February 21st, 2008
Vista 32-bit vs. Vista 64-bit - Benchmarked
The Tests
This time we’re going to use a purely synthetic benchmark - PassMark PerformanceTest 6.1.
Note: With PassMark ratings, the higher the number, the better the score.
Each test was run four times and the lowest score from each run was discarded. The remaining results were then averaged to produce a final PassMark rating.
The Results
Let’s look at the average PassMark rating for the four different platforms:
- Vista 32-bit RTM
PassMark rating: 1002.4 - Vista 32-bit SP1
PassMark rating: 972.3 - Vista 64-bit RTM
PassMark rating: 1183.1 - Vista 64-bit SP1
PassMark rating: 1128.8
Vista 32-bit RTM left, Vista 32-bit SP1 right
Vista 64-bit RTM left, Vista 64-bit SP1 right
Taking a closer look at the PassMark PerformanceTest output shows an almost across the board improvement in performance when comparing 64-bit to 32-bit Vista (only the disk component of the test showed a decline in performance on 64-bit).
Note: If you want to take a closer look at the results, you can download them here: Vista 32-bit RTM | Vista 32-bit SP1 | Vista 64-bit RTM | Vista 64-bit SP1.
Number Crunching
Some quick number crunching reveals some interesting data.
- Windows Vista 32-bit SP1 gets a PassMark rating that’s 3.0% lower than Windows Vista 32-bit RTM.
- Windows Vista 64-bit SP1 gets a PassMark rating that’s 4.6% lower than Windows Vista 64-bit RTM.
So far, we’re seeing PassMark ratings that are in line with earlier benchmarking tests comparing Vista RTM with Vista SP1 - that is, the SP1 system returns a lower PassMark rating than RTM. OK, but this test was to compare 32-bit Vista against 64-bit Vista. Doing this gives us some very interesting results:
- Windows Vista 64-bit RTM gets a PassMark rating that’s 18.0% higher than Windows Vista 32-bit RTM.
- Windows Vista 64-bit SP1 gets a PassMark rating that’s 16.1% higher than Windows Vista 32-bit SP1.
Advantage Vista 64-bit.
Boot Up Times
For completeness I also measured the boot up time. I took this as the time from the boot loader to a usable desktop.
Average results were as follows:
- Vista 32-bit RTM
Boot up time: 27 sec - Vista 32-bit SP1
Boot up time: 31 sec - Vista 64-bit RTM
Boot up time: 44 sec - Vista 64-bit SP1
Boot up time: 42 sec
Advantage Vista 32-bit.
Next –>
Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
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| 02/21/08
