Windows XP Performance

After days of testing at ZDNet Labs using several different versions of Windows on identical desktop systems, we can summarize the performance of XP with this simple statement: If you've been using Windows 2000, the performance you'll get with XP is virtually identical; if you've been using Windows Me, 98 or 98 SE, or 95, your system is going to feel like it has a whole new lease on life.

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On BAPCo's SysMark 2001 test suite, XP was 10 percent faster than Windows Me and neck-and-neck with 2000. The differences were most pronounced on Internet content creation applications, and less significant on business productivity applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel. On our 3D graphics tests (MadOnion.com's 3DMark 2001 Pro), Me still comes out on top, though XP has closed the gap edging out 2000 at both 16- and 32-bit color. It was less impressive on our Adobe Photoshop 6.0 tests, where it lagged behind both 2000 and Me.

In addition to our usual battery of benchmarks, we also tested the boot, shutdown, and standby performance of XP--all of which Microsoft has been working hard to improve. XP shaves more than 16 seconds off the total boot time versus 2000, and 11 seconds versus Me. Oddly, the shutdown time was actually slower than either, especially Me which managed to do it in 5 seconds flat. XP performed well going into and out of Standby.

All tests were performed on Dell Dimension 8100 desktop PCs with identical components and drivers. We reported results using Windows XP Professional, however, ZDNet Labs also performed limited testing with the Home version, which yielded nearly identical performance except in the boot time tests, where it seemed to have a slight edge over Professional.

One other anomaly you should be aware of. XP has a number of self-tuning features that are designed to enhance performance based on your system configuration and usage pattern. For example, XP watches which applications you use and, once every 3 days during idle time, it will automatically place the associated files near one another on the hard drive and closer to the more dense outer edge of the disk. This reduces the seek times and should improve application launch speed, especially on larger hard drives. Currently, the BAPCo benchmarks do not measure application launch times.

	Windows XP Professional	Windows 2000	Windows Me
OS version tested	Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 Build 2600	Windows 2000 5.00.2195 Service Pack 2	Windows Me 4.90.3000
Productivity Applications
BAPCo SYSmark 2001 Rating	167	168	152
Internet Content Creation Rating	184	189	162
Office Productivity Rating	151	149	143
3D and Gaming
MadOnion.com's 3DMark 2001 Pro (16-bit color)	4,721	4,672	4,803
MadOnion.com's 3DMark 2001 Pro (32-bit color)	4,202	4,183	4,253
Quake III Arena [FPS]	122.3	122.5	120.0
Video
MadOnion.com's Video2000 - MPEG-2 Encoding Performance [FPS]	39.4	39.8	42.3
Adobe Photoshop 6.0 [minutes:seconds]	05:55	05:30	05:33
SPECviewperf 6.12 [tested at 1280x1024x32-bit @ 75Hz]
AWadvs-04 Viewset [FPS]	74.6	73.5	75.0
DRV-07 Viewset [FPS]	18.1	17.7	17.7
DX-06 Viewset [FPS]	27.0	26.5	26.7
Light-04 Viewset [FPS]	7.9	7.3	8.5
MedMCAD-01 Viewset [FPS]	18.1	17.7	18.0
ProCDRS-03 Viewset [FPS]	15.6	15.3	15.6
Desktop make and model	Dell Dimension 8100	Dell Dimension 8100	Dell Dimension 8100
Processor	Intel Pentium 4 1,700MHz	Intel Pentium 4 1,700MHz	Intel Pentium 4 1,700MHz
FSB Clock Speed	400MHz	400MHz	400MHz
System Memory	256MB RDRAM, 400MHz, PC800	256MB RDRAM, 400MHz, PC800	256MB RDRAM, 400MHz, PC800
Motherboard chipset	Intel 850	Intel 850	Intel 850
Graphics chipset	nVidia GeForce2 Ultra	nVidia GeForce2 Ultra	nVidia GeForce2 Ultra
Video memory	64MB DDR	64MB DDR	64MB DDR
Graphics driver	nVidia 5.13.01.1241	nVidia 5.13.01.1241	nVidia 4.13.01.1241
Hard drive	Maxtor 5T060H6, 60GB, ATA/100, 7200rpm	Maxtor 5T060H6, 60GB, ATA/100, 7200rpm	Maxtor 5T060H6, 60GB, ATA/100, 7200rpm
File system	NTFS	NTFS	FAT32
Lower scores are better Bold type denotes top score.