| Article Index |
|---|
| Windows XP and Vista Performance Comparison |
| The Test Machine |
| Results - 3DMark06 |
| Results - PCMark05 |
| Conclusion |
| All Pages |
Even before Windows Vista was publicly released, there was a lot of concern from people beta
testing the O/S. Running Windows Vista seemed to have a large performance drop for their PC when compared to Windows XP. Was it true? Or is it just scare tactics from Microsoft haters?
It is widely known that you need a much faster PC to run Vista than you do to run Windows XP. Microsoft recommend a minimum of a 1Ghz CPU and 1GB of RAM to run anything better than Vista Home Basic (I.e. Home Premium, Business or Ultimate) , and a Directx9 capable video card. I would hate to try and run Vista on a 1Ghz CPU, it would just be painfully slow. So when specing-up your new machine, make sure you at least double the minimum recommended RAM and CPU speed, have a dedicated PCI-Ex16 video card with 128MB of RAM or more, and you will be fine. If your video card supports DirectX9, you should even be able to run Aero.
Vista may include a host of new features, look a whole lot better and tingle your inner geek in all the right places, but most people just want their games to run smoothly, their office applications to open quickly and run without fuss, and the internet to be as fast as possible, so why would you upgrade to an operating system that will serve only to slow you down? Well we’re going to run a few quick tests to either prove or dispel the rumours.
What we’ve done is setup a high-spec machine, and we’re going to do a standard load of Windows XP Professional SP2, run our benchmarks, then a standard load of Windows Vista Ultimate and perform the same tests. The graphics tests will be run using 3DMark06, which runs on DirectX 9, not DirectX 10 as is written into Vista, so whilst it won’t be as true a comparison of possible performance as we would like, it is the best we can do at the moment, and tests current 3D software, which is what matters. 2D application tests will be performed by PCMark05. Whilst these are both ‘artificial’ benchmarks as it were, they perform a wide variety of tests, with 3DMark simulating current and future game rendering systems, and PCMark simulating everything from rendering web pages, to 3D Performance, 2D Image rendering and Hard Disk usage, all in one neat package.
