Windows Vista SP1 performance, mixed results

SP1 for Windows Vista shines in some areas and in other introducing inconsistencies

Many Windows customers are excited about finally getting their hands on the first Windows Vista service pack, SP1, which promised to deliver not only bugfixes, but performance upgrades. After a slow release schedule, Microsoft picked up the pace and made plans to submit soon to select customers. The service pack and went out to testers, volume customers in English language will receive before the end of the week, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers will receive it before the end of the month.

A key issue in Windows Vista users mind is exactly how Windows SP1 position against the measure original copy of Windows Vista in terms of performance. In initial trials in CNET Labs, the results are in, and are rather mixed. Testers found that while SP1 improves performance under certain conditions, actually degraded performance under others. For the most part, concluded testers, few will notice the difference between the base and installation of a system installed SP1.

Vista offers technical upgrades of third drivers who make significantly improve performance, but most of these are already available. Customers who have kept up to date with Windows updates and updated drivers from third is little new here, and therefore there will be no real change in performance. Microsoft definitely can take credit in an overview sense of providing better performance, though, as it has been devoting considerable resources to help vendors make their products compatible with Windows better, gradually improved performance over the past year.

Probably the most important performance changes have to do with the copying of files. Windows XP uses a cache of E / S to improve the manner of writing. Windows Vista instead used a slow predominantly uncached I / O system. The upgrade to SP1 adds caching again in the mix, which in most cases, testers discovered, improves results.

Another blogger CNET, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, claims just the opposite: that the transfer of files Vista increase dramatically with the new service pack. Some of his evidence file transfer performance shown increases of up to 63% in benchmarks.

Mark Russinovich, a fellow technician for Microsoft, explains the lack of coherence in another message forum Microsoft TechNet. He summarizes, “You will see major improvements over previous versions of Windows for file transfer high-latency, high-bandwidth networks that large I / Os, SMB2 of I / O pipelining, and Vista TCP / IP Stack Window receive automatic adjustment can offer, literally, which would be a copy ten minutes in Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 in a minute. “

On the other side of things, CNET reports updating SP1 somehow has created a performance of the copy at the time, the external USB 2.0 hard drives. Something goes wrong in SP1 for Windows Vista USB copies, and the matter is being investigated. Meanwhile SP1 Windows Vista has a 40 to 50 percent performance hit in this type of file copies, compared to basic Windows Vista.

Testers commented on the SP1 and not good work in the delivery of bug fixes. This leads to a more stable environment. Still, the feelings on SP1 probably depend largely on the expectations of users, as it offers a mix of performance changes.