Windows 7 will be faster than Windows Vista and XP

[newtekie1]

In my line of work, I have to deal with a lot of people asking me if they should upgrade to the latest version of Windows, and usually they want to upgrade to a new computer also. I can't even count the number of times I've been asked "If I buy a new computer, should I make sure to still get XP? I don't want Vista because it will be slower." The main concern seems to stem from all the complaints about Vista being slower than XP. The same concerns are now being voiced to me about Windows 7.

I always tell them not to worry, Vista and Windows 7 will be faster. I don't bother to really explain my reasoning behind it, but someone argued with me this morning about it, so I need to rant.

Before I really start, let me say this: Yes, I agree entirely that Vista and Windows 7 are slower than XP when all three are run on the same hardware with fresh installs of all three.

Now, the reason I tell the common consumer that Vista and Windows 7 will be faster is two fold.

First, when someone asks me about buying a new computer, and worrying about Vista/7 being slower, I tell them not to worry because when they are buying a new computer, the hardware will more than likely be a lot better than what they were running XP on. So, to them, Vista/7 will be a lot faster than XP was on their old computer. I mean, even on fresh install, Vista on a Quad-Core with 4GB of RAM will be faster than XP on a P4 with 1GB(or 512MB even).

Secondly, even if they aren't buying new hardware, they will be reformatting. And, again, to them this will more than likely make Vista/7 seem faster. Most people that are doing this probably haven't reformatted ever, so their computers are probably in need of it anyway. So a fresh install of Vista/7 will, to them, run faster than their old bloated install of XP.

I can say from experience that the second one is true. I've done several upgrades to Vista on oldish machines. And the people were amazed at "how much faster Vista was than XP". It isn't really faster, it is just less bogged down from years of their crap sitting around choking the machine.

[/rant]

Comments?

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Perhaps if you learn to stop trying to force your personal beliefs on others those individuals won't argue with you. And you wouldn't have a need to rant.

 

[KainXS]

its funny how you mentioned crapware on pc's nowadays, usually every pc you buy comes with it, its almost unavoidable now,

its really annoying

I actually did try windows 7 on my old p4 pc with 512mb of ram, and it performed really good actually, but I had to go back to xp on it, because of driver problems, made me really sad too cause I love 7.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

7 runs on this pentium d quite well

 

[Kenshai]

Perhaps if you learn to stop trying to force your personal beliefs on others those individuals won't argue with you. And you wouldn't have a need to rant.

Someone is coming and asking his personal opinion on whether they should upgrade or not, he is simply stating windows vista/7 will be faster. I don't see how he's shoving his personal beliefs onto someone. If anything he's giving them sound advice as XP can't take advantage of newer hardware as well as vista/7 can, DX10/DX11 to name one. This isn't going to become a flame war, but XP will die at some point.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Someone is coming and asking his personal opinion on whether they should upgrade or not, he is simply stating windows vista/7 will be faster. I don't see how he's shoving his personal beliefs onto someone. If anything he's giving them sound advice as XP can't take advantage of newer hardware as well as vista/7 can, DX10/DX11 to name one. This isn't going to become a flame war, but XP will die at some point.

Read his post, in part:

I always tell them not to worry, Vista and Windows 7 will be faster. I don't bother to really explain my reasoning behind it, but someone argued with me this morning about it, so I need to rant.

And you want to credit him for giving someone his opinion? I have to disagree as it reads as a personal belief to me. However, I want to also add that it's not about what you say but how it is said which can ignite an argument.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

reason why xp wont die is because a good portion of the market couldnt afford a pc or had the skills to use one until xp ...

 

[Kenshai]

Read his post, in part:

And you want to credit him for giving someone his opinion? I have to disagree as it reads as a personal belief to me. However, I want to also add that it's not about what you say but how it is said which can ignite an argument.

I'm sure when someone asks why, he will give them an answer. Someone who could understand the answer better than most. Half the people that ask me don't know the difference between an i7 and an Athlon64. Those are the types of people that don't need any true explanation. Now someone asking as why upgrade, give them a reason. But the people not asking what does it matter to them?

The guy that argued with Newtekie probably defended XP, him having never used anything other than that for the past 8 years. Probably heard all the flak that Vista got when it first came out. Someone closed minded who won't try new things. True it's the guys opinion, but he can't have a real valid opinion until he tries other things.

 

[Axaion]

I always tell them not to worry, Vista and Windows 7 will be faster. I don't bother to really explain my reasoning behind it, but someone argued with me this morning about it, so I need to rant.

Allright..

Before I really start, let me say this: Yes, I agree entirely that Vista and Windows 7 are slower than XP when all three are run on the same hardware with fresh installs of all three.

Now wait a second, why not tell them to just format and reinstall XP then?
they will save money they can use on better hardware, or wait till win7 matures, and you wouldent have to lie to them (Or yourself, seeing as you say you know XP is faster than both still) or argue for that matter

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

why the bitching?

 

[mrw1986]

Isn't 7 faster anyway? I know Vista is fast, even on a fresh install Vista ran faster for me than XP did. XP is just becoming outdated and easier to run so it seems faster.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I'm sure when someone asks why, he will give them an answer. Someone who could understand the answer better than most. Half the people that ask me don't know the difference between an i7 and an Athlon64. Those are the types of people that don't need any true explanation. Now someone asking as why upgrade, give them a reason. But the people not asking what does it matter to them?

The guy that argued with Newtekie probably defended XP, him having never used anything other than that for the past 8 years. Probably heard all the flak that Vista got when it first came out. Someone closed minded who won't try new things. True it's the guys opinion, but he can't have a real valid opinion until he tries other things.

Now you are arguing about it . You've implied a whole lot that wasn't mentioned in the OP. It could very well be that the person may have had other concerns not performance related (which may not have been told to him). Further more, if a person doesn't want a new OS they don't have to try it in order to formulate that opinion 1st. They don't have to provide you with a reason why they don't want it. It's called prerogative . There shouldn't be a sweeping level of hatred toward individuals that may not like what you like.

 

[D007]

Lol I hear what your saying but what you just said is:

Xp runs faster than 7 and vista, but your telling people it doesn't.
with the same hardware side by side, your saying xp runs faster.
So why say otherwise?
That's just confusing lol.

virtually no one who would even come to these forums will run 512 ram or even less than 2 GB memory on xp anyway XD..
If they do, well their kind of a lost cause in the first place and shouldn't be worrying about speed, should be worrying about running at all..

 

[theorw]

i dont know what is said above or what u guys think but in my cousins
Athlon xp3500
2*512mb 400mhz
6600GT SLI and RAID 0
xp run blazing speed in fresh install while vista run sluggish!!!!!!
Just to open control panel or even preview an image took seeeeeeveral seconds...
All this on CLEAN INSTALL!
So vista or 7 can be very fast as long as u have decent hardware...
I have no problem run my vista faster that his xp but the hardware difference is chaotic!

 

[Kenshai]

Now you are arguing about it . You've implied a whole lot that wasn't mentioned in the OP. It could very well be that the person may have had other concerns not performance related (which may not have been told to him). Further more, if a person doesn't want a new OS they don't have to try it in order to formulate that opinion 1st. They don't have to provide you with a reason why they don't want it. It's called prerogative . There shouldn't be a sweeping level of hatred toward individuals that may not like what you like.

So you're saying for someone to come up with an opinion of a product they don't have to try it first? Especially something like an operating system?

What I've mentioned is something I've come to realize working in a retail type position, that people form these opinions that won't/can't be swayed. Vista/7 has better hardware support, be it for SSD's or Video cards and others in between. Vista/7 is easier for the basic end user, with automatic driver installation as well as automatic updates for said drivers.

How can someone form a proper opinion without first attempting to use said product. It's like the so called Mojave experiment Microsoft did. People who had never used Vista were invited to try out Microsoft's new OS Mojave. What they were getting was Vista with a different theme, and they liked it. Not really a big surprise, as Vista is on par with XP with the right hardware (of which nearly every OEM computer now can run no problem whatsoever.) Vista got a bad reputation from the start with the poor driver support from third party vendors. XP had a very similar problem from the start.

i dont know what is said above or what u guys think but in my cousins
Athlon xp3500
2*512mb 400mhz
6600GT SLI and RAID 0
xp run blazing speed in fresh install while vista run sluggish!!!!!!
Just to open control panel or even preview an image took seeeeeeveral seconds...
All this on CLEAN INSTALL!
So vista or 7 can be very fast as long as u have decent hardware...
I have no problem run my vista faster that his xp but the hardware difference is chaotic!

Ask him to try 7, I guarantee he'll be more happy than with Vista.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

So you're saying for someone to come up with an opinion of a product they don't have to try it first? Especially something like an operating system?

That is correct.

What I've mentioned is something I've come to realize working in a retail type position, that people form these opinions that won't/can't be swayed. Vista/7 has better hardware support, be it for SSD's or Video cards and others in between. Vista/7 is easier for the basic end user, with automatic driver installation as well as automatic updates for said drivers.

That maybe important to you. That doesn't make it important to everyone else.

How can someone form a proper opinion without first attempting to use said product. It's like the so called Mojave experiment Microsoft did. People who had never used Vista were invited to try out Microsoft's new OS Mojave. What they were getting was Vista with a different theme, and they liked it. Not really a big surprise, as Vista is on par with XP with the right hardware (of which nearly every OEM computer now can run no problem whatsoever.) Vista got a bad reputation from the start with the poor driver support from third party vendors. XP had a very similar problem from the start.


Ask him to try 7, I guarantee he'll be more happy than with Vista.

Because people don't always deal with situations like this in "absolutes", that's why. What you believe in is something that suites you. The problem I see here is that you cannot see anyone else's.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Read his post, in part:

And you want to credit him for giving someone his opinion? I have to disagree as it reads as a personal belief to me. However, I want to also add that it's not about what you say but how it is said which can ignite an argument.

Replace "my" with "the" and i think you come back to the point he was making.... your argument is based on ill wording of a post, which i completely understand where Newteckie is coming from, People need to be informed of the best possible solution for their needs which as of now is not XP, unless it's an XP era only pc. I can understand his frustrations as peoples ignorance of Vista and 7 are impeding progress.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Replace "my" with "the" and i think you come back to the point he was making.... your argument is based on ill wording of a post, which i completely understand where Newteckie is coming from, People need to be informed of the best possible solution for their needs which as of now is not XP, unless it's an XP era only pc. I can understand his frustrations as peoples ignorance of Vista and 7 are impeding progress.

No, I didn't based my opinion on wording. I said how it was said not the words themselves.

 

[Steevo]

For most users Windows 7/Vista will be faster then XP as it pre-caches things better, and handles RAM better. It will boot faster, it will be a bit more secure, and yes a new install will run better.


So for all intents and purposes they are faster.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

For most users Windows 7/Vista will be faster then XP as it pre-caches things better, and handles RAM better. It will boot faster, it will be a bit more secure, and yes a new install will run better.


So for all intents and purposes they are faster.

Not sure about faster (for all machines anyways) but simply more capable

 

[exodusprime1337]

to be completely honest i feel like many others of stated and seen that windows 7 is feeling a bit ligther then windows xp. I just bought a new laptop which came with win vista home premium x64 and it seemed snappy at first, and then i upgraded to windows 7 and holy sh*t is it much nicer. Things just feel better, they open quicker run smoother, and generally i like the look of windows 7. It gives me this feeling of orginization i just didn't see with vista and certainly not with xp. All in all, i'm extremely happy about the notebook and i'm looking forward to many many updates and of courese the free version i get when it releases because my laptop came with the free upgrade.

 

[raptori]

I didn't see any software or OS that has more quality and capability and run faster (@ the same time) than the its previous version on the same hardware ..... the most important thing is how the OS will run applications or games who care about "I can explorer my computer or folders faster on vista or on 7" its about applications that run under certain OS ........ very important softwares get screwed under vista comparing to XP and I'm talking about 2009 version of 3ds max i need double the power of my PC to run 3ds-max on vista in the way that I'm running it on windows xp now and have them both on my PC ....... also I can say that 85-90% of the games run faster on xp than on vista within the same hardware and image quality like DX9 for both ...... i wish that we will not have same situation with vista and 7or XP and 7.

 

[suraswami]

This is what I have been working on past week or so.

Hardware
ECS 780GMA v1.1
X2 5600 F3 @ 3Ghz (slight OC only)
6GB DDR2 6400 ram
80GB WD IDE drive.

Installed XP pro 64 bit, W2K3 EE 64bit and W7 Ultimate 64bit. All are fresh install and drivers etc updated to latest.

To me it feels like this
W7 Faster than W2K3 Faster than XP pro.

For instance wake up from sleep is instantaneous in W7, but in other 2 OSes it takes few seconds to wake up and show the desktop. Network card is connected instantaneous and i click on IE and boom home page is there with W7. With Other OSes network card takes about 15 to 20 seconds to connect and open IE with the home page.

Yet to do more tests like File transfers, Zipping, Media file opening etc. If I have some numbers I will post.

Till now I love W7. Need to try the 32 bit version to see how different the performance is.

To be honest vista 64 bit on pre-built HP/Dell machines with Quad-core seems to be faster than 32bit ones.

 

[DrPepper]

I cringe everytime I have to install an old OS. When someone asks me to reformat the pc etc to get rid of the virus' I say you'd be better off with vista or win7 simply because it is the fastest, most stable and most secure OS on the market. If we all stuck with XP simply because it's faster at a few things compared to vista or 7 or because it simply worked then there would be no need to upgrade anything at all so long as it simply worked.

At least in my opinion vista and 7 are easier to use and more manageable and I've never used an anti-virus on any of my home pc's and only had one virus between the three until I got our netbook which is on XP and already had numerous virus'

 

[qubit]

I understand how your feel newtekie1. By argument, do you mean someone that doesn't know anything about computers belligerently arguing with you and getting all his facts wrong, but not letting up regardless? Those types piss me off too and I just want them to take my good advice and shut up. Or was it more of a slight disagreement with someone a bit more knowledgable? I'm really quite curious.

In my experience, 7 feels faster than Vista and XP - and that's on a new install for all three. Note that I'm not talking benchmarks here, just how the responsiveness of the desktop feels to me. If you turn off all the transition effects (which are actually quite nice) then it really flies. Having said that, even Vista isn't so slow nowadays, what with all the patches it's had.

The slowest computer I tried 7 on was a Compaq D510 - a rather underperforming computer even in its day in 2003 and fairly useless now (i810 chipset?) but with 7 it was sort of tolerable. The basic specs are P4 2.4GHz (no HyperThreading) upgraded with 1GB DDR RAM (single channel) and an nvidia 6200 AGP graphics card.