Windows Vista Performance Guide

Our Impressions

Software is always a bit of an odd item to critique here at AnandTech; whereas we mostly focus on hardware with quantitative data that is largely indisputable, software involves a great deal of opinion and qualitative data that isn't nearly as cut and dried. We stand by our opinions, but not everyone is going to agree, and that's to be expected. Before putting down $100 or more on Vista, check it out yourself; everyone will have a slightly different opinion of how Vista works and if it's worth the hype and cost.

We'll save the conclusion for a bit and start instead with what we have and have not liked about Vista now that we have seen the final version. The big winners for Vista include the search features, the caching features, the extra security, and yes, even the new Aero UI. The index search we've already covered and there's not much else to say other than that it does what it's supposed to do very well - it's a night and day difference from earlier versions of Windows. Similarly, SuperFetch makes a huge departure from previous versions of Windows; on a system with 2GB of memory and a few days of training on one of our test systems it has learned to cache all of the office applications we use, our IM client, our mail client, our MP3 player, and other applications. The difference between loading these applications from disk and the RAM cache is simply remarkable; it's as if we never quit the application at all.

With the new security features the relationship is a little more love/hate and we can certainly poke holes in them even if we like them. Windows has simply been insecure for too long and users have suffered for it. By making default administrative accounts run in a reduced privilege mode, it's a good start to reining in the spyware/virus/zombie phenomenon that has been making computing harder than it needs to be. It's by no means the silver bullet - after all for many computers hosing a user's home directory is just as good as hosing the entire system - but it is something that should keep systems better protected in the short term, and in the long term we will need to see how unscrupulous software authors try to poke holes in the system.

Similarly, after having gone through several iterations of the UI as Microsoft has knocked out the bugs, we're happy with the Aero UI. Although being shiny doesn't hurt its case, the strengths of the UI here are in navigation and integration of searching into the file browser. Little things like being able to click on a level in the address bar and immediately be taken there are extremely useful once you learn the UI, and we have finally managed to get over the missing menu bar and realize we don't need it, though we tend to use keyboard shortcuts a lot here.

Last, the new installer deserves a spot. The Windows XP installer is insufferable and we all know it; it's barely a step above using DOS to install Windows and it's even worse when IDE/RAID drivers are required to be loaded off of a floppy disk at a time when many people don't even use one any more. A cut-down Windows UI and USB support make the process far less painful, and the image-based installer means that the whole process is over in as little as 15 minutes.

Moving down the ladder from things we like are things we're effectively neutral on; these are the things that Vista has not really sold us on but neither is it a problem. Compatibility is the first thing to fall into this area, as on the one hand Microsoft is known for bending over backwards for compatibility, and on the other hand it could always be better. UAC problems aside, we have yet to be able to find anything other than system utilities and video codecs that don't work under Vista. For most people this will be fine, though gamers in particular will be unhappy that they're back to using the built in NVIDIA/AMD controls to tweak their graphics cards.

In the all-important metric of performance, Vista has managed to sit solidly in the middle. Benchmarked performance on the whole is neither generally above XP nor is it below - not that we were expecting it to be higher, but we certainly wouldn't mind. Compared to Beta 2, this is a very respectable position as we weren't initially sure if performance would catch up and for the most part it has. Using Vista instead of XP still means some resources are being sacrificed (mainly RAM), but it's no longer a poor tradeoff.

Graphics cards are a different matter. OpenGL support from both sides is solid for compatibility, but slow. This is something we expect to improve, but for today it's a matter that should be taken into account, especially when running newer games or older (slower) hardware. Both teams will be releasing important updated Vista drivers well into the year, so Vista as a gaming platform will for now depend on the games used. Direct3D-only users should be fine while anyone using OpenGL will need to keep a watchful eye on driver updates.

Then there are the things at the bottom of the ladder, those items that as of the final release of Vista that just leave us scratching our heads wondering what Microsoft is thinking and if this was really the right time to release Vista. We'll start this with the Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC), a branch of the Sync Center application designed to synchronize Windows Mobile devices. As the Vista replacement for ActiveSync WMDC comes pre-installed with Vista... or does it? It turns out that Vista only shipped with the drivers and application (also called the WMDC) to allow Vista to connect to a WM device, not actually to synchronize with it. To synchronize a WM device, you need to download the synchronization application (once again called WMDC), which as of this writing is still in beta. This is not indicated anywhere in the Vista documentation, and it's confusing to say the least.

Next at the bottom is Flip-3D, a beautiful but tragic waste of the Aero Glass UI. In our MacOS X reviews, we have time and time again talked about how great Apple's Exposé feature is; it's a great organizational tool for keeping track of various windows and bringing them up to the front. If there was anything Microsoft should have gone out if its way to copy from MacOS X, this is it. Flip-3D is a poor imitation of the real thing; the angled view means it's a pretty sight to watch flip by, but you won't get any real benefit out of it. Vista needs its own Exposé clone, and Flip-3D will not be it.

Last and certainly least is User Account Controls. We've said enough about it to cover all of its shortfalls, so it's merely included on the list. UAC is a major reason against installing Vista; it's going to be partially or completely disabled by most computer enthusiasts the moment they get their hands on it, and that's going to be a detriment to Vista's new security systems. It's as if Microsoft spent a good portion of the past few years working on an enhanced security design that nobody will want to use. Many have been spoiled by the lack of in-your-face security, but the truth is most people like PCs to be that way - at least until they get a nasty spyware infection.