Does Windows 7 really give a performance boost over Windows Vista?

[IkYiolul]

I mostly mobile quad-box on a Dell studio XPS 13.
Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz
4gb 1066
Nvidia 9400 GS Hybrid SLI
2 Wows on 1 core, 2 on the other.
Keyclone
Questhelper Mod (yep thats it, just one mod)

The system came with Vista Pro 64bit pre-installed.
Since then I have had the RC and now Win7 Ultimate 64bit.

The difference moving to Win7 is very noticeable. Swapping between toons is much snappier than Vista.
I run the main @ 40fps and the others @ 10fps. All settings are on min except view distance which is maxed.
Consistently getting peaked frame rates and quick swapping, the only important thing when running on a 13inch screen lol. Mobile boxing is the best!

And no it wasn't the bloatware, because I did a fresh install after a month of having the laptop.

[Freddie]

In my case, I am losing about 1.5Gb of main ram. I am starting to think that it might actually be the motherboard thats causing the problems.

That's correct but you may only need to change a BIOS setting. See the "Workaround" section of the following article, particularly "memory remapping feature" and the last bullet point:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605

[Zzyzxx71]

In my case, I am losing about 1.5Gb of main ram. I am starting to think that it might actually be the motherboard thats causing the problems.

Yeah you got something screwed there buddy - I've been running 64 bit OS's for 2+ years now, always with 8gb of memory, never had an issue with reported memory.

Next upgrade will be to 12gb unless they start making non ECC 4gb sticks anytime soon... ahhh to have 32+g in a workstation.

[Dramoth]

Yeah you got something screwed there buddy - I've been running 64 bit OS's for 2+ years now, always with 8gb of memory, never had an issue with reported memory.

Next upgrade will be to 12gb unless they start making non ECC 4gb sticks anytime soon... ahhh to have 32+g in a workstation.

Yeah, I am going to check the video bios shadowing and video ram shadowing and video ram cacheable settings in the bios when I get home... see if I can get something better happening.

PS: I am getting an XFX motherboard that will mean that I can run the whole box and dice in SLi mode.

[jak3676]

Great article today on some Win7 vs Vista vs XP at www.anandtech.com. For those wondering they did get TRIM support for SSD's (Intel G2 and OCZ Vertex only for now - others will enable support soon) into the final version of Win7 (it wasn't in the RC).

[Marious]

Dramoth I noticed the same thing, and was wondering what that was all about, I just chucked it up to something windows was doing running all the other crap they normally run in the background.

On another note I got my Family Pack Friday. I have been running Win 7 RC for like 2-3 months now and I must say I like it a lot, I can bring my toons to Dal with no issues, well some lag before on XP I was unable to do this. But I am running the 64 bit version as well as 8 Gigs of ram so that could account for all that, still only running a 9800.

I must say that I do like what they did with 7, hated all that they did with Vista, if it was bare bones with the option to up the graphics and everything I would of tried it out, but Microsoft killed it for me making it all by default, yes I know I can turn it off but why not just have a wizard when you install it instead of having it all be default. In Ubuntu which was actually a fun OS you could just install what you wanted and make it more flashy, but I am a geek and I like the option to do it myself not just hand me something that I might not like.

[Sam DeathWalker]

2x nVidia Geforce 8800GTS (684Mb video ram) in SLi mode

2 X 684 is about 1.5 G ..... what else do you expect?'



have found somewhere on the net that windows and/or the bios will assign a big chunk of your main ram to cover as interface between the video ram and the rest of the computer.

This is correct.

[Los]

How much ram memory do you have there?

I run run 5 wows on a 6gb box, even I dont have that kind of trouble, you can't even run 1? Sounds like you missed something tbh.

[Dramoth]

Dramoth I noticed the same thing, and was wondering what that was all about, I just chucked it up to something windows was doing running all the other crap they normally run in the background.

On another note I got my Family Pack Friday. I have been running Win 7 RC for like 2-3 months now and I must say I like it a lot, I can bring my toons to Dal with no issues, well some lag before on XP I was unable to do this. But I am running the 64 bit version as well as 8 Gigs of ram so that could account for all that, still only running a 9800.

I must say that I do like what they did with 7, hated all that they did with Vista, if it was bare bones with the option to up the graphics and everything I would of tried it out, but Microsoft killed it for me making it all by default, yes I know I can turn it off but why not just have a wizard when you install it instead of having it all be default. In Ubuntu which was actually a fun OS you could just install what you wanted and make it more flashy, but I am a geek and I like the option to do it myself not just hand me something that I might not like.

I had a play with my bios last night and found a setting for memory overlay and changed it... bam... straight 8Gb

Still doesnt change the fact that I have a new MB coming that will support SLi properly.

Might put the current MB into another case later and start getting ready for a 10man team

[offive]

Been running on release Win7 64bit. Clean install on a new SSD drive. All performace ratings above 7.1, new SSD is at max of 7.9. I have had no issues performance or otherwise since the switch. I like to refer to Win7 as a new improved Vista, not a new OS. The driver pain that was initial release Vista is not present this time so no major issues.

The boot up memory foot print is about the same as Vista (or at least nothing seemed shocking to me). The disk space footprint for the OS seemed a bit bigger, so I have installed slow speed apps like Office on a secondary terabyte drive.

I am still on an old Phenom 1 with 8 Gigs of DDR2. Waiting for the Intel i9s next year before my MB, Proc, and ram upgrade. I also don't mess with processor affinity any more, the 4 cores seem to balance just fine. I do set non active max frames on my team to 15, which I think helps the most out of all the tweaks.

Oh and I have also converted all my systems except my new laptop to Win7. The only one on the 32bit version is my media center, better compatibility with random media center plugins and capture card drivers.

I guess if your on old hardware and XP, I would not bother going to Win 7. But if your on newer gear and Vista, the move to 7 is not all that big of a deal.