Should PC gamers rush Windows 11 upgrade?

A look at Microsoft’s upcoming iteration of the Windows operating system PC gamers and Windows have a doomed relationship, doomed when the going is great and doomed when performance is below par, as no other operating system (Mac or Linux) offers players as many games as Windows does. Thus, the launch of a new version […]

A look at Microsoft’s upcoming iteration of the Windows operating system

PC gamers and Windows have a doomed relationship, doomed when the going is great and doomed when performance is below par, as no other operating system (Mac or Linux) offers players as many games as Windows does.

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Thus, the launch of a new version of Windows is often welcomed with bouts of anxiety as it can potentially destabilise a delicate balance of how we play our games. To put it simply, the new update could break everything.

The golden rule amongst PC gamers is never to tinker with a setup that can run the games you play, a setup state that is carefully achieved by testing how every update performs despite Microsoft trying to force them onto our hard drives. A rule, I often forget, when a new version is announced as I queue up enthusiastically to test early Betas. I did it for Windows 8, for 10 and with 11 how could it be any different? I had Windows 11 up and running on my RoG machine a day after the beta was announced. I was a Windows Insider after all!

My early experience with Windows 11 was unremarkable to say the least, it seemed a polished new visual overhaul at most, and a stylish customized theme for Windows 10 in the least. As days passed, it seemed more a theme than a new iteration of the OS as there were no major overhauls, just a few changes and some neat bells and whistles. However, the big question was “did it run games as well as Windows 10?”, and this is where everything began to unravel.

I had trouble using my Xbox series X controller and that was my first sign of alarm, a controller designed by Microsoft should have run natively on Windows 11, right? I plugged in the wired cable, updated the controller’s firmware and it took about thirty minutes for things to function as intended. In games, there were a few more problems: not all games were meant to run on Windows 11, some simply refused to run and those that did, they offered a glitchy experience.

With Scarlet Nexus for instance, the game refused to recognize the OS and suddenly my Xbox controller was mapped like a PS5. If controls malfunctioning weren’t enough, I realized the more elaborate the setup, the more trouble Windows 11 had with consistency. For example, with games like Tales of Arise, the Bluetooth audio crashed a couple of times; for most other games drop in framerates were the norm. To put it simply, the new operating system is simply unfinished.

Lastly, Windows 11 in its current form is a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with an update a week (sometimes two) it is either blazingly fast or heavy and bloated depending on what is tweaked and this inconsistency makes it unsuitable for gaming. With no added caveats like DirectX 12 and just a week to decide if you would like to roll back to Windows 10, there are simply too few reasons to make a premature move to Windows 11.

Wait and watch with this one guys, it’s a Beta for a reason.