current Windows 8 slower than old Windows 7

Young Simmo

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Location
Carnarvon, Norh West Australia
I am not sure, but will ask the question anyway::
Am I right in assuming that my current Windows 8 with 4 GB ram, is actually slower than my old
Windows 7 with 4 GB ram.????
It sure seems like it, or maybe my 74 year old brain needs an Oil and Filter change.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    Memory
    8 GB
Hey there oldtimer,on what system is 8 running?
Unless its something about your age,"8" should seem running a bit faster,many,if not everybody,will agree to that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W8 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home...made ®
    CPU
    Intel i7 2600k
    Motherboard
    GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3
    Memory
    Corsair Vengeance 4x4Gb 1600 Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS GTX 680 DirectCU II SLI
    Sound Card
    onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG Flatron W2240S PN
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra Plus SATA 3 128GB X2

    Western Digital Caviar Blue 2x1TB + WD Caviar Black 1TB
    PSU
    Corsair RM 850 X
    Case
    Chieftec Dragon
    Cooling
    Thermalright Macho HR-02
    Keyboard
    Ivation mechanical backlit
    Mouse
    MS Optical 6000
    Internet Speed
    24 Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    ESET NOD32 8.0.312.0

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo E525
    CPU
    AMD A4-3300M @ 2,0GHz
    Memory
    6GB DDR3 1333MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 6480G 512MB shared
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    WD 465GB
    Cooling
    Fusion Tweaker
    Keyboard
    Logitech K360
    Mouse
    Logitech M705
    Internet Speed
    50/50 MBps
    Browser
    Yandex
    Antivirus
    No AV & No Firewall
    Other Info
    Headphones: Sennheiser RS170
Are you comparing 7 and 8 on the same computer ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Are you comparing 7 and 8 on the same computer ?

I'm not the original poster, but yes, I have Windows 8 on the same computer that Windows 7 was on - just upgraded (very cheaply) and for me Windows 8 runs FASTER.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion p6230f
    CPU
    HP AMD Phenom II X4 810
    Motherboard
    FOXCONN ALOE
    Memory
    8 GBytes
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI/AMD Radeon HD 42
    Sound Card
    ATI/AMD SB600 - High
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SE198WFP
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 900
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST3750528AS
    Browser
    IE 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
I would say my 8.1 is 20% faster than 7 was. quad core amd, 8 gig ram.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    AMD Dual Core 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asrock
    Memory
    8 Gig
I have dual boot of Win8.1 and Win7 Pro but unfortunately W7 is on a HDD and not as W8.1 which is on SSD so I can't really compare the "Feel" of speed. I have run same benchmarks on both and there was no too much (under +10% in favor of 8.1) difference between them. Those tests are just raw data and do not reflect the look and feel of the OS though. Where 8.1 is better is memory handling, using more memory to store and cache it's components instead of relaying on disk. W8.1 also reserves more memory (if there's enough actual RAM) for hardware and the rest is freely available to programs without them actually searching for free memory addresses. Some lack of "eye candy" also helps. Those are just some of "under the skin" things.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Here's an old (and not really done well) video on Windows 7 and Windows 8 (not 8.1) on the same hardware. It's a 2006 Fujitsu Stylistic ST5012 Tablet with 2GB memory. There's a dual boot from the same hard drive. Both are fresh installs of each OS with basically the same drivers for each OS. Except there was no Windows 8 video driver for it and it loads the default driver from Microsoft instead.

No extra programs or utilities are installed to slow either down.

It was my test using the pre-release version of 8 to see if I wanted to switch over.

Windows 8 vs Windows 7 Speed Test - YouTube
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Self Built
    CPU
    Intel I-7 860
    Motherboard
    Asus P7B
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 580
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer (Primary), Asus (secondary), Sony TV (third)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Kingston 128GB SSD Windows 8 Boot Drive
    WD Black 1 TB (2 ea)
    WD Red 3 TB
    WD Black 500GB
    Keyboard
    MS 1000
    Mouse
    MS Flip
    Internet Speed
    Verizon FIOS 35/35
    Browser
    IE 11, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari
    Antivirus
    Windows 8 Defender (MS Security Essentials)
Hi there

Unless you have an incredibly slow HDD then W8.1 (latest update) should run noticeably faster than W7 -- even some W7 die hards will acknowledge that.

Ensure you don't have an overlarge paging file or any special start up programs. IMO about 90% of bad computer performance these days is usually down to poorly configured or horribly slow HDD's. - It's amazing in over the years how little has ever been posted about HDD's being a computer bottleneck -- I even saw some posts saying Word (yes Ms WORD) would run better on an i7 processor so upgrade your processor !!!. An i7 with slow HDD's would probably seem SLUGGISH compared to an i3 with an SSD for the OS !!!.

(With modern hardware and RAM the OS should perform acceptably fast on most "typical" systems -- usually there's enough RAM but even 4GB will do, and processor power isn't usually an issue either unless you do a lot of video editing / processing or are an extreme gamer).

IMO Video editing on any large volume is a Chore on a PC in any case --you really need something like a "mini-mainframe" -- but for home users that's not really an option !!!!

On that hardware though - especially with only 2GB RAM I'd run any of the decent Linux distros out there -- Windows these days really does need 4GB RAM minimum. W7 x-86 - the 32 bit version would probably run OK - with W8 you are reaching or have reached the hardware limitations of that OS -- you'll probably be getting "Vista like" performance back in the original days when Vista was released on to inadequate hardware.

Cheers

jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
Hi there

Unless you have an incredibly slow HDD then W8.1 (latest update) should run noticeably faster than W7 -- even some W7 die hards will acknowledge that.

Ensure you don't have an overlarge paging file or any special start up programs. IMO about 90% of bad computer performance these days is usually down to poorly configured or horribly slow HDD's. - It's amazing in over the years how little has ever been posted about HDD's being a computer bottleneck -- I even saw some posts saying Word (yes Ms WORD) would run better on an i7 processor so upgrade your processor !!!. An i7 with slow HDD's would probably seem SLUGGISH compared to an i3 with an SSD for the OS !!!.

(With modern hardware and RAM the OS should perform acceptably fast on most "typical" systems -- usually there's enough RAM but even 4GB will do, and processor power isn't usually an issue either unless you do a lot of video editing / processing or are an extreme gamer.

IMO Video editing on any large volume is a Chore on a PC in any case --you really need something like a "mini-mainframe" -- but for home users that's not really an option !!!!

Cheers

jimbo
Egg-zaktly. I doubt anybody would notice difference if Word would run (except for loading) on a Pentium 1 machine. On my SSD it opens in about 2 seconds together with a document, on a HDD about 10 or more, depending on the document. HDDs are a huge bottleneck, even a 286 processor can process data faster than any HDD. Remember going from a floppy to HDD ? How much faster it was. Going from HDD to SSD is even more of a change. What many look at SSD is it's transfer, read and write rate but that is the least important. Incredible access rates and multiple pipes for accessing data is much more important. Reading and writing 4k sizes is most important for system files for a faster "feel". Even fastest HDD can not saturate even SATA2 interface but SSD can do it to SATA3.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Your 8 should be running much faster than 7. Surely something wrong if it isn’t. It’s probably the HD as Jimbo stated.

Bought this old Acer with Vista preloaded with Vista. Uninstalled all the crapware, stripped out the OEM partition, and upgraded the RAM to 2 GBs. It ran a little better, but I thank the day 7 was released, especially when Defender included in MSE was released. Then I was cruising without the hoggish AV also.

With the approaching 8 coming up I thought I’d have to buy a new rig, but much to my amazement it didn’t call for more resources. When I loaded 8RP as dual boot and booted up for the very first time, I was absolutely amazed at the speed of not only with booting, but also running.

Office Pro 2013 > Word file opens in 4 seconds. :)

This machine has been surprisingly good to me. Hardly any trouble with it over the years. I’ve been him-hawing on whether to dump money in this thing or build one. I’d buy an SSD for it, as Jimbo stated, a video card (which is my lowest WEI score), and I’d like to get a touch monitor for dual monitors. It’s the fact that it’s maxed at 2 GBs of RAM that holds me back from doing so. We’ll see.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer T690
    CPU
    Intel Pentium D Dual Core
    Motherboard
    Acer/Intel E946GZ
    Memory
    2GB (max upgrade)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 - PCI Express x16
    Sound Card
    Integrated RealTek ALC888 high-definition audio with 7.1 channel audio support
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer AL1917W A LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1440 X 900
    Hard Drives
    350 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
    Thumb drives
    PSU
    Standard 250 watt
    Case
    Desktop 7.2" (183mm) W x 17.5" (445mm) L x 14.5"
    Cooling
    Dual case fans + CPU fan
    Keyboard
    Acer Windows PS/2
    Mouse
    Wireless Microsoft Arc
    Internet Speed
    54mbp/s
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    Office Pro 2013 / Nokia Lumia 1520 Windows Phone 8.1DP GDR1
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