Wanna know how much enhancement Vista SP2 will be bring?Compared to Vista SP1,is Vista SP2 better?Now here is a test about Windows Vista SP1 vs Vista SP2 Release Candidate Performance by Tweaktown.
Introduction
We managed to get hold of a copy of Windows Vista SP2 RC (Release Candidate) from Microsoft and decided to put it through its paces against Vista SP1 to see if consumers can expect to see any performance improvements in the latest service pack for the struggling Vista operating system.
Release Candidate or RC simply means that it is a possible final version for Microsoft to release to the public sometime soon after. Many previews of the Vista SP2 BETA were published toward the end of last year, but this is build 6002.16659.090114-1728 – a newer release which is likely to yield some improvements.
Besides any possible performance improvements, service packs always include new OS features and usually a truck load of bug fixes and security updates.
Here is a summary of the new features that Microsoft will add to Vista SP2 from PC Adviser:
• Let you record data onto Blu-ray discs
• Add into your system Vista Feature Pack For Wireless, which provides support for the latest Bluetooth technology - Bluetooth v2.1 - as well as for the Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi protocol
• Give you better Wi-Fi performance when you're exiting Vista's sleep mode
• Make your RSS feeds sidebar gadget work faster and better
• Give you the latest desktop search engine, Windows Search 4
• Cut down the resources it takes to run your various sidebar gadgets
• It'll give your OS an overall tune-up, too
• Give your computer support for VIA Technologies' new 64-bit CPU
• Let your system support exFAT, which can handle larger files and can also use UTC timestamps so you can synchronize files across different time zones
• Boost your power management efficiency by as much as 10 percent
We installed fresh installs of both Vista SP1 and SP2 on our test bed, installed all available updates from Windows Update for both operating systems and got to work benchmarking over the past couple of days. Our SP2 Ultimate install took up a total of about 14GB of HDD space, while SP1 is slightly slimmer at around 13GB.
Let's get started now and see if it will be worth upgrading to Vista SP2.
Test System Setup
Processor(s): Intel Q9450 quad-core @ 3.2GHz
Motherboard(s): MSI X48 Platinum (Supplied by MSI)
Memory: 2 x 2GB Patriot DDR3 1600MHz
Hard Disk(s): 2 x Western Digital 300GB VelociRaptor in RAID 0 (Supplied by Western Digital)
Graphics Card: MSI HD Radeon 3870 X2 OC (Supplied by MSI)
Operating System: Windows Vista SP1 64-bit and Windows Vista SP2 RC 64-bit
Drivers: Latest Windows Updates and ATI Catalyst 9.1
After getting a fresh copy of Windows Vista SP2 RC installed on a clean partition of our speedy 300GB RAID 0 VelociRaptor setup, we were ready to begin testing.
As a quick note, there was nothing new or special with the SP2 install. It also took roughly the same amount of time to install the OS as SP1. When Microsoft eventually releases Vista SP2 to the world, you will be able to download a smaller standalone update installer to update SP1 to SP2, but that's not out yet.
We would have liked to be using the latest graphics card (4870 X2), but we were unable to get one from AMD, so we had to stick with the capable Radeon HD 3870X2 OC from MSI.
3DMark Vantage
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmarkvantage/
Buy It Here
3DMark Vantage is the new industry standard PC gaming performance benchmark from Futuremark, newly designed for Windows Vista and DirectX10. It includes two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, and support for the latest hardware.
3DMark Vantage is based on a completely new rendering engine, developed specifically to take full advantage of DirectX10, the new graphics API from Microsoft.
As you can see from our first test, there is little difference between SP1 and SP2 - however, SP2 does take the lead by a very small margin here. It is only in GPU score that it is a little behind, but not by much at all.
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