Thinking about doing an XP vs Vista Beta 2 Performance Review, Need Input

[LoneWolf121188]

I'm really excited about Vista Beta 2, and I'll probably have it installed on this machine in a few days. I'm thinking about doing an extensive performance review of XP vs Vista Beta 2, but I'd like some input from the community. Specifically, how many people would be interested (there's no point in putting several hours into this if only 5 people care) and what programs people would like to see compared between the two OS's. Here are some programs I already plan on running:


3DMark06
3DMark05
PCMark05
Sandra
Prime
SuperPi


I'm not sure about those last two, idk how much of a difference the OS's will make. What else would you guys like to see?

Oh, and I've done a similar type of article on SLI, its stickied in the nVidia section. This review will probably look similar, with similar formatting, etc. Any suggestions/criticisms would be appreciated in making this review even better.

Thanks!

[z0n3]

Could you benchmark a few games. FEAR and BF2 if we can make requests.

[bobthemoo]

yeah i guess it would be good to see. you should test some normal things like how easy it is to use, how quickly it loads etc...

[David]

yeah i guess it would be good to see. you should test some normal things like how easy it is to use, how quickly it loads etc...

Load times, opening office type apps, etc would be a good idea :)

[medo145]

i dont know if its just me but i think images look sharper for some reason on vista than on xp. is that true or am i seeing things. i'm talking about same image on both OSs. i was comparing the sample pictures that come with vista

[NsOmNiA91130]

No. Please don't. This is a beta. Lots of stuff still don't work, drivers aren't the same, different processes, among a plethora of other variables.

Now, XP - Vista Final, yes. Beta? No.

Reviewing and not comparing, however, is fine. Otherwise the people on this forum afraid of change have a reason to smash Vista, albeit a crappy one.

[roYal]

Microsoft is currently in their performance tuning stage in their beta. This is not to mention that its currently compiled in debugging mode. To compare XP performance to current vista performance wouldn't be a reliable comparison of true Vista performance once it goes retail.

[synthetic_fenix]

I would like to see things like:

Hard drive space taking up after a clean install.

How many resources both take up with nothing running.

[NsOmNiA91130]

Well, there are 6 different Vista versions (I think), and 3 different XP versions, so you would probably need to pick the two barebone ones, and then the 2 fully loaded ones, etc.

[synthetic_fenix]

Well, there are 6 different Vista versions (I think), and 3 different XP versions, so you would probably need to pick the two barebone ones, and then the 2 fully loaded ones, etc.

I believe there will only be 2 different versions of Vista a home version and a pro but i could be wrong.

but you are right there are 3 different versions of XP, Home, Pro and Media Center.

[NsOmNiA91130]

I believe there will only be 2 different versions of Vista a home version and a pro but i could be wrong.

but you are right there are 3 different versions of XP, Home, Pro and Media Center.
Hmmm...


Vista Business

Vista Enterprise

Home Premium

Home Basic

Ultimate


There may be another.

[LoneWolf121188]

No. Please don't. This is a beta. Lots of stuff still don't work, drivers aren't the same, different processes, among a plethora of other variables.

Now, XP - Vista Final, yes. Beta? No.

Reviewing and not comparing, however, is fine. Otherwise the people on this forum afraid of change have a reason to smash Vista, albeit a crappy one.
Microsoft is currently in their performance tuning stage in their beta. This is not to mention that its currently compiled in debugging mode. To compare XP performance to current vista performance wouldn't be a reliable comparison of true Vista performance once it goes retail.
Very true. However, this isn't intended to be indicative of the performance one would find in the final build, its more of a benchmark to see how the Vista project is comming along, and perhaps to get an idea (though one that is certainly far from conclusive) of what we have to look forward too. Also, I kind of want to know myself. I've been checking out Vista builds from back in the Longhorn days, when it was still in alpha (I think I've got a few builds back in the 50xx's floating around here somewhere), and its cool to see how far MS has come since then.

I'll add boot times, loading times for large images, and FEAR to the list of tests.

[TRF-Inferno]

Will DX10 even be fully integrated and functioning by then to test out 3D application/games? The last build I tested (5270) had zero 3D acceleration. In addition to that, ATi and Nvidia's Vista drivers are still in their preliminary stages.

[David]

Hmmm...


Vista Business

Vista Enterprise

Home Premium

Home Basic

Ultimate


There may be another.

There will be a media-player free version to comply with the EU ruling and afaik a media centre version.

[TRF-Inferno]

ExtremeTech did a quick analysis of Beta 2 with a few games

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0%2C1697%2C1968995%2C00.asp

I'm surprised they got the 3D acceleration working this fast.

[LoneWolf121188]

Well I finally got my hands on a copy, should have it up and running later today. Stay tuned, kids... :)

[LoneWolf121188]

argh...looks like the .iso is corrupted in some way, it keeps getting an error at 27% during the unpacking phase...

[Mr.Guvernment]

good you are going to make the effort, but comparing a beta os to a final one that has been out for years is rather apples to oranges.

[LoneWolf121188]

Well, I figured out the problem: seems that my other HDDs were somehow causing problems with the install. Removed those, and it works! So I'm in vista right now using IE7, and I gotta say, its pretty cool. :D Surprisingly sluggish though, i'm going to have to do some fine tuning before I can start running apps. It takes almost 7 min from hitting the power button to actually being able to do anything in the OS!

[klingens]

That Vista build has so much debugging code in there, you won't get any meaningful results. Additionally there are no games which have both DX9 and DX10 builds. So DX9 games always run through a layer in Vista

[NsOmNiA91130]

argh...looks like the .iso is corrupted in some way, it keeps getting an error at 27% during the unpacking phase...
You don't unpack ISOs to burn them.

However, r** archives are usually used to unpack ISOs. Microsoft, however, doesn't give you r** files, they give you straight ISOs.

:beer:

[LoneWolf121188]

^^ hehe, no, you misunderstand (though I catch your drift :) ). The install goes through multiple phases, one of which is unpacking its own archives. It copies archives over to the HDD, then unpacks em.

I figured out one major cause of slowness: I had both monitors running with Aero. Apparently my system can't handle that kind of load (and thats just from the OS! :eek: ). Disabling one monitor helps a ton, but I can't seem to be able to enable SLI with these nVidia beta drivers.

[LoneWolf121188]

Oh wow: Just some preliminary results, my 3DM06 score went from 1421 in Vista to 2667 in XP! Hmmm, maybe this will prove to be worthless after all...

[Janus67]

well seeing how nothing is really optimized this isn't too big of a surprise. That and didn't you say that Vista had trouble dealing with SLI (currently)? That could be a major reason for this.

[LoneWolf121188]

Yes, Vista currently doesn't support SLI, but the 3DM06 scores I posted above were without SLI enabled in both Vista and XP. I get 4904 in 3DM06 with SLI enabled in XP.

[SeasonalEclipse]

Vista is extremely buggy on my desktop rig.. it wouldnt install sound drivers or do much of anything.. I suggest you wait until a later beta comes out before benching it.

[Trombe]

Vista is extremely buggy on my desktop rig.. it wouldnt install sound drivers or do much of anything.. I suggest you wait until a later beta comes out before benching it.

Or maybe even the real version, so that the test is actually worth something... :eek:

[LoneWolf121188]

Yeah, after playing around with it, I'd have to agree. Its fun to mess around in it, but not much else. Certainly not smooth or compatible enough to use as a full time OS.