Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Vista SP2 x32 bit vs. Win 7 x64 bit

I followed the same steps as TK did in his original post.  I really wanted to see which is better.  So, I set out on the absurd task of formatting my box just to install an O.S. and run tests.  I only call it absurd because all of my settings take forever to get back in place.

You don’t have to worry, pc images are your friend.  After creating a TESTED image, I then formatted my box.  Once I had Vista back on my machine, I realized why I went for Win 7 even though it was still in BETA at the time. 

I used the same benchmarking tool as did TK: Passmark Performance Test.  Here are the results:

Summary
  1. Vista SP2 x32 bit Passmark Rating - 1259.2
  2. Win 7 x64 bit Passmark Rating - 1352.0

It wasn’t even close as I expected.  After all, I am running a x64 bit architecture vs. a x32 bit.  To make things a bit more fair, I’m going to run through the whole process again but this time, I will include: XP SP3 x32 bit, Vista x64 bit, and Win 7 x32 bit.  I know, I know, but what about XP x64 bit… I just wont go there.

If you clicked the links to view the results, you may have noticed exactly why Win 7 beat Vista here… If not, check the Passmark ratings for Total RAM.  That should give you a clear reason why Win 7 x64 bit won.  If you were wondering, I’ve linked a Belarc Report so you can view the hardware that I am using for these tests.

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