Windows 8: Double-Checking Performance On Core i7-3770K

Features
By Manuel Masiero, Achim Roos
published

After giving Windows 8 our attention last week, we're following up with one more look at performance using a Core i7-3770K processor. Are there any aberrations to note, or does Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture demonstrate the same behavior as Bulldozer?

Benchmark Results: 3DMark 11 And PCMark 7

The benchmarks that Thomas ran a couple of days ago for his story Windows 8: Does AMD's Bulldozer Architecture Benefit? did not include Futuremark's synthetic PCMark and 3DMark tests. After all, although they're based on real-world Windows applications, there are times where we simply cannot reconcile the numbers we generate with these tests to our application testing.

What PCMark does do, however, is give us a more holistic look at system performance, whereas our application-based metrics generally isolate the CPU. With that in mind, let's have a look at how one machine handles two operating systems.

3DMark 11

For the most part, we see similar performance in both operating systems. The only exception is the Physics sub-test, where Windows 7 surprises us with a win. This benchmark is decidedly threaded, and there really isn't any good reason we can come up with for this difference to exist.

PCMark 7

Again, it's not necessarily clear why the results pan out the way they do, with Windows 8 claiming big leads in the overall benchmark and particularly the Computation sub-test. However, that result (based on a very processor-heavy workload) seems to contradict the 3DMark Physics sub-test (also very CPU-dependent). Could the difference be in PCMark's handling of Quick Sync technology, which we've seen in the past affects this benchmarks results heavily?

Manuel Masiero
44 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mayankleoboy1
    You are using winrar 3.98 , which isnt big on multithreading. Winrar4.2 is a huge change from the older versions, with quite aggressive multithreading. Please drop the old version and use the newer. :)
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    most of these benchmarks are basically CPU bound. Can you do a mix test that does CPU + IO activity , like an Antivirus software ? or uncompressing 10GB+ rar/7z archives ?
    That would test if Microsoft has made changes in the scheduler to balance throughput VS response time.
    Reply
  • Darkerson
    Well, at least things are on an overall even scale, unlike when vista came out and was decidely less snappy than XP. But with all the other modifications MS has made, such as the nice boost to start up and shut down speeds, its still "feels" faster than 7, even if it really isnt, overall. At any rate, I still dont feel this is "Vista 2" as a lot of people were making it out to be before launch.
    Reply
  • SteelCity1981
    Overall Windows 8 doesn't improve over Windows 7 as both OSes are evenly matched and trade off performance over each other in diff benchmarks and you would think a newer OS like Windows 8 that is suppose to use less resources then Windows 7 should have outperformed Windows 7 across the board and yet it doesn't.
    Reply
  • agnickolov
    Alas, you skipped the Visual Studio benchmark. It showed slight aberration in Win7's favor on the AMD platform, so I was curious if that remained true for Intel as well.
    Reply
  • SteelCity1981
    TheCapuletJust because it uses less ram, doesn't mean it just pulls extra performance out of it's ass.This isn't 2005. This is common knowledge by now.
    That has nothing to do with that. The less the host soruce uses from the system the better applications programs are to be able to utilize from the systems hardware more efficiently.
    Reply
  • manwell999
    Why bother doing performance comparisons if whenever the performance drops for the new version out comes the excuse "it will be fixed in the driver". What evidence is their to say this?

    A double-check means check-check, not check-excuse. Conclusions are drawn from the data at hand, not from speculation on what might be in the future.

    Otherwise cite the manufacturers acknowledgment that performance issues are going to be fixed and hold them to it.
    Reply
  • darkstar845
    Is there a way to customize windows 8 to make it look like the desktop picture in the first page?
    Reply
  • warmon6
    darkstar845Is there a way to customize windows 8 to make it look like the desktop picture in the first page?
    no. those are 2 different images (windows 7 and 8) that's been fused together.

    now, if you want that start button on windows 8, you could look at this article and try one of the 2 solutions they give.

    http://www.pcworld.com/article/2012810/another-way-to-restore-the-windows-8-start-button-and-menu.html
    Reply
  • roflmaonow
    warmon6no. those are 2 different images (windows 7 and 8) that's been fused together.now, if you want that start button on windows 8, you could look at this article and try one of the 2 solutions they give.http://www.pcworld.com/article/201 -menu.html
    I just tried out pokki, it's really good for free program. Thanks for the heads up. I do like Start8 more though.
    Reply