Windows 10 vs. Windows 8.1 vs. Windows 7 Performance > Faster, Slower, Better?

Faster, Slower, Better?

After watching almost-identical results pour in on most tests, from application to encoding, to storage and gaming, it'south difficult to read too much into results as at that place are many variables we can't control.

The same hardware that currently runs Windows seven competently tin can be upgraded to Windows 10 with no issues any on the performance forepart.

We tin can ensure that the operating systems were evaluated using the exact same hardware, benchmarking software and methodology. However, we can't ensure that something such equally GPU drivers didn't crusade variations in performance. Moreover, technologies such Intel's Turbo boost feature can impact the accuracy of the results, though we generally run all tests at least three times, taking the boilerplate from multiple runs.

The short version of this conclusion is that a properly set up Windows machine equipped with semi-modern hardware should be capable of running Windows 7 or above more than than fairly. The same hardware that currently runs Windows vii competently can be upgraded to Windows ten with no issues whatsoever on the operation front end.

Information technology used to be the instance a few generations back that a new Windows release would need fourth dimension to be at least on par with the operation of its predecessor. Possibly the well-nigh extreme case I can recall was the move from Windows XP to Windows Vista. Though that was partly due to immature drivers on the all-new platform, Vista was a resource squealer, besides.

We wouldn't be surprised if certain aspects of Windows 10's performance are improved over the coming months and into next year, but virtually importantly today, you can experience free to upgrade and know you won't exist sacrificing performance in the process.

At that place are going to be future performance benefits of Windows 10 that we can't mensurate yet, and even once nosotros tin, nosotros won't be able to compare the changes with previous operating systems -- DirectX 12 gaming, for example, will just be supported by Windows 10 and later.

On that bailiwick, 3DMark features a DX12 API Overhead test but this is only useful for comparing different hardware as there isn't a DX11 version and it can merely be run using Windows x.

In that location are going to exist future operation benefits of Windows 10 that we can't mensurate even so, and even once we tin can, we won't exist able to compare the changes with previous operating systems -- DirectX 12 gaming, for example...

Benchmarks bated, Windows 10 appears to be a solid operating system, though my feel hasn't been quirk-free on the vii systems I take running Windows ten (six of which take been upgraded from 8.1). The upgrade process is shockingly quick and easy. One of the systems I upgraded for example has well over 1TB worth of applications installed and information technology went smoothly all around regardless.

There take been a few minor issues so far. I haven't looked into this yet, but my photograph and media libraries with thousands of items accept a long time to load in Windows 10, whereas they loaded instantly earlier the upgrade from eight.1. Clearly a bug waiting to be fixed.

On the gaming forepart, I found strange input lag in StarCraft 2. It wasn't hugely noticeable but scrolling and commands took slightly longer than they did in Windows 8.ane, just enough that in a competitive game it felt sluggish.

After a quick Google search I constitute a number of users complaining virtually the same matter and all sources blamed Windows 10'southward Xbox application which is congenital into the OS and cannot be removed via conventional methods.

Despite never running this app or having an Xbox account to actually use it, it appears this was my problem. Fortunately, there's a Powershell command to disable the Xbox app and doing so eliminated the lag, allowing StarCraft Two to play like it did on Windows viii.i. It was a disappointing discovery, but I'm glad information technology was relatively easy to overcome with some help from the Internet.