Windows XP SP3 Performance Boost further harms Vista's standings.

Gordon Kelly:
Bit of unabashed rumor spreading here, but with Vista being such a dog I've still got some fondness for XP...

Word is Windows XP Service Pack 3 is shaping up to be a lot more interesting than Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

Unlike Microsoft's latest and not-yet-greatest OS which will see a myriad of bug fixes and security holes patched with little visible benefit to the end user, Florida computer reseller Devil Mountain Systems is claiming SP3 will be a "must-have update" with up to a 10 per cent performance boost over SP2.

"Since SP3 was supposed to be mostly a bug-fix/patch consolidation release - unlike w/Vista SP1, Microsoft made no promises of improved performance for XP - the unexpected speed boost comes as a nice bonus," said the company on its blog.

"Of course, none of this bodes well for Vista which is now more than 2x slower than the most current builds of its older sibling," it added. "Suffice to say that performance-minded users will likely choose to stick with the now even speedier Windows XP - at least until more "Windows 7" information becomes publicly available."

Now while I again stress caution/wait for Release Candidate builds, etc - DMS does have hands-on experience with SP3 and it is sounding a mighty good offering.

Is Microsoft actually stitching up Vista by making XP ever more appealing? Maybe, but then again it should have just built a better replacement OS in the first place...

DMS Blog Post> http://exo-blog.blogspot.com/2007/11/update-re-testing-vista-w2gb-ram-office.html

[The_Firestarter]

I knew it. MS said they weren't gonna make SP3 for XP, but look what happened. They just said that so people would migrate to Vista. Not me. I'll be sticking with XP. SP3 does give a noticeable performance boost. ^__^

[Blasphemy]

I honestly don't notice a difference after downloading it.

[Kakkoii]

Yeah, I guess it also depends on your computer setup.
And also if your one of many people who hadn't updated there Windows in a long time. Cause this SP3 includes older updates as well. So if you had pretty recent updates you wouldn't notice much difference. Or if you have a kick ass computer, there also won't be to noticeable of a difference XD.

[TheIneffableBob]

I noticed a big difference in the frame rates for my games.

[TheMART]

Uhm isn't SP3 coming out Q1 2008?

What's out there now is beta or it has leaked I guess? People saying they're using it already sounds a bit strange...

[Merovee]

Companies do that, and depending on the department in larger companies that may be at various times....... Man, I wish citizens got the same tax flexibility corporations get.

[digger18]

Well I downloaded Windows XP SP3 from Microsofts site last night and its not a beta :)

[TheMART]

Can anyone link to SP3 download? Strangely overhere in Europe it doesn't show yet on the Microsoft website...

[digger18]

Here you go

http://www.microsoft.com/do...

EDIT: oops this is still Beta, sorry your right about it being Beta

[LJWooly]

So, there isn't a non-beta download? If there is, someone please link me to it :)

[TheMART]

hah ok so afterall it's a Beta... Guess we'll have to wait to Q1 2008 for the final then

[Kakkoii]

It's less of a beta and more of a Final Test.

The SP3 already went threw closed beta testing. This release is merely to allow a mass amount of people to try it. That way if there's anything they may have missed it will be found.

But it's pretty much a 99.99% Finished product. And you can update to the newer SP3 when it comes out.

I love the performance boost I got from this update. It's amazing.

[The_Engineer]

that Vista is the biggest pile of dog poo to come along in a longgg time.

oh how the monopolizers fall....lol

[pdskep]

Is it? I have Vista and it runs beautifully. I can't really compare it to XP because I built a new rig and put Vista on in, but my comp now is very fast, responds instantly, boots up fast and for 6 months hasn't had one tiny little problem. As far as speed goes, I bet DOS runs much faster than XP in a lot of benchmarks. There's an overhead price to pay for all the pretty graphics. Just as long as you have capable hardware to run, I think Vista (from my experience) is the best first build OS MS has had.

Check out this link to see the issue is more complicated than XP is faster than Vista.
http://www.tomshardware.com...

[TheMART]

Well make it a dualboot with XP besides Vista and check how they're both running.

I have checked it on a new laptop, Intel Duo Core T2250, with Vista pre installed and XP dualboot put on there myself. Vista is much, much slower then XP. And not only because of prettyer graphics. The installation of software takes so many steps and checks in Vista it is really annoying and everything takes so much time it's insane.

Vista is more foolproof, for older people that normally fack up things, it might be better. But for a user that wants the best running OS at this time, XP is the choice.

[pdskep]

The installation of software is one extra click. Not a big deal to me.

Vista takes a lot more resources to run well. My wife's laptop is much slower than my desktop eventhough she has a dual core too. The amount of RAM and the video card are important factors. Have you tried turning Aero off and see if the performance on your laptop is better? What's your Vista score? Mine's a 5.8. My wife's is a 2 because of the lack of a video card.

If I felt the need I might dual boot it, but I doubt it will happen. While I do some encoding of video I don't see it as worth the effort. Vista seems to do better with media files and connects to my 360 better anyway.

"Vista is more foolproof, for older people that normally fack up things, it might be better. But for a user that wants the best running OS at this time, XP is the choice"

That's not what Tom said from the link I gave.

[ArmrdChaos]

Anything marked as "release candidate" is pretty much close to the final minus any last minute bug fixes they may find. Once they have made any last minute changes and finalized the service pack should then show up on windows updates. Usually anything that shows up in the windows update list is final unless labeled otherwise. Just a FYI.

Whoops...looks like 4.3 covered it...oh well.

[titntin]

For many people Vista IS a huge disapointment.
If you're machine is merely used for playing with media and surffing the net and playing the odd game, then Vista may be an attractive package as long as your machine runs it smoothly.

However, many peoples machines, like mine, are working machines where performance counts. I do a lot of high end rendering and production on all my machines, and vista is a sure way of making a 2 hour computational run take over three hours. That's assuming I can get the package to run under vista at all!

I'm very happy to hear of the speed bennifits SP3 may bring, as for the kind of tasks I need to run, speed = time = money.
I'll continue to use Windows XP proffesional on one machine, Windows 2K on the other (I need to run some legacy software for some clients), and Linux for my server needs. I hope that MS will release a new OS thats more focussed on the productivity needs of buisness users and not hamstrung by a need to 'appeal to the masses'. If I wanted Vista, I'd of bought a mac, which is light years ahead for that type of consumer focused OS.
My two cents! :)

[pdskep]

Not sure I see why a mac is so much better. A friend of mine has one and I don't see it. It's nice, but nothing that special. Besides that the closed architecture really turns me off.

[DJ]

I'll get it when I'm off work tonight.

[BloodySinner]

This update screwed up my PC yesterday and I lost all my data. I had to reinstall Windows XP this morning.

[The_Firestarter]

That's why people always say BACK UP YOUR DATA!!!

[BloodySinner]

I didn't. =(

[Pain]

So good its DownGradeAble, No thanks ill stick to my Mac.
But for you winders folks, w/e beter for you = well beter for you :)

Window's Free for 4 years + N lovin every second of it.

[ambientFLIER]

I have never upgraded my windows xp. I don't even have the first service pack. If I download the sp3, will it include everything from the first two, or would I have to download those as well?

[Kakkoii]

Yes. Installing SP3 will give you those older updates.