Windows 8 vs. Windows 7 Benchmarks: Microsoft's Latest OS Put to the Test

How is he a "fan" for outlining the documented, proven improvements 8 has over 7? I mean, is the (presumable) hate towards 8 that blind?

I take these tests with a grain of salt. 1st, how many users out there actually run the best and fastest hardware on the market? Not many can afford it, or won't 2nd, several of the test should not even be included because they don't include similar software. What was even the point of putting up the Excel test when running 2013 vs. 2010? The whole point of the test were to test the SAME software on the different OS's. Come back with a more mainstream box and test the SAME software versions and maybe you'll have a more credible article. Until then, take this garbage down. No point in wasting the time reading it.

You are right, thank you for the correction.

What I want to know, is why in the world you'd have a system this powerful with the 1TB mechanical drive as your OS drive and the 256GB SSD as your secondary, data drive? Isn't that the exact opposite of how every enthusiast has their system configured?

Also, why not compare Chrome on Windows 7 to Chrome on Windows 8 if you're comparing IE on both platforms?

Still, very informative article and it reflects my real world experience. I have a friend running Windows 8 on a lowly Acer AMD POS tablet and it freaking flies. Running through a VM on my Windows 7 box results in no perceptible lag like my Windows 7 VM.

I've been using it, it feels faster and more polished. Startup time is really noticeable, mine boots up in around 5 seconds. It actually takes longer to get to the Windows logo for me.

Thanks for posting these tests. I tried 8 but didn't like it so it's good to know 7 performs almost as well. Looking forward to 9.

Seriously, unless an application during install asks for it, how many of you are rebooting their system every month? Never heard of hibernation or standby? I don't think I reboot my system more than 6 times a year. This boot-time argument is really getting old...sigh, anyone who keeps bringing it up when we have to discuss overall performance is simply a noob.

I don't, I do it everyday. When I shut my PC down, I want a clean boot next time I turn it on.

Since I don't use hibernation or system standby, I guess you can call me a noob. To be honest I don't really care what you call me. At the end of the day I know I'm not a noob because when I boot my PC, I will know I do not have any possible issues that may have lingered over the last few days or weeks.

So what? Some of us have hardware swap outs, general upgrades, driver, BIOS and OS install/reinstall/updates, and watercooling loop maintenance to factor in...I guess if you're not into any of that, six times a year is a fair number.

Not everyone is a hipster with a laptop. Some of us have workstations with hardware that doesn't 'sleep' well.

Sorry, this is incorrect information.

The RTM version of Windows 8 comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

It seems there's a slight flaw in the methodology: On Windows 8, you test all three major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, and IE 10), but for comparison, on Windows 7, you only provide scores for IE 9. Given the version difference and all that it entails, I'm not sure we can have a comparison between browser performance this way...

I thought the same when I noticed Windows 8 & Excel 2013 was matched up with Windows 7 & Excel 2010. Which exactly is being benchmarking, Windows or Office? If both Office versions were to be used, both version should have been benchmarked on Windows 7 and 8.

Dont know why peoples are yelling at windows 8 metro style.

I am using windows 8 and its better than 7 in looks and functionalty only thing is no start menu. Instead got a full start menu I think people complaining that no start menu in windows they will not taste windows 8 after that they will no say that Or they are not brave to use windows 8 metro

Win 7 can run on an older netbook, can Win8? Got an Asus netbook running WinXP. Wanted to upgrade it to Win7, but since Win8 will be much cheaper I'd be willing to give it a shot on my netbook.

Most people I know have pinned their most used apps to the desktop for easy acces. Metro does just that. And of you claim to be a power user, stop whining and start learning. Anything you can do on win7 you can do on win8 and then some.

Thanks for the article. I imagine that game performance will improve over time. Early on Vista vs. XP didn't paint a good picture for Vista, due to lack of mature drivers, but later on the picture changed completely and Vista got better scores.

amen to that...

doesn't get mentioned much but on a localhost LAN Win7 and XPpro do not play well together. sync speeds over the wire are really slow whereas I suspect they are fine if you are using the same OS on you LAN. From a business perspective, I just don't see any advantage to any of these new OS's over the venerable XP. sure boot times are slow, but come on is it that important how fast your system boots? I'll bet XP on an SSD will show noticeable start up improvements too. just some thoughts