In many occasions Microsoft made the statement that Windows 8 will be much faster that Windows 7. Now with Windows 8 Developer Preview release we can put the operating system to the test and see if it is true. The guys at Lifehacker has put together a really good test comparing various scenarios with Windows 8 and Windows 7.
It is also worth to mention that the next version of Microsoft’ next operating system still in the early stages, so there are a lot things that it could change between the time of the test and the final release, which it could take about a year from now.
In this test you are going to see the performance of every day tasks, instead of synthetic benchmarks, that way we can all get an idea if it will actually feel faster. For the comparison between the two OSes, both are clean installation and with the same programs installed. As a result both operating system were close in performance, with some exceptions.
The hardware used for this test:
- Overclocked 3.8Ghz Intel Core i7
- 6GB of RAM
- 2TB of hard drive space
- Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT
- Connection to the internet over Ethernet with a maximum speed of 20 mbps
| Tasks | Windows 8 | Windows 7 |
| Boot Time (Windows Screen to desktop) | 0:10 | 0:35 |
| Compress a ~700MB File | 0:29 | 0:32 |
| Decompress a ~700MB File | 0:11 | 0:12 |
| Duplicate a ~700MB File | 0:01 | 0:02 |
| Encode a Movie in Handbrake | 8:06 | 8:16 |
| Cold Sart 9 Applications | 0:46 | 0:46 |
| Open 10 Tabs in Chrome | 0:07 | 0:07 |
| 3dmark10 Score | 6470 (5218 Graphics, 23098 CPU) | 6455 (5199 Graphics, 23448 CPU) |
| Total Time | 9:56 | 10:29 |
To summarize, Windows 8 so far is winning (not for much) on every section tested, with the exception of applications starts and open tabs in Google Chrome, which it tied with Windows 7. At this point the end-user will not see a big increase in performance in the everyday tasks. It is still good to know that even in a pre-beta buggy operating system, we are not losing performance.
However Windows 8 was a great winner in the boot time, which is significantly much faster than Windows 7 and we have to give props to Microsoft for that hard work.
In this Lifehacker video you can check how the two operating systems boot side-by-side and Windows 8 being the fastest.
Now, we’ll have to wait about a year from today and see if in the final release of Windows 8 there are new speed increases.
Source Lifehacker
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].