI, have a performance cost.
These tools only work on the most recent hardware (11th-gen Intel CPU or above), so won’t affect anyone with anything older. However, Tom’s Hardware recently found that they can cause gaming performance to decline between 3 and 6% each.
Browser-Based Games
Playing games inside a web browser has been a popular option for the best part of two decades. The complexity and quality of these games have grown immensely during that time as developers and designers have learned to take advantage of new technologies.
One of these technologies is HTML5, which has made it possible for games to run natively in the browser without the need for a plugin like Adobe Flash Player. The online casino industry has fully embraced this, with companies like Betway offering a wide selection of slots that don’t require the customer to download any special application to play. It has also allowed the variety and quality of such games to improve as they can load faster, display live-action video, and use HD graphics.
At present though, Windows 11 offers little or no benefit to gamers over previous versions of Microsoft’s OS or others like Linux, macOS, or Chrome OS. This is because the heavy lifting is going to be done by the browser, rather than the operating system’s native processes, and these types of titles are generally less resource-intensive anyway.
Therefore, gamers that only access browser-based titles should feel free to use whatever operating system they prefer.
Retro Games
One of the great things about PC gaming is that it gives you access to a huge back catalogue of content. With a little bit of work, you can get 1980s DOS games to run on your 2021 gaming machine.
In Windows 11, there is currently little difference in terms of access to legacy content. Microsoft typically removes some backwards compatibility in each release, but through tools like DOSBox, it’s usually possible to run most games produced in the last four decades.
Playing retro games from other platforms can sometimes be quite a chore, especially if you need to try and find your old titles. However, it can sometimes be possible to access them through console emulators. So far, it looks like most tools for this that ran under Windows 10 should work in the new OS with very little difference between them.
Like with browser-based games, there’s little benefit offered to retro gamers in Windows 11 over Windows 10 or any other compatible OS.
Is it Better?
Windows 11 is clearly the future, at least in the eyes of Microsoft, though as we’ve seen in the past, users may require a little persuasion.
Gamers may or may not see benefits in the new version. This will depend on the type of games that they play, the age of their hardware, and whether they have the new security features enabled.
