Windows 8.1 vs Windows 10 comparison in over 20 performance tests

win 8 vs win 10

If you are still wondering whether to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1 or not we would like to say it’s more of a personal opinion. However, we’ve prepared several benchmark tests and gaming tests to see how far Microsoft has gone with their latests OS. We hope that this way you will receive a fairly accurate assessment and help you with your dilemma.

On the other hand, things aren’t always numbers and statistics, but it often the choice of going for the latest version is driven by the more intuitive, beautiful and functional user interface. Even if the system performs the same or a bit worse than its predecessor a user tends to go for the latest version due to the usability and of course compatibility of some applications. Thankfully, Windows 10 delivers the latter, looks great and offers great user experience.

But more on the matter can be read here, in our thorough Windows 10 review:
http://laptopmedia.com/review/windows-10-review-microsoft-brings-the-best-of-7-and-8-together/

For testing purposes we used the recently reviewed Acer Aspire V15 (V3-574) with Windows 8.1 (64-bit) Pro pre-installed. After all tests were done we’ve upgraded to Windows 10 and the reason we went with an upgrade not a clean install is simple. Most users will go for the upgrade from Windows 8.1 and a good portion of those users will most likely keep the bloatware from their OEM. That’s why we wanted to take a slightly different approach on the matter and see what most or at least a good part of the users will experience with the upgrade method. You can check all the specs of the machine on the table below.

Testing machine


4zu3_Acer_Aspire_V3_574G_59MA

CPUIntel Core i7-5500U (2-core, 2.40 – 3.00 GHz, 3MB cache)
RAM16GB (2x 8192MB) – DDR3, 1600Mhz
GPUNVIDIA GeForce 940M (4GB DDR3)
HDD/SSDHitachi Travelstar Z5K1000 (1TB, 5400 rpm)
Display15.6-inch (39.62 cm) – 1920 x 1080 pixels (Full HD), IPS matte
Battery37 Wh (4-cell)


Booting test

For more accurate results excluding the human factor we used a simple application called Bootracer that records the boot time of the system during restart.

Create infographics & online charts - infogr.am.clipular (14)

It looks like the upgrade has greatly affected the system startup that can be further improved by removing the bloatware and applications that run on startup and you don’t actually need. However, it seems that Windows 8.1 loads more programs on startup quicker than Windows 10, but we suspect that the results will be the same if both systems were freshly installed.

RAM usage

We’ve checked the portion of RAM which the OS uses right after a reboot with the same programs running on startup in both cases.

Create infographics & online charts - infogr.am.clipular (15)

Battery life

There’s no difference in battery life as well, but we noticed a significant decrease during video playback. All the tests were performed under the same conditions with Wi-Fi turned on, power saver on and screen brightness set to 120 cd/m2. Results are in minutes.

Windows 8.1Windows 10
Wi-Fi browsing194200
Video playback260213
Gaming6161

CrystalDiskMark

A disk benchmark test aimed to check the performance of the HDD/SSD device in read/write speeds in Sequential Q32T1 read/write, 4K Q32T1 read/write and Sequential and 4K read/write.

OSSequential Q32T1
read / write
4K Q32T1
read / write
Sequential
read / write
4K
read / write
Windows 8.192.71 / 86.192.999 / 0.44810.90 / 87.253.713 / 0.462
Windows 1067.36 / 86.022.207 / 3.58688.70 / 85.151.887 / 2.608

CineBench 15

CineBench 15 is the latest version of Maxcon’s cross-platform benchmark test based on CINEMA 4D software used in movies, production houses and 3D content creation. It measures the performance of the CPU.

Create infographics & online charts - infogr.am.clipular (8)

Fritz

The most simple of them all, but one of our favorites. Fritz determines the performance of the CPU with series of tests using chess moves.

Create infographics & online charts - infogr.am.clipular (9)

NovaBench

This small application provides information about most of the hardware inside your machine, but we used only the scores for the CPU and RAM.

Create infographics & online charts - infogr.am.clipular (10)

Create infographics & online charts - infogr.am.clipular (11)

Adobe Photoshop (Real-Life test)

We’ve set the performance settings of the software so that the program will use only recourses from the CPU, then ran a custom workload and checked the time that takes for the chip to complete the tasks.

Create infographics & online charts - infogr.am.clipular (12)

PCMark 7

The most complex test here is the PCMark 7. Another great benchmark test from FutureMark that takes into account almost every aspect of the OS, puts them in a series of tests and evaluates the system’s performance.

Create infographics & online charts - infogr.am.clipular (13)

3DMark

3dmark-logo

BenchmarkWindows 8.1Windows 10
Cloud Gate91209118
Fire Strike16631669
Sky Diver56445683

Gaming

But what about gaming? Even though our tests don’t indicate any significant performance boost, the support of DirectX 12 that Windows 10 has, steals the show here. It is unfortunate that there aren’t a lot of applications and games that can take advantage of the new application programming interfaces. This will ensure more fluent and seamless gaming experience on more demanding games even with older hardware.

Metro-Last-Light-Cover

OSMetro: LL (768p, Low)Metro: LL (768p, Medium)Metro: LL (768p, Max)
Windows 8.136 fps28 fps11 fps
Windows 1038 fps28 fps11 fps

tomb-raider-2013-wallpaper1

OSTomb Raider (768p, Low)Tomb Raider (768p, Medium)Tomb Raider (768p, Max)
Windows 8.197 fps34 fps18 fps
Windows 10105 fps34 fps18 fps

f1-2014

OSF1 2014 (768p, Low)F1 2014 (768p, Medium)F1 2014 (768p, Max)
Windows 8.182 fps61 fps40 fps
Windows 1085 fps65 fps41 fps

gta-5-cover

OSGTA 5 (768p, Low)GTA 5 (768p, Medium)GTA 5 (768p, Max)
Windows 8.156 fps18 fps8 fps
Windows 1054 fps19 fps8 fps

Verdict

As you can see from the results above, most of the benchmark tests didn’t indicate a significant difference between the two OSes. In some, Windows 10 takes the lead, but in others Windows 8.1 still looks like a better choice. However, we still think that this upgrade is more about security-related benefits, UI optimization and usability and Windows 10 delivers the best experience up to date. Yet, some will disagree with the latter.

Abonnieren
Benachrichtigung von
guest
2 Comments
Inline-Rückmeldungen
Alle Kommentare anzeigen