1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Bits First Look: Windows 7 Beta Performance

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Tim S, 16 Jan 2009.

  1. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    26 May 2005
    Posts:
    5,841
    Likes Received:
    80
    Its still a bit fluffy for my likeing (so is xp) but it looks like its been much better designed than Vista. I'll probably upgrade to it when its launched xp is getting a bit long in the tooth but i'm not pouring money for two upgrades in a year.
     
  2. Paradigm Shifter

    Paradigm Shifter de nihilo nihil fit

    Joined:
    10 May 2006
    Posts:
    2,306
    Likes Received:
    86
    Yes, seconded - a Windows that allows the power user to choose exactly what to install, from stuff like Windows Media Player to Internet Explorer to Themes to BITS to Remote Registry to... hell, even the GUI itself, for some specific 'headless' scenarios.

    And stripping out the raft of drivers... I mean, it's great to have USB devices plug in and work, but besides basic USB mouse and keyboard support, and memory stick support, everything else I use pretty much requires installation of seperate dedicated drivers anyway to get full use of any of them. And I have experienced issues with getting Vista to take Intel provided chipset drivers rather than it's included ones.

    'Pro' should not mean 'everything and the kitchen sink'. ;)
     
  3. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

    Joined:
    27 Jul 2006
    Posts:
    1,415
    Likes Received:
    10
    To some extent, what you're describing is XP Embedded, although most of what that does can be emulated using tools like nwiz. I wonder what will replace XPe - surely there can't be a Vista Embedded!? Argh!
     
  4. TurtlePerson2

    TurtlePerson2 What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    19 Dec 2006
    Posts:
    96
    Likes Received:
    0
    There used to be problems with 32 bit applications not being compatible in 64 bit OS, but Windows 7 does that perfectly as far as I can tell. You're absolutely right, we ought to just throw 32 bit out the window, but I don't think it will happen. If I remember correctly, Pentium 4 chips were 32-bit only and a lot of people still use those. Microsoft wants absolutely everyone to be able to buy Windows 7, so they won't force 64 bit quite yet.
     
  5. djDEATH

    djDEATH Habari gani?

    Joined:
    23 Mar 2006
    Posts:
    434
    Likes Received:
    5
    slightly slower gaming is a myth. i installled windows 7, and then used the SAME 185.20 exe off my vista desktop to install into Windows 7, and i'm seeing a significant increase in perfomance compared to vista (dual boot).

    GTAIV for example now runs into the 30fps+ making it finally playable at the same settings i got 20-25+ in vista. GRID runs now well above 60fps, giving me V Sync when i could only muster 40-45 in vista on same settings, and crysis runs like a dream, IQ is same overall, but feels smoother and alt-tabs back to desktop with less hassle and less time spent showing things in Aero basic before it flicks back to full aero.

    all in all, a win for microsoft, and actually don't want to go back to vista again, and thats after just a week with the new OS
     
  6. Kúsař

    Kúsař regular bit-tech reader

    Joined:
    23 Apr 2008
    Posts:
    317
    Likes Received:
    4
    But these are ancient relics without driver support(chipsets) for Vista, let alone Win #7; and cannot even run MS Office 2007 fluently(under XP!). Last 32 bit AMD CPUs are using socket A, intel - 478 Prescott(E series) - 4 / 5 years old platforms. Compared to XP there wouldn't be any speed boost at all.
     
  7. tk421

    tk421 Idiot.

    Joined:
    15 Jan 2002
    Posts:
    2,401
    Likes Received:
    11
    I don't know what you think ancient is, but you are sadly mistaken about hardware support requirements for vista and win7. vista runs better on my "ancient" latitude d810 than XP does. and faster. it does however have 2gb of ram.


    i have 4 pc's in my house, and only 1 of them is 64-bit capable (and it's my work laptop, so it's stuck with 32-bit XP) - while most of us technically advanced types went 6t4-bit long ago, the vast majority of consumers are using 3 year old (or older!) hardware.

    as for win7 performance:

    I love the tablet integration. my most-often used machine right now is my IBM X41T - 1.5 ghz, 1.5 gb memory, and a 2gb SD card for readyboost (love the built in reader) - handwriting recognition is literally 10x better than vista - and vista was 100X times better than WINTE 2k5.
    couple this with office 2k7 & one note - typing will soon be a thing of the past for me i think. well, outside of work, anyway.

    it runs overall a little slower than a stripped down tablet ed. 2k5 install. generally faster than vista was on it. could be the readyboost, or me just getting more used to using vista on a daily basis.

    new taskbar - bloody brilliant. quit whining about losing the quicklaunch. i used to depend on it, but i am starting to not miss it.
    and you can configure the taskbar grouping, and add the text labels if you want. with a 1024x768 tablet desktop, i probably wont.

    rotation works much better than xp or vista.

    downsides:
    had to use the XP driver for the intel 2200bg wifi. pretty odd that one of intel's biggest selling chips isn't included.
    win7's default SD reader driver stuck in PIO mode. lenovo / IBM drive wont install. after a little searching, discover Ricoh 3 n 1 driver, get it to install, and suddenly readyboost works again.

    i think i will definitely stick with 7 on the tablet. as for the desktop and the wife's laptop, vista will probably stay for a while.
     
    Last edited: 16 Jan 2009
  8. Undercloacker

    Undercloacker AirFlow

    Joined:
    8 Jan 2009
    Posts:
    126
    Likes Received:
    1
    funny to c game running 2-5 FPS lower on win 7
    i was wondering what happened to perfomance boost,

    Anyway, eager to get my fully functional i7 build, with Win 7 as secondary OS (Vista sp1 x64 as primary)
    ill do my own benches :p
     
  9. Paradigm Shifter

    Paradigm Shifter de nihilo nihil fit

    Joined:
    10 May 2006
    Posts:
    2,306
    Likes Received:
    86
    To be fair... the 'vast majority' of consumers aren't going to install any OS other than the one that actually came with their system. Or are still using the original default install. Either way, dropping support for 32-bit from an OS will affect businesses more than end-users... and most of businesses I've had experience of are still using Windows 2000, Win 98 or even in one case, Windows 3.11. They stick with what works, and it'll cost a lot to shift company-wide networks to a new OS like Vista or Win 7, purely on hardware requirements, even without taking into account 32 or 64-bit support.

    Basically, there are a lot of good reasons for dropping 32-bit only releases, and only some weakening reasons for continuing to include it.
     
  10. mauvecloud

    mauvecloud What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    4 Nov 2008
    Posts:
    50
    Likes Received:
    0
    I have 2 questions about Windows 7, which aren't answered well in this article:
    1. Does it have better backward compatibility with old software (esp. games, e.g. Diablo II) and hardware (e.g. Palm Tungsten E3 usb hookup, HP DeskJet 9300)?
    2. Does Notepad handle the *nix line-end convention yet?
     
  11. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

    Joined:
    23 Oct 2001
    Posts:
    34,731
    Likes Received:
    2,210
    Is that a self-referential statement? :D
     
  12. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    I'll have to FIND an XP disk first :S

    You can make the taskbar thinner with small icons only, but there is no more words any more - it's all mouse-over to see multiple screenshots of the windows you have open. It gives more space and there's still the alt-tab/win-tab or stick to side if you want. It'll take some getting used to imo.

    The quick launch icons are still there - but instead they are simply pinned to the start bar and not given their "own space" like in XP and Vista. It's a lot more fluid looking.

     
  13. pumpman

    pumpman Minimodder

    Joined:
    7 Jul 2004
    Posts:
    1,036
    Likes Received:
    4
    Im liking Windows 7, its cliche to say now, but its what vista should have been. The previous beta needed the chipset drivers loaded, on version 7000, everything was there, it took about 20 mins on an amd x2 3800 NF4 pc, and it is without doubt faster then Vista and xp doing the normal run of the mill things.

    I found this blog that posted some times comparing xp, vista and 7 http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3236&page=1
     
  14. DougEdey

    DougEdey I pwn all your storage

    Joined:
    5 Jul 2005
    Posts:
    13,933
    Likes Received:
    33
    Nope, right click -> properties -> taskbar buttons -> never combine

    Shows it like it was a nicer Vista with the quicklaunch for apps which you've dumped on the taskbar.
     
  15. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

    Joined:
    20 Jan 2007
    Posts:
    12,300
    Likes Received:
    710
    You can show the the text! Well DougEdey says how.

    I like Windows 7... I just can't wait of official Windows 7 drivers to actually see the real performance of the OS. However, there is one thing that is killer, and I can't believe it was not mentioned. I guess I am the ONLY ONE that maximizes programs. Just because few idiots complaints under Vista, as they thought it was a bug the fact that when you maximize a window or program the boarders and taskbar turns blackish and opaque. In Windows 7 it doesn't do that, and you just can't focus on your application, especially if you have a bright background or an animated background or those auto-switch background that you can in do in Windows 7. An OS is useless if you can't use it.

    I hope my feedback sent to Microsoft won't be ignored and that their are others that support me. If there is this war between which mode is best.. then how about an option to change the behavior (as I suggested in my feedback to Microsoft).
     
  16. Veles

    Veles DUR HUR

    Joined:
    18 Nov 2005
    Posts:
    6,188
    Likes Received:
    34
    No WinFS? I thought that was supposed to be coming in Win7
     
  17. DougEdey

    DougEdey I pwn all your storage

    Joined:
    5 Jul 2005
    Posts:
    13,933
    Likes Received:
    33
    Nah, that's been well and truly sidelined Veles.
     
  18. Smilodon

    Smilodon The Antagonist

    Joined:
    25 Mar 2003
    Posts:
    6,244
    Likes Received:
    102
    I don't think they'll write many drivers for NEW hardware from 2011. XP should have died a long time ago.


    I run Win7 on a 3 year old HP NX8220 (Based on a Pentium M )at the moment (And my main rig), and it works really well. It even seems faster than XP. Driver support isn't any problem either, as Vista drivers will work just as well.
     
  19. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

    Joined:
    20 Jan 2007
    Posts:
    12,300
    Likes Received:
    710
    Many netbook CPUs are in 32-bit, and Microsoft wants that market.
     
  20. m4rk3d

    m4rk3d Minimodder

    Joined:
    15 May 2004
    Posts:
    193
    Likes Received:
    3
    You can change the transparency and color intensity in the desktop personalization window. If you click on "Window Color" at the bottom you can change color, transparency etc. there. so no more annoying background-bleed.

    As to the whole Windows 7 Beta shebang...I'm liking it. I'm dual booting Vista and 7 Beta, and since installing 7 Beta I haven't been tempted to boot back into Vista once. It feels much more polished and the little tweaks, especially to the taskbar and UI are great. It just feels like it was made to work, rather than Vista which feels like it was made to look pretty and wow people. And at such an early stage in the development cycle it bodes well for the full release later this year/early next.
     
Tags: Add Tags

Share This Page