Vista and XP compared. Vista Bugs and Problems Discuss Vista and XP compared. in the Windows Vista forums; Sorry - had to cancel this, it was a benchmark test on Vista RC2 and XP. which I came across. I.ll hunt it down again. Point was - XP excelled in ...

[Davehc]

Sorry - had to cancel this, it was a benchmark test on Vista RC2 and XP. which I came across. I.ll hunt it down again. Point was - XP excelled in every of twenty tests.

[Znod]

Hey Dave; dig it up. Maybe you saw the same post I did elsewhere. Earlier today, I did an XP Pro versus Vista 5840 (sans Aero Glass) on my laptop using Performance Test 6.0. I am trying to figure out how to best share the results. Bottom line though is that XP won the battle of the composite scores. With everything equal, including identical 80 GB 7200 drives, my composites (bigger the better) were:

XP-Pro--278.9 and

Vista 5840 (sans Aero Glass)--230.8

I am going to work up a detailed comparison right now. It'll take a while.

[Znod]

OK, below are my detailed results. My XP Pro results are on the right with my Vista 5840 results on the left. Obviously, my machine performs, perhaps as we would expect, better under XP Pro. XP Pro wins almost all tests by largish amounts. It is disappointing that the differences are so great without Aero Glass in the equation. Please recall that my machine is unable to run Glass.

[felix8406]

Znod, if you get a chance change Vista performance settings and rerun your test and let us know if there are any improvements. Go to System Properties, Performance and click Settings… and choose Adjust for best performance.

[Znod]

Hi felix:

I will be doing some more testing, but I have to swap drives for each test variation (not a big deal though). My machine is set for Vista to choose the best compromise between looks and performance. I'm sure that changing to "best" would make some difference. I tried "best" once, but Vista looked so ugly that I couldn't stand it. Still, I may get around to the test you suggest. What do you think of my results to date? I'll get back to you whenever where ever and off and on as I'll be in and out.

P.S. Now where is crabby?

[felix8406]

Originally Posted by Znod

Hi felix:
My machine is set for Vista to choose the best compromise between looks and performance. I'm sure that changing to "best" would make some difference. I tried "best" once, but Vista looked so ugly that I couldn't stand it. What do you think of my results to date? P.S. Now where is crabby?

I think in your particular situation, with a Windows Experience Index of 1, those results are expected. My laptop has the same rating as yours and it does run faster with XP. There’s a possibility that test results will be different if you change your setting to “best performance”. It does look ugly though, but is not as graphic intensive, which relieves RAM for other tasks.

As for Crabby, for some reason he went in “stealth” mode. Hopefully he’ll surface soon...we need his insight of Vista and PC in general.

[Davehc]

Oh my. That is real bad news. There are a few benchmarks around the web - they all report back the same story! Maybe you should change the name of this forum to Vienna and we'll move on!! LOL

[Znod]

I am going to do 2 more test right away, but, in all fairness, note that I am not going to go back and tweak XP. Also, note my laptop specs shown in the link in my sig. It's not exactly a performance slouch. In fact, my card even just barely satisfies the Aero Glass requirements except that it is not WDDM compliant.

[Znod]

OK, actually, I did 3 more tests with my laptop. When Vista did well on my first two tests, I repeated my original Vista test--and received better results. I can't explain why the results for Vista suddenly are better for this sort of test. I ran the test twice before with very similar results. But, anyway, things suddenly look good for Vista 5840 in relation to XP Pro. Below are my composite test results. I am going to see if I can figure out an easier way to post the details of my tests and still have them be legible. For now, I see no reason not to set 5840 for best appearance.

XP Pro—278.9
Vista 5840 set for Best Performance—274.2
Vista 5840 set as Vista Thinks Best—268 (2 prior scores—about 230)
Vista 5840 set for Best Appearance—263.6

[felix8406]

Originally Posted by Znod

XP Pro—278.9
Vista 5840 set for Best Performance—274.2
Vista 5840 set as Vista Thinks Best—268 (2 prior scores—about 230)
Vista 5840 set for Best Appearance—263.6

Had you run disk clean up and defrag lately? I wonder how much difference those two utilities will make on you score. I don't know how familiar you are with the "performance the utility" tools, but now is the perfect time to try them and see if the really work.