March 16th, 2009
Windows 7 build 7057 - Performance that blasts past XP, Vista and previous builds
Over the weekend I’ve been spending time with the latest leaked build of Windows 7 - build 7057. While this isn’t the release candidate (RC) build that some people claim it is, this build is certainly pretty close to being RC.
How can I tell that we’re close to seeing an RC build? Well, mostly it’s a gut feeling based on the fact that features-wise Windows 7 has been finished for a long time and that now Microsoft seems to be at the stage of adding new wallpapers, tweaking default account pictures, and generally polishing a few aspects of the UI. However, I don’t want to underestimate the importance of getting a look at this build, because it’s the first 32-bit build I’ve seen since the beta 1 release (which was released back in January, but had a build date going back to December 08). Only the 64-bit flavor of build 7048 emerged earlier this month. Build 7057 also the freshest build - the build date stamp, 090305-2000 translates into 5th Mar 2009, 8:00pm - so this is literally just over a week old.
Check out the Windows 7 build 7057 gallery!
Rather than give you a blow-by-blow account of everything that’s different about this build compared to every previous build that we’ve seen (I’ll leave that to others), I’m going to concentrate on the one area that interests me (and many of my readers) the most - performance.
Note: Before I go any further, I feel the need to emphasize that build 7057 is still a beta build and nothing can be taken as being final at this stage.
Important note: I have on several occasions contacted Microsoft for feedback on benchmarking Windows 7 and at this point the company is not ready to discuss performance testing.
Rather than publish a series of synthetic benchmark results for the different operating systems and builds (Microsoft frowns upon benchmarking beta builds, not to mention the fact that the final numbers only really matter for the release candidate and RTM builds), I’ve decided to put Windows 7, Vista and XP head-to-head in a series of real-world tests to find out which OS comes out top.
Let’s look at the test systems and the tests …
The tests –>
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
Want to get in touch? Got a tip? Feel free to drop me a note! I ALWAYS respect anonymity. I'm also on Twitter (@the_pc_doc)
Right to Reply: Should any industry representatives wish to comment on any posts on Hardware 2.0, I will be happy to publish their reply verbatim on this blog.
Subscribe to Hardware 2.0 via Email alerts or RSS.
