New test: is Windows 7 faster than Vista and XP?

Microsoft’s new operating system – Windows 7 – will be out in a month. We’ve taken the opportunity to check if the new Windows is faster than its two most recent predecessors, Vista and XP.

To find out we've selected 7 test categories: photos, video, rendering, compression, gaming, energy consumption and load time. We took 11 different readings in all on two separate machines: one entry-level and one top-end.

For the first machine, 32-bit editions of Windows were used and for the second we installed 64-bit versions.

So then, is Windows 7 the racehorse we’ve been led to expect and is Vista really the donkey everyone thinks it is? Answers in our article.

Windows 7: faster than Vista and XP?