7 faster than vista? - a tiny bit maybe

Page 3 of 12 FirstFirst 12345 ... LastLast

  1. Posts : 1,377
    Win7x64
       #21

    whs said:
    QuackPot said:
    Windows 7 is faster than Vista in every department if you ask me. Plus it's way better designed too.
    As a former large systems operating systems architect I would be interested to understand how you concluded that Win7 is better designed than Vista. What are your measuring criteria?
    I'm not qualified to join the "better designed" debate, but I thought I'd point out one battery-related area where W7 has a massive "architectural" advantage over previous versions of Windows, and one which will only get bigger with time as more driver developers get on board.

    One of the best ways to increase battery life is to maximise the percentage of time during which the laptop processor is idling or even entering a lower-power state (because it's got nothing to do). Processor interrupts are a big obstacle: every few milliseconds, a hardware interrupt wakes up the OS thread dispatcher (so it can decide which thread to run next), or a drive controller might interrupt to let the OS know that a file copy chunk is available, or another device might interrupt for reasons entirely its own, and so on.

    W7 introduces a "timing sensitivity" rating to its interrupts so that driver developers can (optionally) specify just how important it is to their code that their interrupts be handled exactly at a given point in time. In other words, as a hardware device driver, do you really care whether your periodic once-every-second interrupt is handled precisely at 1.000 seconds, or is plus/minus 50ms sufficiently timely for your needs. In many scenarios the handling can be off by hundreds of ms without any downside.

    The clever bit is that the OS can then "batch" the interrupt handling by doing a few of them a mite too early or too late, and thus maximising the intervals without activity when the processor(s) can idle or even enter lower power states. The more driver developers take advantage of this facility, the greater the possible battery life improvements.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 11
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #22

    Well I thought I would just put in my .02....Actually I just upgraded from Vista x32 Home Premium on my 2 year old laptop...Upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate x86... Sony laptop 1.8ghz dual core with 2gb of ram...and i must say the performance increase is fairly substantial...

    1. I have noticed that startup time has been reduced significantly (vista took forever to startup), when starting from either a full boot or from sleep to a time when internet is connected, and all gadgets loaded and ready to go

    2. As far as the launching of programs, I have only notice a slight increase in the opening of frequently used programs ie Firefox, iTunes

    3. Amount of Ram used..Under normal usage in vista i was using approximately 55-60% of my total ram. Under the same usage in windows 7 I am seeing usage in the range of 40-45%

    I have been using windows 7 on my HTPC for a while, and now with it on my laptop I couldn't be happier
      My Computer


  3. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #23

    QuackPot said:
    whs said:
    QuackPot said:

    The new GUI and other features.

    Maybe we better leave it at that.
    Maybe you should.

    And you should have known fine well that what I mean't that the basic of tasks are faster in Windows 7 than in Vista in my opinion.

    But I guess that was too good an opportunity for you to turn down to brag about your surprime intellect that no-one else here has.
    QuackPot, there is really no need to become hostile. I was looking for a factual discussion but you answered in a way that gave me very little to respond to. I suggest we close this discussion and move on to another subject - in peace.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 1,962
    Windows 7 x64 (Ultimate)
       #24

    Well, far from being a PC Guru, I feel compelled to give my worthless 2 cents

    I was literally against Vista since it came out, you know, horror stories, etc, etc, etc. but, at the beginning of the year I was able to make me a brand new rig and as you can see in my computer specs, it may not be the Best of the Best but it is not the lower of the specs either.

    Anyways, I decided to try Vista x64 Ultimate because I have a friend that works for Microsoft and he offered me a deal I couldn't refuse. Everything I know about computers up to that point was on XP and I Had a hard time getting used to Vista (user friendliness and look & Feel).

    What really put a hamper on the whole thing was the fact that it felt extremely slow compared to my old trusty XP (boot time, program compatibility, games issues, internet issues). I found the vistax64 forum and everyone was so nice that I decided to stick around and try to learn vista since it was going to be the future OS.

    As soon as I heard that Win 7 was out and there was a way to get one for Free, I downloaded the RC 7100 build x64 Ultimate. Well, the only way I can say this is "Seat of the Pants" benchmarks, Win 7 is faster in every aspect of my computer use than Vista. Key word here is... "My Computer Use"

    As of matter of fact, I will be going back to XP and then dual boot with Win 7 because there are some hardware that I can not use with Vista and I still need but I refuse to buy a new one just because of Vista.

    Again, Bill Gates can come here to tell me himself that I am wrong and that all tests say otherwise, I Don't Really Care, and you know why? because in my mind and in my computer, Win 7 is fastest and since I am not going to be using any of other Benchmark computers in which the test were made on but MINE, I don't really care what they say... I do appreciate them doing all those tests but, it don't mean a thing for me.

    Have a nice weekend :)
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 170
    Windows 7 X64
       #25

    In going back and forth between Vista and 7 I would say 7 isn't that much faster. It shuts down fast and starts up faster but for me thats not faster I don't reboot that often. I will say 7 has better support for older drivers than vista. Its not like I go wow this is so much faster. Oh ya and 7 seem to install faster. My AutoCAD loads about the same in both OS's, the same for Adobe Photoshop.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 5,941
    Linux CENTOS 7 / various Windows OS'es and servers
       #26

    Hi all
    It's a moot point now as modern hardware has advanced significantly since the initial introduction of Vista.

    I think most people (even "Vista Bigots") would probably agree that the initial release(es) were really problematical on the typical low end consumer / home equipment generally in use at the time - especially the "Disk thrashing" problem which could lock up a machine for minutes at a time.

    However improvements in hardware and also in the software (Vista is at SP2 level I think) make the whole question a non-issue any more.

    Typical users just browse the internet / use word / excel or listen to some music / watch TV using a TV card.

    All these applications barely begin to test modern hardware -- the computer is likely to be waiting for user input 99% of the time whether you use VISTA or W7.

    What you CAN definitely say is that a lot of the services etc that were loaded and started automatically in VISTA are only started "on demand" in W7 which is one reason why you can install W7 on lower end equipment than VISTA -- W7 installs quite nicely on 1GB. "Netbooks" - VISTA would have a problem with these. VISTA because of the extra services and modules loaded automatically probably will take longer to start compared with W7 - and this would be noticeable on older gear or gear with less RAM.

    "Benchmarking" OS'es is a very difficult task -- it also depends highly on your hardware.

    For example you could have the fastest CPU on the planet with a reasonable amount of RAM - but if you had slow / rubbish disks your computer would perform very poorly against a much "leaner" machine which had a really good and fast I/O subsystem.

    Be careful when reading any sort of "performance specs" -- always note what hardware is being used and what applications are actually being tested.

    Cheers
    jimbo
      My Computer


  7. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #27

    jimbo45, a very good summary of where we are today. I could not agree more.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 7,878
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #28

    The other thing to keep in mind is that most people who are in awe with how fast Windows 7 "seems"...probably came from a Vista box with a few years of application loads, massive defragmentation and tons of startup applications that ground their machine to a halt.

    Without a doubt, a fresh install of any OS "be it XP, Vista, or Seven" is going to run circles around the old machine...simply due to being a clean install. Give it 6 months to a year of use and it's obviously going to slow down as well.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 11,840
    64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro
       #29

    pparks1 said:
    Give it 6 months to a year of use and it's obviously going to slow down as well.
    Any machine is going to slow down if you neglect basic maintainence... If the average user would adopt a maintainence policy the way they do with security, the slowdown would be negligible..
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 7,878
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #30

    [quote=Tews;293870]
    pparks1 said:
    Any machine is going to slow down if you neglect basic maintainence... If the average user would adopt a maintainence policy the way they do with security, the slowdown would be negligible..
    Not true at all in my experience, I'm afraid. On my work laptop, which has Windows Vista Enterprise for work....this machine is way slower than it was the day it was given to me. And unfortunately, I'm not able to remove the software that I need to perform my job.

    I've optimized the box the best I can, I've shut off anything unncessary in services, I've turned off startup things in msconfig which are unneeded at boot time, I've defragged the drive and deleted the things which I don't need to maximize free disk space, I've turned off some of the aero features like transparent windows....but regardless my boot times, my time to connect to wireless networks, and my time to shut down the box is significantly longer than they were with a clean install.
      My Computer


 
Page 3 of 12 FirstFirst 12345 ... LastLast

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:47.
Find Us