Some tests showed us: Windows 7 beats Vista and Xp so it has for sure more speed!
Tested Build 7600Rtm.
Conclusion:
Windows 7 performs better than Vista and is also faster than XP, although XP remains more capable for devices with limited memory and outdated graphics.
Subjectively, the change from Vista to Windows 7 is like releasing a car's handbrake. This significant increase in performance has several causes: faster system start-up and shutdown compared to XP and Vista, improved parallel processing and faster loading of drivers and operating system components. Enterprise users will also appreciate the faster log-in to a domain.
Microsoft has also thoroughly revised the SuperFetch feature, which results in quicker operational readiness after start-up. Anyone migrating from Vista will notice a reduction in disk activity after start-up, because SuperFetch spends less time loading applications into memory in Windows 7, which means less waiting for the system to be ready to use after launch.
Windows 7 is more cache-frugal thanks to improved display drivers. No matter how many windows are open, the memory usage of the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) remains constant, the video card's memory taking on the load of opening of additional windows. Under Windows 7, however, this load is half what it was with Vista. Windows 7 also introduces Direct2D, which further speeds up 2D graphics rendering. Though, the standard WDDM 1.1 driver is required to enjoy the improved 2D graphics performance. For graphics cards containing ATI and Nvidia chips, this is not an issue, since a driver has existed for a long time, but these drivers are not yet available for older Intel graphics chipsets.
Users can employ the built-in Windows 7 DirectX 11 interface to access the graphics power of the GPU (Compute Shader) using appropriate graphics hardware. This feature could prove particularly useful to those who provide video-encoding tools, although there are still no third-party products that support this new standard.
In Windows 7, Microsoft has succeeded in providing an OS that's likely to meet the performance requirements of consumers and business users alike. The early signs are that Windows 7 will enjoy a much better take-up than Vista. Of our three test platforms, only the low-end Intel Atom-based system is not really suitable for Windows 7. But even a single-core processor such as a 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo is sufficient to deliver smooth performance under Windows 7. High-end systems with quad-core processors also benefit from Windows 7, because many of the operating system functions exploit the computing power of multi-core chips.
