win8 greatly enhanced multi-monitor setup and compatibility btw. I can run anything on any of 5 monitors with no lag. games full screen on any of them. video, netflix, etc. all work fine and drag between windows without a problem. I remember having issues with that on win7 and the upgrade just magically fixed that. performance increase win8 vs win7 in desktop mode was negligible, maybe the same but definitely not worse. Win 8.1 now appears to be surpassedd win7 desktop performance at least in my use (which is all types of applications, not just wow).