Windows 7 faster, if imperceptibly so
A new set of tests confirms that Windows 7 does run faster than Vista across a range of applications. However the improvement is likely too minimal to be noticeable in ordinary use.
As you may remember, back in January we reported on a series of tests which showed Windows 7 outperformed both Vista and XP on the majority of tasks. (Those where it didn’t show an improvement were less common tasks such as installing software and transferring very large files). However, this study simply selected a winner in each category and didn’t offer any measure of how significant the improvements were.
PC World has now carried out benchmarking tests on the release candidate of the new system. Those involve carrying out a controlled series of activities to compare either an operating system or a hardware set-up. In this case, the firm compared Vista with Windows 7 on three different machines to get an overall picture.
The results, which are produced as an overall figure (the higher the faster), showed Windows 7 had a slight advantage on all three machines. On the slowest machine, a Dell laptop, the score was 99 to Windows 7 and 97 to XP. With a mid-range HP desktop, Windows 7 won by 106 to 102. And on a high-end Maingear computer, the result was 139-138.
That means the biggest improvement, on the HP machine, saw Windows 7 just four per cent faster. The magazine notes that it finds users won’t usually notice a speed increase unless it’s at least five per cent.
There is some good news for the system, though. It proved noticeably faster (in some cases a 26 percent increase) for a few applications including the Nero disk burning suite and WinZip. This is likely down to improved hard-disk drivers in the new system.
Of course, while hard numbers are an objective measure, what really counts is the subjective point of how sluggish or smooth the system feels to users. Even if the system isn’t much faster in isolated tests, if Windows 7 can avoid the bloated memory-hogging of Vista, users will be less likely to have slowdowns caused by applications freezing up.
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