Benchmarked: Windows 7 RTM versus Vista and XP

By Kai Schmerer on 31 July 2009, 6:10pm

5 pages

Windows Vista's less than stellar reputation and poor uptake are due in part to the heavy demands it makes on system hardware. When Vista appeared in the autumn of 2006, PCs and laptops were less powerful than today's machines. But even with modern hardware, anyone using a Vista-based system soon senses that this is an operating system suffering from the software equivalent of having the handbrake left on.

Microsoft cannot afford a repetition with Windows 7, and so has optimised all of the OS's major system components. From startup to login, everything in Windows 7 is faster.

Microsoft has now finalised Windows 7 and announced its Release To Manufacturing (RTM). Build 7600.1685 has been chosen for the RTM, and our colleagues at ZDNet Germany used this version to test the performance of Windows 7 against Vista and XP on various platforms.

Test platform table

5 pages

Comments 12

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anonymous 31 July, 2009 21:05

Would you believe that my works stupid IT department is upgrading our machines from XP to VISTA in the next few weeks, no matter what everyone keeps telling them, they will nt listern.

anonymous 31 July, 2009 21:58

but what about program compatibility. There are several programs that I run daily on Windows XP that do not work in Vista. Should I assume that this will be the case with windows 7?

pablouk 31 July, 2009 22:43

Window 7 has an XP button which we are told and as I understand, enables you to use certain XP programs.

anonymous 31 July, 2009 23:02

Windows 7 compatability works. I have installed two programs designed for Windows 98! They both run a treat.

Nyadach 1 August, 2009 00:57

Love the speed also, my 4 year old HP lappie is running 10% faster with Win7 RC1 than it did with XP on it. It's blindingly quick, just gotta love it!

anonymous 1 August, 2009 12:37

It would be more interesting to compare Win 7RTM with Vista RTM instead of SP2.

weetanhops 1 August, 2009 13:35

I can't believe how drastic the cache usage is between having superfetch enabled and disabled. How do I disable it in Vista?

weetanhops 1 August, 2009 13:36

and why would it be more interesting to compare the RTM of Win7 and Vista? You'd think that Vista SP2 would have improved the speed and stability, and it's very interesting that an RTM performs massively better.

anonymous 3 August, 2009 15:32

It will be interesting to see how this compares to Mac OS X Leopard. Both are geared towards improving overall performance and reliability and both are coming out at roughly the same time.

anonymous 3 August, 2009 15:33

*OS X Snow Leopard

anonymous 9 August, 2009 12:43

The benchmarks state XP SP3 (64-bit) which does not exist. Windows XP x64 is derived from the Server 2003 codebase and remains at SP2.

Highlander68 1 December, 2009 20:59

I treated myself to a new laptop with Windows Vista after TEN good years of Windows 98 on my old desktop. I was very disappointed with the laptops performance - slow,freezing and crashing constantly until I found out that Vista was a "debachle" and my laptop was not to blame. Frankly, I believe that Vista should not have been foisted on an unsuspecting public when Microsoft knew that it was a poor performer.
Surely Microsoft should compensate those who bought a new computer with Vista by giving us a FREE copy of Windows 7 by way of an apology for the trouble Vista has caused.