Well technically that's not final, just Release Candidate, it could change before final. On that note, how is it? Do you notice a difference in speed?
ok, technically it might change, but not really in areas that matter.
Well speed. I don't do benchmarks which to me reflect only the way how well your box does a benchmark.
I did notice a very significant change in processor load on idle however.
Whereas Vista SP1 ran quite hot on idle with an average load of 15% (all kinds of utilities installed, Deskscapes running HD dream) running Win7 in dualboot showed an average idle load of 3% with most utilities also running (without Deskscapes, doesn't install) and 5% running standard dreamscenes. The core temp differed by 5 C.
After the first few batches of sp2 idle load actually increased. The latest RC build however gives me about the same result as win7.
What that does for speed i cant tell, (you'd need a microtimer to measure) but it sure shows that sp2 contains win7 optimizations.
I'm not a speedjockey, and fail to notice a realistic everyday usage difference in speed/snappiness between the 2.
If anything the added layer in the W7 gui slows me down. Cant really appreciate f.e. the Libraries, just another layer of mud to wade through.