How to evaluate system performance in windows 7

The verdict? Windows 7 makes some performance strides over Vista, though in some cases we saw no clear-cut winner, and in one area Windows 7 lagged considerably behind its predecessor. For a breakdown of some of the performance scores, see the chart below. Here Windows 7 was roughly 3. When comparing the two versions of Windows on the HP Pavilion at desktop with a 2. Running the bit versions of Vista and Windows 7, the at saw its WorldBench 6 score increase only a little, from on the former to on the latter.

But on our WorldBench 6 tests comparing the bit versions, it enjoyed a somewhat larger boost with Windows 7, going from a score of 96 on Vista to a mark of We saw similar incremental performance improvements on our portable test PCs as well. In our WorldBench 6 Nero tests, Windows 7 showed big improvements. Performance nearly doubled on average over Vista, which indicates that the new OS enhances hard-disk performance.

Lower time equals better performance. Windows 7 makes big gains in disk performance, however. For example, in our hard-disk-intensive WorldBench 6 Nero test—in which we create a series of images of an optical disc and then save them—every PC we tested showed an improvement. In our comparison of the bit versions of Vista and Windows 7, the IdeaPad Y performed the test twice as quickly with the newer OS. Meanwhile, our Gateway T was almost two and a half times faster, going from a time of seconds to complete the test on Windows Vista to a time of seconds on Windows 7.

We had noticed a similar speedup on disk-intensive tests in our earlier evaluation of the Windows 7 release candidate; such gains may be due to updated hard-disk drivers under Windows 7. One particular result worth noting: In our testing, the bit versions of Vista produced poorer disk performance than the bit Vista editions did.

That explains the larger WorldBench 6 score advantages over Vista that we saw from bit Windows 7 compared with bit Windows 7. Microsoft says that in Windows 7 it changed the way the operating system handles starting up processes when you boot your computer. For some processes and services, Microsoft employs a scheme called trigger-start services. These are system services and processes that under Vista would have started up when you booted your PC, but now kick in only as needed.

Reducing the number of services that start at boot is supposed to reduce boot-up time. Shorter times indicate better performance.

In our boot-up tests using one desktop and one laptop, though, we saw mixed results. Windows 7 Home Premium also the bit edition took slightly longer, averaging On our HP Pavilion at test desktop, the outcome was reversed. The bit edition of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition booted in In subsequent testing, however, we discovered that the bit version of Windows 7 exhibited a similar speedup on our HP desktop, going from an average of As for shutdown times, in our tests we observed no significant difference between Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

The bit Windows 7 Home Premium took The results were just as tight on our HP at desktop. As shown in the example below of the Windows 7 Task Manager, the Performance tab gives you an overview of the CPU and memory usage, and other system information.

The Windows Resource Monitor is a great tool that was first introduced in Windows 7 and gives much greater detail of the computer's overall performance. The Resource Monitor also gives you disk and network related information. The Windows utilities listed above are great for giving an overview of the current performance of Windows and the running programs. However, they are not designed to give you an overall ranking or comparison.

If you need more details about the system performance, we suggest a benchmarking program.