Windows 7 - Performance [Archive]

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jdrom17

01-23-09, 08:07 PM

Well over the next few days I think I'll post some thoughts on Windows 7 performance. Not sure if I'll do any serious benchmarking though since I don't believe its fair to compare Vista to Windows 7 when I don't have any official ATI drivers (and Crossfire) in 7.

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Dell Inspiron 1501 (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3359&review=Dell+Inspiron+1501) (lol it didn't come with 512GB of RAM, 512MB)
AMD Sempron 3500+ Mobile 1.8GHz
2x1GB of DDR2-533(? Can't remember what speed I bought)
60GB 5400RPM HDD
ATI Xpress 1150
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Aero works fine with the drivers from Windows Update and it gets the following WEI:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k71/jdrom17/win7/laptop.png

It had Vista on it before which I found was extremely slow, but it's my brothers laptop so I didn't care much. It only came with XP however it was "Vista Ready". Windows 7 seems to run much faster though and sitting idle it was using roughly 530MB of memory with Aero on. All the effects are fluid. Sometimes things take a bit to load but I think that's due to the HDD since it seems to be pretty slow. No issues in Device Manager either so all hardware is supported.

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Dell XPS m1330
Intel Core 2 T8100 (2.1GHz)
2x2GB DDR2-667
250GB 5400RPM HDD
Intel X3100 graphics (FTW!)
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Again, all major hardware worked fine either out of the box or just after Windows update. Aero, of course, worked fine. I did have to install the Vista drivers for my fingerprint reader which worked perfectly fine along with the touchpad driver so I could have scroll support.

My laptop obviously scores better on WEI than my brothers:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k71/jdrom17/win7/xps.png

Runs about the same as Vista IMO. Boots faster though but then again I have more stuff installed in Vista than I do on XP so it's hard to say. However in both Vista and 7 I find sometimes the desktop effects get a bit laggy but I guess that's due to the Intel graphics and their power management features since I have mine optimized more so for battery life. Memory usage at idle is around the 800MB mark. Bluetooth works as it should just like it does in Vista. No issues getting my MX1000 mouse connected.

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Desktop
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Had to install drivers for my Xonar DX and luckily the Vista drivers worked without an issue. Something I hear Creative failed at. I also opted to install my networked printer using the Vista drivers as well (Brother MFC-420CN). I have also installed Kaspersky Beta for Windows 7 as well just to try out. Seems to be basically transparent to me and didn't slow down anything. The other thing I have is Xfire which is always running too.

Kind of disappointed with my WEI score since I thought my HDD and RAM could do better than 5.9 but I guess not :(
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k71/jdrom17/win7/desktop.png

Obviously my desktop runs the best. No lag. Left 4 Dead via Steam plays perfectly fine too with the Windows Update drivers (doubt I have Crossfire running). Idle memory usage is about 940MB w/ Kaspersky + Xfire. I think Vista right from a clean install is closer to the 1.1GB mark for me at least.

I am currently without the SM Bus driver too since I haven't bothered with the Intel chipset drivers. Doubt that really does much anyways though.

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Compaq Desktop
Celeron 2.8GHz
768MB RAM
Some Intel graphics. Windows 7 has no drivers for it...
40GB HDD, probably 5400RPM
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Absolutely horrible. Totally not usable IMO. No Aero either but I kind of knew that. Overall its just laggy and unresponsive but what can you expect from such a bad PC? Memory usage is only around 300-350MB though so it clearly does adapt to systems but it cannot make itself lean enough to run well.

Anyways here's the WEI:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k71/jdrom17/win7/compaq-desktop.png

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Acer Aspire One
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See thread here: http://forum.pcstats.com/showthread.php?p=409729

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Thoughts
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Overall Windows 7 is definitely a very smooth, fast OS with all the fancy GUI effects. Definitely runs better on older/slower hardware than Vista does however on new hardware it runs the same IMO. It also seemingly adapts to the amount of RAM in your PC but alas it cannot turn a shyt computer into something great. Definitely want to have at least 2GB of RAM to run things decently.

ATI drivers need some trickery to get working. Had to delete a registry key pertaining to Windows Installer and also had to disable driver signing enforcement since they aren't signed drivers yet.

Grimreaper

01-23-09, 08:39 PM

530MB? My dad installed it on his desktop and it was idling at 950MB. I wonder what the difference is.

stlouis1

01-23-09, 08:59 PM

thats about where my windows 7 install sits for memory usage, i told you guys, it really does feel waaayyy smoother

how do you like the other changes so far JD, i mean as far as the tweaks they did to interface

jdrom17

01-23-09, 09:20 PM

how do you like the other changes so far JD, i mean as far as the tweaks they did to interface
I quite like the new taskbar. Much more efficient once you get used to it.

Also being able to drag the windows to the left/right of the screen to easily setup dual windows is nice. Dragging to the top to maximize isn't overly helpful but whatever. Shaking Windows to minimize the rest is neat but I don't know how much I'd use it.

I think its definitely a step in the right direction however they can still make further improvements. For example I wish icons I have "pinned" to the task bar were somehow defined so I know they aren't actually running.

However TBH I haven't used Windows 7 much lately on my desktop since I just can't be bothered to install everything in it. One issue I have is that RealVNC doesn't work in it which is how I access my "server".

Added my XPS and Desktop to the first post.

stlouis1

01-23-09, 11:12 PM

i haven't been using it too much, though there are a couple issues ill be submitting feedback about, they're probably non-issues that will be resolved before the release, but just in case

id say we're on teh same line about the mouse gestures, a couple are neat, the rest are a little awkward i found.

the taskbar does take some getting used to for sure, i never liked having my programs grouped, at least im not a windows user that ill have to get used to it though. and the lack of text on them bothers me

another thing i kind of liked was the tab grouping/coloring in IE, i found it interesting, im sure it could be usefull

jdrom17

01-24-09, 12:47 AM

Well RealVNC has a Windows 7 Beta release out now so that's one less problem...

I like that IE Tabs display within the taskbar preview thing. Too bad Firefox doesn't support that yet.

jdrom17

01-24-09, 01:44 AM

3DMark06 in Windows 7 with ATI Beta Drivers (Crossfire enabled and OC'd at 690/1190 + 675/1100)

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k71/jdrom17/win7/3dmark06-win7.png

And the comparable Vista score:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=9608389
I believe that was at the same clocks, but I'll run it again tomorrow to make sure.

Difference of 167 points in Vista's favor but remember, really beta ATI drivers + beta OS.

stlouis1

01-24-09, 02:43 AM

wow, thats actually not bad at all.

i honestly dont think it will take long for windows 7 support to pick up as far as software and drivers since its not far off from vista in that sense. the biggest issue when vista came out was how they seperated that stuff from the kernel, now that dev's and hardware manufacturers have adjusted to that, they dont have much farther to go for win7, i think its going to be somewhat like 2000 to xp in a sense

jdrom17

01-24-09, 10:46 PM

Posted Compaq Desktop...

And well from those results, I won't bother with the Compaq laptop cause it'll be even worse.

stlouis1

01-25-09, 12:24 AM

jdrom17

01-25-09, 01:08 AM

you actaully found it that bad on that compaq? like i said, i was running it on a p4 2.8, ran great, no aero due to lacking drivers, and a little more ram......

but you really found it that bad on that system? must be something off.........beta
How much RAM you talking? Cause you see minimum requirements state 1GB and well 768MB is quite a dip down.

Also we all know Celeron's are really shyt though P4s are a ton better, they are still quicker.

It's definitely not a usable OS on the Compaq. Everything takes ages to load and open.

stlouis1

01-25-09, 01:16 AM

i only had 1gb of ram, so just minimum there, i was going to put in 1.5gb, but then i would have been cut down to single channel ddr400, i figured the extra speed would outweigh the added ram

true on teh pentium 4 part

what chipset is in that compaq, maybe theres something there?

but it is still beta, and there will be fine tuning. and 1gb may be the minimum, but 512 i think was the minimum with vista, but the installer would only lock out at 384mb since MS obviously considered that onboard video will often share system memory

jdrom17

01-25-09, 11:02 AM

It's like the Intel 845 or something? Not too sure...

stlouis1

01-25-09, 12:56 PM

does that thing have sd ram in it? or am i thinking of an even older chipset?

either way, i dont think the 845 chipset supported dual channel, so thats one cripling point, and if that systems old enough to have that chipset, probly doesnt have very fast ram either, might be the problem?

oh yeah, found the spec sheet on the 845, only supports 400mhz system bus and maximum ddr266. i would say its quite the bottleneck. thats the difference between the systems we're running it on.
http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/845/

so that being said, if you're system theoretically has half the system bandwidth and a 1/3 of the memory bandiwth mine does, maybe win7 is still quit the system hog? maybe not so memory intensive, but does require a somewhat faster system, maybe not overall mhz, but system bandwidth?

jdrom17

01-25-09, 01:25 PM

The RAM (256MB) in it was PC2100 and there's only 2 slots. I threw in a DDR400 (512MB) stick but it isn't running at that speed of course.

And yeah it's a rather old system, we bought it for my Grandfather like 5 years ago? And well he passed away last year and was in a home for a year before that so I've had it sitting around in my house.

stlouis1

01-25-09, 01:42 PM

still, not the worst test system you could have.....as far as xp or linux, lol. but i think the memory speed is whats killing it, more so than the celeron or the amount of memory

at least you get to brag you got windows 7 though

jdrom17

01-25-09, 08:56 PM

Yeah most likely though I bet even 2GB at that slow speed would probably make it run half decent. However I don't have that much DDR kicking around to bother trying.

stlouis1

01-25-09, 10:37 PM

if you have 2gb to put in just try to though, would be nice, im not sure though. come down to ottawa, i have some to you can try, in exchange for beer ;)

jdrom17

01-25-09, 10:48 PM

if you have 2gb to put in just try to though, would be nice, im not sure though. come down to ottawa, i have some to you can try, in exchange for beer ;)
lol I can't legally buy you a beer nor do I want to go to Ottawa to get RAM :p

I have DDR around the house in other machines but ATM I can't be bothered to pull it and try. Especially since that Compaq is utterly cramped so the slots are really difficult to get at. Maybe I'll give it a shot Friday (day off).

AKHandyman

01-26-09, 05:22 PM

Anyone have a copy of the Win 7 64bit burned on a DVD? I thought my son-in-law was going to send a copy, but his computer crashed and he's not had the time to fix it. In the meantime, I would like to try it out. But I have had a heck of a time trying to get it to download on my crappy, slow-ass, bandwidth-capped DSL :curse:

I'll make someone an offer they can't refuse if they are able to mail me a copy on DVD!! :woot:

PM me if anyone's interested! :thumb:

jdrom17

01-28-09, 11:20 AM

Made a separate thread on the Acer Aspire One:
http://forum.pcstats.com/showthread.php?p=409729#post409729

Grimreaper

01-28-09, 02:09 PM

Phoenix64d

02-01-09, 10:16 AM

Consumers, score 1: Corporate giant, 0. Everyone said we'd be *forced* to buy Vista eventually. Bunk that.

I wonder whether Vista caused some losses to PC vendors (like Dell) in general. Vista was an imitation of Tiger and a bad one at that; I've seen at least 5 macs sold for every one pc.

Now if they could just keep the system requirements low in the final release, and get rid of the damned DRM.

jdrom17

02-01-09, 10:40 AM

Now if they could just keep the system requirements low in the final release, and get rid of the damned DRM.
I'm not sure why people ALWAYS use that as something against Vista.

It has in no way has ever interfered with my usage. And well every game out there now installs some form of DRM basically and most software has some in it too.