How We Put Windows to the Test
To test video, we measured the frame rate (in frames per second) that each system could handle from two games, Doom 3 and Far Cry. We ran tests with antialiasing on and off, and at the 1024 by 768 and 1280 by 1024 resolutions.
Finally, we ran hand-timed tests to measure file copying, file compressing and decompressing, and recovery time from hibernation on both systems.
XP Wins Convincingly
As the composite scores indicate, XP outperformed both Vista and Vista SP1 on our automated WorldBench 6 tests by a significant margin, on the desktop and again on the notebook. Vista SP1 finished slightly ahead of plain Vista on the desktop test bed, but managed only a tie with it on the laptop.
In the areas where Service Pack 1 improved on pre-SP1 Vista's performance, the gains were far from dazzling.
In our desktop WorldBench 6 tests, XP, which dominated most of the reÂÂsults, finished last on a couple of measures: the Nero CD-burning test and the Photoshop image-effects test. The latter marked the only time Vista SP1 emerged as the clear winner.
In the Nero test for desktops, Vista ran 4 percent faster than Vista SP1 and 12 percent faster than XP.
On the laptop, XP had the best score on every test. The laptop results indicate that, as we expected, XP is the better choice for lower-power PCs.
On both test beds we used, the SP1 results were frequently the same or extremely close to the results for Vista. But the Photoshop and Firefox tests showed little consistency in scores between the desktop and laptop PCs running the two Vistas. Hardware differences definitely influenced the outcome.
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News For Your Business
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- Intel Backstabs Microsoft by Abandoning Vista
- Windows XP Departs: Good Riddance or Sad Farewell?
- Vista Service Pack Patched
- The Mythical 'Vista Application'
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