Windows 8 in the first performance test
Not everyone would like to buy a new
computer for Windows 8. Thus, we are testing the Developer Preview – exactly
like the later versions – on a system with Intel-Core-2-Duo (2.4 GHz), 2 GB RAM
and an NVIDIA-GeForce 7600 GS graphics card. We will consider the DirectX-11.1
graphic interface only when the suitable hardware and functioning drivers are
available.
In order to assess the performance of
Windows 8, we will measure the performance with the current benchmark tools,
total performance as well as the boot time and how fast it surfs with the new
Internet Explorer 10, among other things. In the table you can see how the
development of the new Windows is going on.
Measured values: Windows 8 has very
strong performance even today.
The new Windows competed with the
predecessor as a Develop Preview in the benchmark tests – and even overtook it
in some assessments
|
Task
|
Win 7 Home Premium SP1
|
Win 8 Developer Preview
|
|
Installation
(stopwatch)
|
21 minutes
|
30 minutes
|
|
Boot
time according to event log
|
87.501 ms
|
45.577 ms
|
|
Total
performance (measured with PCMark 7 Basic Edition)
|
1,502 PCMarks
|
1,579 PCMarks
|
|
Graphics
performance (measured with 3DMark 06)
|
1,844 3DMarks
|
904 3DMarks
|
|
Loading
a large application (Photoshop CS5.5)
|
10 seconds
|
4 seconds
|
|
Compressing
a 317 MB file with 7-Zip
|
114 seconds
|
113 seconds
|
|
De-compressing
a 98 MB ZIP file (7-Zip)
|
27 seconds
|
28 seconds
|
|
Playing
videos (PCMark)
|
19.23 fps
|
17.99 fps
|
|
Converting
videos (PCMark)
|
1,226.65 KB/s
|
1,940.09 KB/s
|
|
Surfing
the web (PCMark)
|
7.48 pages/sec.
|
7.72 pages/sec.
|
|
CPU
performance for rendering (measured with CineBench 11.5)
|
1.34 points
|
1.33 points
|
|
Shutting
down according to event log
|
12.250 ms
|
6.970 ms
|
The new interface is known to many users. But what is
under the hood? A comparison with its predecessor yields surprising results.
The next Windows offers a lightning
start in just 8 seconds, fast data transfers thanks to USB 3.0, surfing at
amazing speeds and smooth, explosive game graphic – so says Microsoft anyway.
How many of these claims actually remain till the end will be shown in long
term test. Until the official commercial launch of Windows 8, CHIP will be
measuring the performance of every past version with benchmark tools, and the
results will be compiled in an ever-growing table. Thus, you can easily compare
at any time what advances the developers have succeeded in making in the new
operating system and more work is needed. Our test computer has remained
unchanged during the entire course of the test; the use of tuning tools is
taboo. This time, the Developer Preview published in the BUILD conference for
the general public challenges a full-scale Windows 7 with the Service Pack 1.
This shows if and how Microsoft has developed its operating system in
comparison to its predecessor. The three other milestone builds going around on
the web remain outside, since they were never officially released for testing.
Booting with the mouse
The Developer Preview acts a little
touchy during the installation, but the irritation caused is rewarded with a
boot manager which you can control with the mouse. In the first start-up, we
integrated the ISO file of the Developer Preview in the Virtual Clone drive and
tried to install the system from Windows 7 in a freshly formatted 20 GB
partition. The set-up presented itself in a brand new design and at some places
is very different from Windows 7. Thus, for example, Windows 8 checks if the
installed applications also run in the new operating system. The Clone Drive
was picking a lot of faults during this and interrupted the set-up. That would
have possibly even later because the set-up routine would not have found the
installation medium after a computer restart – a known problem of Vista and
Windows 7.
If you burn the almost 4 GB large ISO
file on to a DVD and boot your computer with it, then the installation is
largely like that of the predecessor. However, Windows 8 took 8 more minutes.
While booting the installed system, a loading screen appears and later a brand
new boot manager in which you can select the operating system with the mouse.
However, an available XP partition was missing in the list. The boot manager
only recognizes operating systems from Vista onward. Through “Change Defaults”
you can make diverse changes, like shortening the display time of the boot
manager.
But the integration of Windows XP is
not possible there. Microsoft must immediately do something about this. The
boot manager is tailored according to the BIOS successor UEFI, which acts
strangely on older PCs: When you select and older operating system there, for
example Vista, the computer restarts before loading the selected Windows.
Apparently, the developers are making a compromise solution for systems with
BIOS chip.
However, the starting time of Windows
8 is quite good: It runs twice as fast as its predecessor. The puzzle is solved
in the list of the running programs; apparently, Microsoft has heard our long
entreaties: Windows 8 does not simply activate all the available services like
earlier versions, rather only the really necessary ones. Shadow copies, family
filter in Internet Explorer and many other applications that are hardly used by
anyone are switched off and must be activated explicitly with the right click.
If you run all the services you will again come down to the usual starting time
of Windows 7.
