Windows 8 Consumer Preview vs. Windows 7: Benchmarked

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
April 24, 2012, 6:00am PDT


Summary: Can Microsoft’s upcoming operating system keep up with — or even beat — Windows 7, or does Microsoft still have work to do?


It’s time to see how Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview stacks up against Windows 7. Can the upcoming operating system keep up with — or even beat — Windows 7, or does Microsoft still have work to do?


This is my second attempt at benchmarking the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I attempted to benchmark the operating system soon after it was released back in February, but ran into troubles with graphics card drivers issues, and problems getting consistent results from a couple of the benchmark tools I was using. It seems that these issues have been ironed out, finally allowing me to complete the testing.

The hardware

The following hardware platform was used for benchmarking the two operating systems. The system was purpose-built for the job of benchmarking:


  • Intel Core i7-2600K processor
  • Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) RAM
  • EVGA 01G-P3-1460-KR GeForce GTX 560
  • GIGABYTE GA-Z77MX-D3H motherboard
  • Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB hard drive
  • CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W power supply unit

Everything on the system was set to stock speeds, with no component overclocked.


For the tests I used two Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB hard drives from the same batch to eliminate the possibility of an update causing one drive to be faster than the other. One drive had installed Windows 7 Ultimate (SP1) 64-bit, and on the other I installed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit. All drivers and updates were installed, along with all the software that would be needed for the tests. The drives were then defragmented using the Windows tool before the benchmarking was carried out.

see 3 page report
 
HEY!!! Heeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! You're copying my thread titles!! Stop that or I'll send a bald eagle to crap on your wings.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro Retail
HEY!!! Heeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! You're copying my thread titles!! Stop that or I'll send a bald eagle to crap on your wings.

I can't believe it! My thread titles are so GOOD, that NightHawk stole one of them...THIS ONE!!!


Actually, as you can see from me just merging the threads that Nighthawk posted it first. :sarc:

Please check/search to make sure a news article hasn't been posted yet before posting it, as this isn't the first one of your threads I've had to merge/remove because it was already posted.

Thanks.
 

My Computer

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    LCARS
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    Monkey Trainer Extraordinaire
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    My toilet habits are a private matter, thanks.
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    She finds stuff to do.
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    Not that I can recall.
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    XXX rated
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    Monitors are lizards.
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    Nar, it has other key friends.
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    Warp 9.9
Thanks! Airbot for getting that straightened out! :D

Actually as far as speed up times the CP will load right up faster unless a password is assigned and you have to deal with the new lock screen first slower then the older Vista and 7 logons no doubt. The shutdown time however is yet to be seen.

The CP following another clean install still likes to drag on shutdown longer then Vista or 7 for that matter. The faster boot time however is something MS has been working on. You can expect to see more of this in future versions as well.

This was seen first with 7 due to the new MinWin type kernel that operates more on a modular basis over what had been seen in the previous versions where MS realized with Vista that Windows was getting too large and worked on refinement.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
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    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
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    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
Hi there
I read the article and I thought .....Yawn ...Yawn ....Geek ....Geek.

Nothing whatsoever about "Real tasks" such as a test of a decent spread sheet practical application running a load of macros etc.

Just put an SSD in the machine and in any case those entire stats become just a load of junk -- .

You can have a SLOW atom processor and still have slick performance if you are doing "Officy" type work -- or even Photoshop.

Most users in the real world aren't transcoding video's every day -- or even ripping audio -- that's often a "one off" or fairly infrequent job.

I'm sure probably less that 10% of the user population out there certainly aren't dedicated gamers either so GPU performance is also irrelevent.

Laptop performance with real world tasks is a much better indication of whether a machine is "fit for purpose" or not -- and even the slowest old "clonker" can be dramatically speeded up via adding / using an SSD and possibly upping the RAM a bit.

W8 probably is speedier and more efficient --why should it not be - it's a more modern OS but as for BUYING a computer I don't think the article would give any useful information whatsoever.

A typical user these days is either playing video / audio on a machine -- even the humblest netbook can manage these tasks adequately, surfing the internet or messing about with email / Skype / facebook type stuff -- hardly needing leading edge hardware.

Others might be doing office work, preparing research docs and presentations etc.

Of course there are lots of very specialized applications out there but I'm addressing the 90% or so who would use their machines in the manner I've outlined.

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)
You would be surprised to learn just how many rave about frame rates with certain video cards over others so you can't say with any accuracy that hardly any are dedicated gamers. The faster shutdown time as first seen with 7 as well is due mainly to one thing.

The "WaitToKillServices" entry found in the HKey_LocalMachine_System>Current Control Set>Control blah blah blah where the value for 20,000=20 seconds with Vista and earlier was reduced to 12,000=12 seconds in 7 and now sees a 5,000=5 seconds value in the CP. Sound familiar?

The bloat complained about with Vista saw the introduction of the MinWin kernel in 7 since improved on slightly more as you would assume MS would tend to there allowing for a faster boot. These two items would be the continued effort realized by MS to speed some things up a bit.

What I found ironic was the writer used the exact same Sata 3 drives I use here for storage and backup purposes on the S3 bus. If you shop around now you will notice many boards are strictly Sata 3. This would be area the article was making a comparison with rather then running comparisons on the endless volumes of 32bit programs on the market.

Of course the goal there like too often seen even when all of the 7 blogs were out was to fill a news page. Once you can take the retail 8 and set the newer version up in a dual boot with 7 you could make your own first hand assessments with the programs and hardwares you have.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
You would be surprised to learn just how many rave about frame rates with certain video cards over others so you can't say with any accuracy that hardly any are dedicated gamers. The faster shutdown time as first seen with 7 as well is due mainly to one thing.

The "WaitToKillServices" entry found in the HKey_LocalMachine_System>Current Control Set>Control blah blah blah where the value for 20,000=20 seconds with Vista and earlier was reduced to 12,000=12 seconds in 7 and now sees a 5,000=5 seconds value in the CP. Sound familiar?

The bloat complained about with Vista saw the introduction of the MinWin kernel in 7 since improved on slightly more as you would assume MS would tend to there allowing for a faster boot. These two items would be the continued effort realized by MS to speed some things up a bit.

What I found ironic was the writer used the exact same Sata 3 drives I use here for storage and backup purposes on the S3 bus. If you shop around now you will notice many boards are strictly Sata 3. This would be area the article was making a comparison with rather then running comparisons on the endless volumes of 32bit programs on the market.

Of course the goal there like too often seen even when all of the 7 blogs were out was to fill a news page. Once you can take the retail 8 and set the newer version up in a dual boot with 7 you could make your own first hand assessments with the programs and hardwares you have.

Hi there
I said about 10% which in numbers is obviously large but small compared with the "Total User" population.

Some people do talk about things like frame rates etc even if they never have any intention of becoming gamers just as there are endless discussions on Ferraris vs Lamborghini's or Harley's vs Honda's even though these people have never even had a ride in one of these cars or on one of these bikes --much less ever owned one.

Howeve this sort of stuff probably isn't of a huge amount of concern or importance to the great majority.

What would be good for the next generation of computers would be Holographic screens -- imagine no physical monitors and you could have any size and as many of them as you wanted -- however the power required for this is awesome --but I have no doubt it will come.

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)
Holographic displays use a glass screen with a special coating on them. The transparency allows for the look and feel of an image being in 3d form. The projector would simply be connected to the output on a video card which would then be the additional hardware inbetween output and display.

They already have setups like that for computers. In fact I came across one page with a holographic touchscreen. You wouldn't necessarily see this in general application for the desktop while large groups like business presentations or store front windows would see this more often.

As for pc gaming the trend has been away from the platform aimed at gaming systems when you look in any retail store. Manu ask how to connect a gaming system to their pc for display there however since the newer flat screen tvs can also serve as your pc display serving a dual purpose. The interest for anything holographic on your typical desktop would be for something like an action game perhaps 1st person title in 3d.

Now when going to compare how 8 handles game crashes as well as other program fails you see a screen with the lock option and few others as well along the new task manager when pressing the ctrl-alt-del combo. The only problem is using the signoff option in order to recover the desktop!

You log out of the current session entirely rather then simply returning to the desktop in order to see the program ended when it locks! :rolleyes: With 7 in most case you had the popup screen and opened up if not already in the Applications tab to simply end the process to see the program closed. Yet at any other time you bring it up using the key combo you see a nice new look for it.

Task Manager with New Look.jpg

Task Manager with New Look 2.jpg

Somewhere MS made a goober in 8 so far on crash control.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
Finishes watching a old Jetson cartoon George had a holographic monitor, EVEN Judy watched a 3D fashion show on the family TV.
:roflmao:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro Retail
Getting back on the subject:

Jimbo pointed out several posts back that benchmark tests do not always apply to real-life applications. I might add that they only apply to the computers they were run on.

But it does appear that in most cases, Windows 8 is faster than Windows 7.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
My question is - what exactly do you mean by faster? What is faster? Personally, I think that one of the most basic OS task is to copy/move files. Can anyone with a dual boot compare file copying speeds of 7 vs 8? I mean, on the same machine, between same folders ... Comparing different machines may in fact be misleading, as this also depends on hardware and drivers. I have recently changed the motherboard in my PC - and suddenly everything got faster (with same hard drives, RAM, etc), although the OS had to be re-installed of course.

I think for me the file copy speeds would be the main criteria for "speediness" of the OS. Shutdown time, for example, I find totally irrelevant. When I turn the machine off, I press the button and leave the room. a few seconds more or less makes no difference to me whatsoever.
 

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System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 64-bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 530
    CPU
    Q6600
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Surprizingly on the exact same hardwares copying files with the XP Mode as well as Vista on briefly as well as 7 and the CP I haven't noticed any real difference in copy speed except with which drives you copy to or from in regards to a drive in an external usb enclosure or flash drives.. I haven't even seen any large gain when copying files back and forth between Sata II or Sata III drives where the S3s use the faster bus there.

The faster speed for 8 will be mostly booting up as well as the lowered WaitToKillServices value in the system registry which is 5000 for 5 seconds over 7's 12000 default for 12 seconds to end up with a faster shutdown or restart figure. With touchscreen you can dance windows across the screen resizing them as you go along.

One of the main complaints heard so far about touchscreens however has been on seeing multiple windows open at the same time when only wanting to open one due to the oversensitivity touchscreens have had so far at times. The hardware manufacturers obviously will have to address that type of problem if 8 is to be any real success is this area.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
Strange question to ask. Copy speeds are dictate by the device you are copying too. Easy simple explanation of it is as follows. Imagine a balloon, and you wanting to fill said balloon with water, the water flow doesn't dictate the balloon's fill speed, space in the balloon does, and well as the primary opening on the balloon. So in other words, the computer's copy speed really has no bearing on the device that you are copying too. That device's speed limitation has the total bearing.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro Retail
Drive or device speeds not only depend on bus speeds and limitations but like your comparison of how empty a balloon is how full is a drive or device? If a drive is near capacity it will tend to slow down on read/write access time.

The same would apply to some extent with a memory card or flash drive while not as noticable. The largest impact of course would be felt with how much is on the drive or device the OS is also on as far as swap space, etc..
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
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