An analysis performed lately by Devil Mountain Software reveals that the vast majority of Windows 7 systems regularly use slower disk-based virtual memory, negatively impacting performance. Data compiled from the more than 23,000 PCs in the company's community-based Exo.performance.network (XPnet) shows that 86 percent of PCs with Windows 7 regularly consume 90 to 95 percent of their available RAM and are forced to use virtual memory, which creates performance bottlenecks. By comparison only 40 percent of Windows XP PCs reach that level of memory usage despite having less total RAM.
Windows 7 systems also scored worse than XP machines on peak processor workload and I/O performance. 85 percent of Windows 7 systems run peak I/O loads, versus only 36 percent for XP PCs. CPU processing delay statistics are closer, although Windows 7 systems still do more poorly, at 44 percent to 36 percent.
Devil Mountain CTO Craig Barth called the resource usage of Windows 7 alarming. "Windows 7 is not the lean, mean version of Vista that you may think it is," said Barth.
Source: electronista
