Numerical computation benchmark comparison Win 7 vs Win 8

[WizardOfBoz]

The title really says it. For the same machine, running say Octave or Matlab or R or Mathematica, or for Microsoft C++ or Intel Fortran is there any substantial difference in numerical performance when running under Win 7 or Win 8?

My prejudice is that Win 8 is more bloaty code than 7, but Microsoft does have some sharp people.

Thanks!

 

[logicearth]

...My prejudice is that Win 8 is more bloaty code than 7...

You would be wrong then. Windows 8 core is an optimized version of Windows 7.

 

[LMiller7]

Windows 8 has a great many improvements over Windows 7 in memory usage, performance, and more. As a general rule newer operating systems are faster than their predecessors. They were designed to be and that has been by experience. But for something like numerical calculations I would expect performance to be primarily determined by the CPU with little influence by the OS. If anything Windows 8 would have a slight edge.

 

[WizardOfBoz]

Well, a Windows 8 users, and another Windows 7 user have both voted "8". My brother sells business software implementation, and he likes 8, too.

If I could afford a new zippy new Core i7-4800MQ machine, I'd be tempted to try Windows 8. In fact, if 8 is actually more efficient than 7, it sounds like using 8 with an older machine (Lenovo T61p, or a W520) would be even more of an advantage. Yes? Any disadvantage using 8 on older machines?

Thanks, all.

 

[LMiller7]

An older computer may not be compatible with Windows 8. This OS has a number of CPU requirements above those for Windows 7. There may also be difficulty in obtaining compatible drivers.