Windows 8 has been around as a release preview for some time now and the new operating system is due to be released very soon. What does it look like on the compatibility front regarding this? Is it safe to install the release preview and Live 8.3.4 and expect a rather stable system?
http://windows.microsoft.com/sv-SE/wind ... se-preview
Regards
Ableton Live and Windows 8 compatibility
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m.nowakowski
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:27 am
Re: Ableton Live and Windows 8 compatibility
I am also interested about this as Windows 8 seems to be currently the only solution to get USB3 ports working somehow with audio interfaces.
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UltimateOutsider
- Posts: 241
- Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:02 am
- Location: Portland, OR
Re: Ableton Live and Windows 8 compatibility
It really seems to depend on your hardware (and some software). I did some pretty extensive performance testing between Windows 7 and Windows 8 a couple weeks ago on 4 different interfaces: MOTU PCIe-424, MOTU UltraLite-mk3 (firewire 400), NI Komplete Audio 6, and a Virus TI Desktop in interface mode.
The Virus performed identically between the two OSes, the KA6 did a little worse (maybe 6-12% worse, not too bad though), but both the MOTU devices suffered a 21%-44% performance drop on Win 8. This is likely driver related and will hopefully improve if MOTU releases Win 8-certified drivers for those interfaces.
I also found that my Waves plugins didn't work on Windows 8, and I have heard other people complain of the same issues. I additionally encountered blue screens on Windows 8 cold boot- and I hear this is a known issue with the current PCIe-424 driver. It blue screens on cold boot, but Windows loads after the automatic restart.
I haven't seen any evidence that the DAW (whether it's Cubase, SONAR, or Live) makes any difference, but your drivers (both hardware and DRM- I think that's the Waves problem) might have issues, and this is going to be on a totally case-by-case basis until more vendors adopt Win 8 support.
EDIT: I am also skeptical about the USB3 support; for at least the past year the industry has been in the transition from USB2 to USB3, and some OEMs have been coming up with some pretty wild solutions- often including not-necessarily-ready-for-prime-time USB3 chipsets just so they can have USB3 as a bullet-point on their specs. Future drivers might improve the situation, but specifically with USB3, there might be some hardware limitations in current chipsets that won't go away on Win 7 or Win 8. This may be another case-by-case thing until USB3 is truly the standard. The real takeaway is: Make sure you have a validated backup of your Win 7 image before moving to Windows 8. Just in case.
The Virus performed identically between the two OSes, the KA6 did a little worse (maybe 6-12% worse, not too bad though), but both the MOTU devices suffered a 21%-44% performance drop on Win 8. This is likely driver related and will hopefully improve if MOTU releases Win 8-certified drivers for those interfaces.
I also found that my Waves plugins didn't work on Windows 8, and I have heard other people complain of the same issues. I additionally encountered blue screens on Windows 8 cold boot- and I hear this is a known issue with the current PCIe-424 driver. It blue screens on cold boot, but Windows loads after the automatic restart.
I haven't seen any evidence that the DAW (whether it's Cubase, SONAR, or Live) makes any difference, but your drivers (both hardware and DRM- I think that's the Waves problem) might have issues, and this is going to be on a totally case-by-case basis until more vendors adopt Win 8 support.
EDIT: I am also skeptical about the USB3 support; for at least the past year the industry has been in the transition from USB2 to USB3, and some OEMs have been coming up with some pretty wild solutions- often including not-necessarily-ready-for-prime-time USB3 chipsets just so they can have USB3 as a bullet-point on their specs. Future drivers might improve the situation, but specifically with USB3, there might be some hardware limitations in current chipsets that won't go away on Win 7 or Win 8. This may be another case-by-case thing until USB3 is truly the standard. The real takeaway is: Make sure you have a validated backup of your Win 7 image before moving to Windows 8. Just in case.