Windows 8 benchmarks suggest Microsoft’s performance claims are accurate

By Tom Warren, on 20th Sep 11 1:30 pm with 72 Comments

Microsoft has claimed that Windows 8 performance is vastly improved over Windows 7 so one site decided to put those claims to the test.

The Windows 8 developer preview is an early look at Microsoft’s next-generation operating system but benchmarks by the folks at Lifehacker have revealed that the early copy of Windows 8 performs extremely well. Lifehacker performed a bunch of real world tests in an attempt to discover whether Windows 8 would feel faster for end users. All the tests were performed on a fresh installation of the operating system with identical programs installed. Lifehacker put Windows 8 and Windows 7 to test on an (overclocked) 3.8 GhZ i7 machine with 6GB of RAM, a 2TB hard drive, an Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT, and connected to the internet over Ethernet at a maximum speed of 20mbps.

The site found that boot time, file compression, decompression and duplication all decreased in time on Windows 8. Encoding movies in handbrake was also slightly quicker and the Windows 8 system improved its 3DMark10 score. Lifehacker found that Windows 8 boot times were significantly faster than Windows 7, something Microsoft has worked hard on improving. The software giant has created a new startup mode that benefits HDD and SSD users. Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) users will benefit the most from the new boot but the changes are evident on a range of systems. Check out Lifehacker’s article to see the full benchmark results.

  • http://twitter.com/michaelantj Michael James

    Jeeezzz If this is pre-release software i cant wait to see what final win 8 benchmarks are

    • Xxx

      I dont get it why people think this is fast… After the BIOS is thru, Windows still need 12 seconds to boot, and then you are only in the tile-screen. The desktop version would take longer, cause they made it an application.

      I have a 3 year old pc; Intel Q9450 processor, 4 GB ram and a (younger) SSD (which is a little cheat) and after the BIOS screen I think my ’1-year old’ Windows 7 Pro starts in 10-15 seconds.

      So I cheat with the SSD, but Windows 8 cheats with not loading the “normal” desktop and being a fresh install. So whats really the win situation here?

      With a fresh install on my notebook it only took me 12 seconds ‘including’ the BIOS to boot.

      And believe me, I am pro MS and pro Windows, but this isnt much of an improvement…

    • Johnwr29938

      have you actually installed Windows 8? The desktop starts instantly, doesn’t need to boot or whatever.

    • Guest

      If you were actually a pro Windows user, then you’d know better that to call an SSD (even an older one) vs HDD a “small cheat” or to compare production W7 to a DP of W8. And loading the desktop from the Metro UI is near instantaneous on the machine I tested it on. The total boot sequence there was much improved. I haven’t timed it yet, but I say about 30 seconds to desktop instead of perhaps 45-60.

    • Anonymous

      If an SSD is a “cheat” then all Macbook Airs are cheating scoundrels.

    • Guest

      Cheat was his word, not mine. I simply pointed out that comparing SSD to HDD boot times is ridiculous. And yes, there’s a reason the MBA could originally ship with an outdated C2D processor and still deliver good boot times and overall performance. Want to take a guess at what it was? Even you can probably figure it out.

    • http://twitter.com/RobertCFP Robert Wade

      Maybe we think it’s fast because it IS fast.  Prior to loading Win8, my older dual core machine w/2GB memory and traditional SATA drive took 2 full minutes to come up to a usable state.  That’s after a fresh install.  Win8 Dev came up in 30 seconds to a usable state.  I find it laughable that you refer to it being “only in the tile-screen”.  That IS the primary screen.  That’s Metro.  And, as someone who has literally grown up from MS-DOS 2.0 all the way through all iterations of Windows except WinME, I can tell you that I hope everything moves to the Metro approach.

    • Guest

      wjglenn. didn’t you try this argument on Lifehacker and fail already?

    • Penta2100

      Actually. I loaded the desktop right when i got to the metro. I took less than 1 second

    • Anonymous

      If you add shortcuts to the tile screen, you can click on it and never have to go to the desktop. The shortcut will launch the program in the desktop interface on its own. So, no cheating here. Plus the machine they tested wasn’t an ssd. With an ssd it will be significantly faster.

    • Robin Ashe

      It’s not cheating, it’s changing the paradigm. Not very many people will want to load the normal desktop after they get used to Metro.

    • Matthewmsft

      I must’ve gotten a different version of Windows 8 then you O: mine boots in about three seconds after POST, and the desktop takes about six seconds to load after I click on the “Desktop” tile. I’ve only got 3 GB of RAM and a 280 GB HDD…to me the speed is AMAZING.

    • Anonymous

      6 seconds to enter the “Desktop” tile? That’s unacceptable. It should be instantaneous.

    • Post

      So, essentially Win8 on a normal hdd boots as fast as win7 on an ssd and that’s not an improvement?

    • Anonymous

      Dude, it’s Windoze. It’s crap by definition. Just buy an Apple.

    • http://www.facebook.com/lordadamwalker Adam The-Bicep Walker

      I fear you’re on the wrong site buddy… Go peddle your overprice childrens toys somewhere else

    • Xxx

      New to posting on this site, so I hope I do it correctly now by replying to my own post.

      With cheat I meant that it isnt a good comparison. Of course I know SSD’s are the best invention for Windows ever. But still, I read somewhere that for “real” users who ‘work’ on their PC you need to desktop screen. And since I am a webdesigner and developer, I would need the desktop screen.

      I might not be very clear on what I meant. The speed improvement is just not enough for those who actually know how a PC works. I bet Win8 on a SSD will be fast than Win7, but going from 12 secs to 7 secs isnt a big improvement. Only foor HDD users this is a huge step.

      If you have a total boot time of 30 secs, with the BIOS, or you get 25 secs, then whats there to be excited about? MS should focus on the BIOS more. And yes, I know its not theirs, but they should educate the manufacturers on how to make it quicker. Maybe even help them to load some functions together with Windows.

      And I am not sure about this statement, but I think a Win8 Dev OS will be significantly smaller, and thus faster, than a retail Windows. I thought I read somewhere that Win8 Dev is still missing some features, so its not completed yet.

      Just in conclusion I wanna say that MS brought this speed improvement too late, since the hardware manufacturers beat them by bringing out the SSD 3 years earlier. Its time to work on the BIOS time!

  • Hassan Ali

    What about IPad?

    • Sn00pd0g

      Gay

    • Guest

      -1. 
      Do not use homosexuality as an insult.

      Signed,
      Straight person

    • Hassan Ali

      Gay sucks. And will always. Gay need to be straight and choose straight path of God. 

    • http://twitter.com/Arbeitsheld_ Julian Bickelmann

      Well I think I heard sometimes that God is gay too…
      But I’m not really sure about that!

    • Muhammad Ali

      That’s so gay.

    • Anonymous

      Gay is a disease just like Diabete, is an abnormal in human beings. There is nothing wrong, just go to the doctor or whatever. Nobody should say being gay is something to be shamed of, in meantime, it is not something to be proud of either, just like Diabete. What is wrong is the pop culture seems to promote being gay. How many people is not gay is hollywood?

    • http://twitter.com/Arbeitsheld_ Julian Bickelmann

      No… Gay is NOT a disease!
      It cant be cured so its pointless to go to the doctor. Do you have any idea what youre talking about?

    • Anonymous

      I do. If you don’t like the wording, I’ll change it to abnormal.

    • Guest

      You’re all gay (no homo). Now move on.

    • Hassan Ali

      Thinking opposite is not disease. Gay is disease. It depends which type of person you are. Like some say that eyes are for crying and some say for vision.

    • http://twitter.com/laserfloyd Lewis McCrary

      They’re testing real computers. :)

    • Guest

      The ipad is a TABLET running ios the MOBILE OS created by @@pple:disqus.  Ipad is only a tablet nothing else.
       And what about the ipad anyway?

    • guest

      I did not mean that the OS was created by the user@pple:disqus  but created by Apple Inc the company

      Dang, everytime you type @  it opens a user  box

    • Guest

      The iPad is not even a real tablet (a $500 computer that doesnt let you manage files? ha!)

  • Jacob Riis

    The POST time is still too long on Windows 8. However that’s not entirely Microsoft’s fault. But i wish they somehow would force hardware producers to give the user a better experience.

    After the the POST the boot is not fast but very fast

    • Guest

      I have a MSI mini board E350IA-E45. It’s the only AMD based computer I have. I use it for my HTPC and I can tell you the POST time including boot time are instant.

    • http://www.winrumors.com Tom W

      Well if you have a new UEFI machine then it’s a lot faster on POST.

    • http://www.facebook.com/ben.joynes Ben Joynes

      I still have BIOS I think, and it only takes about 3 seconds to POST.

    • Guest

      There’s huge variability on BIOS post times. Some MB’s have fast boot options that disable some of the std POSTs.

    • http://twitter.com/tonycubed Tony

      The BIOS boot performance has nothing to do with Microsoft, so saying it’s not entirely their fault is very inaccurate, it has nothing to do with Microsoft.

    • Anonymous

      That’s like blaming Microsoft for how long it takes your monitor to turn on.

    • Seb

      “The POST time is still too long on Windows 8. However that’s not entirely Microsoft’s fault.”

      POST speed has nothing to do with OS. POST stands for “Power On Self Test” and is a pre-boot process which happens before any OS is loaded/started. POST speed depends entierly on hardware, hardware manufacturer and connected components. As a retro aside, video card manufacturers used to be notorious for having their own logos/messaging which were displayed during POST; it used to add 1-2 seconds to boot time, but the industry ‘encouraged’ them to stop it.

    • Anonymous

      Too bad! Apple controls the entire HW/SW experience to maximize the UX! It’s MSFT’s fault they haven’t designed/built their own PC line to control quality!

    • GaryGibsonisqueer

      And yet boot time on a Mac or actual boot on iPhone/iPod touch, iPad (versus resume) is still no better than a properly equipped Windows equivalent.

    • Anonymous

      I am glad they don’t! It’s bad enough to have 1 company trying to shove what they think we should buy and how they think we should experience technology down our throat. You can have any flavor you want as long as it is vanilla. Oh you want variety? Ok here you go, try french vanilla! That’s how I see apple’s products. Black iPhones then *drum roll* six months later, white iPhones just as an example. And to defend this lack of balls and creativity they claim it’s done to protect you from you!

      Microsoft is the equilibrium and represents the happy middle in my opinion. You’ve got Linux and their tribal leaders screaming anarchy on one hand, and apple zealots on the other trying to irradicate the world from techno infidels who for years gobbled IE4, 5, and 6 when no one else thought it was worth their while to compete with the Redmond boys.

      I see Microsoft as offering the sensible alternative to both extremes. that’s how they do it. They never alienate any segment of their user base while thriving to rival those who conveniently get pissed off from time to time and say Phuket let’s start from scratch.

      I launched vs2k11 on win8 and right away it asked me if I wanted to begin coding in JavaScript, visual basic, c#, or c++!!!!! That’s what I consider freedom. That’s what I think in the long run helps them remiain at the forefront.

      Sexy comes and goes. Practical, logical, sensible stays around for a while…

    • Guest

      I guess you missed the whole discussion about MS working with OEMs on UEFI?

    • Matthewmsft

      I’m pretty sure that by the time Win 8 devices are actually on the market they’ll be mostly UEFI and have a lot faster POSTs.

  • Anonymous

     certainly they thought they would find otherwise and get a scoop yet it backfired. lifehacker has always been pretty anti-MS so I’m surprised they even published it.

  • Tuxplorer

    Tom, can you embed HTML5 videos? The video here cannot be viewed from the Metro IE10 browser?

    • Anon

      +1, you can embed YouTube videos as HTML5.

    • Matthewmsft

      lol that explaines it….I was wondering why it wasn’t showing up :P

  • Anonymous

    that “loser” made me sad. but its true… today i got my win8 running really fast that i was like O.O because sometimes it takes more to load but today it was fast after bios thing to my logon screen.

    anyway i cant wait for beta! it sounds like it will be a nice release.
    i think i wont need hibernation anymore. because win8 is taking almost the same hibernation  in win7! maybe less, the only difference its i wont have my stuff opened but its not slow anymore :D

  • Anonymous

    Wasn’t it just a few days ago everyone was gushing over how fast Windows 8 booted on an old crappy laptop… in 8 seconds, including POST.

    Now this boot test shows Windows 8 took, what, 11 seconds AFTER POST is amazing? On “an (overclocked) 3.8 GhZ i7 machine with 6GB of RAM”… Why wasn’t it faster than the laptop demo?

    • http://twitter.com/BrandonLive Brandon Paddock

      This one was not an SSD.

    • Anonymous

      Ahh…

    • Guest

      Yeah, ahh. Next time, do a little research before commenting.

    • Anonymous

      Give me a break. What’s wrong with asking questions? 

    • Guest

      Legitimate ones? Nothing. Atttempts to make the product look bad that backfire? Everything.

    • Anonymous

      Well then… Since I got the answer to the question, and responded with a simple “Ahh…”, which often implies “oh yeah.. forgot about that”, what’s the problem?

    • Guest

      Tone and content. Sort of like asking “Do you still beat your wife?”, getting a “no”, and then saying “ahh”.

    • Anonymous

      How do you get tone from text?

    • Anonymous

      Hi GDal, did kinda sound like you were being obnoxious rather than actually asking a question. Best way to resolve this is not be defensive and ask for an apology. Don’t make yourself look more of an arse

    • Anonymous

      Can’t argue with you. I could have started a bit differently. But I can’t ask for an apology. Not necessary, or due.

    • Anonymous

      Do you really enjoy trolling? Go back to Macrumors, troll!

    • Anonymous

      Make up your mind… One minute your bashing Windows, then bashing others for commenting on it?

      My statement simply compared two performance demonstrations. What’s it got to do with Macs?

    • Guest

      Dubya suffers from MPD. A lot of alcoholics do.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Viki-Maverick/100002523433166 Viki Maverick

    Internet Explorer 10 is a beast. Move aside other browsers, the new king of browsers is here. 

    • Robin Ashe

      Not really, I’ll still be waiting for FF for Metro. As good as IE is as a base install, the customisation offered by FF, and to a lesser degree Chrome and Opera makes for a more useful browser than IE for power users.

  • http://twitter.com/jimmyfal Jimmy Fallon

    I was running Win 7 with an SSD drive almost for the purpose of the fast booting. I stuck Win 8 on an older SATA and then I just kept putting my programs on it. Now I’m using it as my main OS without really too many issues in stability at all. A few. Not really missing the SSD believe it or not. Although I will be cloning the whole operation over there pretty soon to make a comparison.

  • Anonymous

    Windows 8 RTM + SSD will mean super fast “cold boot” times!

  • Edwardb223

    Any info on Windows 8 pricing?

    Thanks,
    Ed
    http://shdcomputers.com/

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Pedro-Roque/100000194503830 Pedro Roque

    My Samsung dev device feels as fast, if not faster, that my big laptop (i7, SSD, 12Gb)

  • Anonymous

    whats the name of backdrop tune

  • http://twitter.com/fillupt Philip Turnbull

    Remember when we used to say how fast Windows 7 was?