It appears that not only Microsoft is unhappy with Windows 8, but also the community of overclockers and modders from HWBot. This is one of the most famous communities of this sort, but they’ve just decided to disqualify all existing benchmarks recorded by Windows 8.
The reason? A fault in the Windows 8 real time clock, which all the benchmarking tools use as baseline. HWBot acts as a massive online database of benchmark records and it covers most of the famous benchmark tools, ranging from 3DMark to PCMark and SuperPi. You submit your results, moderators check the scores and people get awarded points or trophies.
They set up charts, comparisons, so the community is really useful and filled with enthusiasts. In almost all the modern computers there’s a real time clock, that keeps accurate track of time even with the PC off. In order to get even more accurate results, benchmarks use the RTC to figure out when the benchmark started and when it finished, since it usually involves calculus power and time is a factor.
Sadly, the Windows 8 RTC is not reliable, since Microsoft made some changes to the timekeeping routine of the platform in order for lower cost devices to work and those that don’t have RTCs. Another nail in the Win 8 coffin?
