# Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Graphics Performance Analysis



## W1zzard (Feb 22, 2011)

Today Microsoft released Windows 7 Service Pack 1 to the public. We wanted to check if there are some gaming performance gains included the upgrade, so we ran NVIDIA's and ATI's flagship graphics cards through our VGA benchmarking suite.

*Show full review*


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## Ra97oR (Feb 22, 2011)

Woah that was quick. I am only just downloading it right now. Thanks to show there is no performance degradation in games.


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## newtekie1 (Feb 22, 2011)

I've been running it for well over a month now on all my systems with no problems whatso ever.

Good to know there isn't any performance loss, and thanks W1z for the informative review.


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## erocker (Feb 22, 2011)

I noticed that SP1 has made my single core s754 rig at work a bit snappier. The graphs show that at lower resolution (where things are more CPU dependant) that there is a bit of an increase in FPS. Perhaps SP1 actually makes CPU utilization better after all.


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## W1zzard (Feb 22, 2011)

erocker said:


> I noticed that SP1 has made my single core s754 rig at work a bit snappier. The graphs show that at lower resolution (where things are more CPU dependant) that there is a bit of an increase in FPS. Perhaps SP1 actually makes CPU utilization better after all.



then the performance summary would show some kind of increase at low resolution


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## Easy Rhino (Feb 22, 2011)

ive been running it for almost 3 months now on all 15 rigs and have not had any problems so far. good to know performance has improved.


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## erocker (Feb 22, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> then the performance summary would show some kind of increase at low resolution



Didn't look at the summary, just at some of the individual tests. I'm probablly suffering from a placebo effect. Either way, I'm pleased with it.


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 22, 2011)

Its been running flawlessly on six of my 25 blade servers. Thanks W1zz!


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## erocker (Feb 22, 2011)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Its been running flawlessly on six of my 25 blade servers. Thanks W1zz!



What about the other 19?


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## GSquadron (Feb 22, 2011)

erocker said:


> I noticed that SP1 has made my single core s754 rig at work a bit snappier. The graphs show that at lower resolution (where things are more CPU dependant) that there is a bit of an increase in FPS. Perhaps SP1 actually makes CPU utilization better after all.



That happens even in Windows Xp
I have a 754 socket too
It does not mean anything. The lower the resolution the less the graphic card utilization will be.
The cpu does the job better because there is not much trafic with the pci-express


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## erocker (Feb 22, 2011)

Aleksander Dishnica said:


> That happens even in Windows Xp
> I have a 754 socket too
> It does not mean anything. The lower the resolution the less the graphic card utilization will be.
> The cpu does the job better because there is not much trafic with the pci-express



I understand what you are saying, but I'm not talking about gaming, just general usage that has nothing to do with the video card.


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## TheMailMan78 (Feb 22, 2011)

erocker said:


> What about the other 19?



Well I didn't want to risk my entire array. NASA gets upset when I do that. Noobs.


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## dsdsdk (Feb 22, 2011)

Nice review as always. 

Some more info...

AVX is introduced in Win 7 SP1 and supported only by Sandy B and upcoming Bulldozer cpus.

"Suitable for floating point-intensive calculations in multimedia, scientific and financial applications (integer operations are expected in later extensions). Increases parallelism and throughput in floating point SIMD calculations. Reduces register load due to the non-destructive instructions."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Vector_Extensions

(Not that it would change anything in this review...)


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## rpsgc (Feb 22, 2011)

Just an FYI, the "Reviews" RSS feed doesn't include a link to the reviews anymore, not since the "PowerColor HD 6950 PCS++ 2 GB Review".
The "Front Page News" feed is fine so it mustn't be a problem at my end.


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## douglatins (Feb 22, 2011)

I loled at performance summary, but great tests


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## freebie (Feb 22, 2011)

Just installed, tried COD Black OPS and saw no difference at all. All seems good!


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## yogurt_21 (Feb 22, 2011)

well I'm always glad to see a sp released without performance drop. I guess i'll have to try it out. hopefully it doesn't break sli or something retarted like that.


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## GSquadron (Feb 22, 2011)

erocker said:


> I understand what you are saying, but I'm not talking about gaming, just general usage that has nothing to do with the video card.



That is why every mobo gets out with integrated graphics
They are not to play, just to open general programs
So applications use the graphics
Still, i was not talking only about gaming


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## Completely Bonkers (Feb 22, 2011)

Ok TPU team, you can breathe a sigh of relief! Your existing benchmark database is good, and you don't have to rebench everything just because your rig is now on SP1 and all new reviews are SP1 

Imagine if there had been a 5% difference! We throw our buns around for 5% between model numbers, ATI vs. nV, driver revisions, and OC's etc. How long would it have taken you to re-bench the whole database?  (Thats a rhetorical question - I dont want an answer)


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## Over_Lord (Feb 23, 2011)

expected this, tweaktown did this review weeks ago, same, no gains..

bummer


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## qubit (Feb 23, 2011)

Oh, fantastic, a nice bonus review! 

Having had a quick look at the review, I'm glad to see that it doesn't hurt graphics performance. However, even if it had, I would still have felt compelled to install it anyway, because Windows must be kept up to date with the latest updates.


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## Deleted member 67555 (Feb 23, 2011)

When I initially installed SP1 a month or so ago it Used AMD's Fusion Power modes....
So I had to remove Fusion as my PC wouldn't recover from S3..other than that it's been flawless


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## Sasqui (Feb 23, 2011)

Am pleased at the review, then surprised at the results... did MS claim a DX11 runtime performance increase with the SP?  EDIT: just read the tag line that they didn't suggest any improvements! Duh...

Also surprised no tests with IG hardware.


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## kirtar (Feb 23, 2011)

Depending on what "no SP" means, it's not *that* surprising, since the SP is basically just a large cumulative update of what's already been done since the original release.


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## Hayder_Master (Feb 23, 2011)

great review w1zzard, that's was quick move


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## Nirutbs (Feb 23, 2011)

Quick!!!!test great review w1zzard...i will wait for months to use it.


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## TAViX (Feb 23, 2011)

This test was useless from the start. MS already specified its only good for stability and security and it's mostly a cumulative update. :shadedshu


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## Bjorn_Of_Iceland (Feb 23, 2011)

TAViX said:


> This test was useless from the start. MS already specified its only good for stability and security and it's mostly a cumulative update. :shadedshu


But we wouldnt know if there would be degradation in gaming performance.


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## W1zzard (Feb 23, 2011)

TAViX said:


> This test was useless from the start. MS already specified its only good for stability and security and it's mostly a cumulative update. :shadedshu



so whats the point of any review then? the companies tell us everything about their product anyway


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## TAViX (Feb 23, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> so whats the point of any review then? the companies tell us everything about their product anyway



Yeah, but I thought it's a system performance test, like the ones you used to do when first service packs were released for Vista, for example. Not only just gaming.
I was interested if any increase in performance of default apps, copying/writing of files, databases, windows startup/shutdown, system response, etc, etc, etc, etc.....


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## W1zzard (Feb 23, 2011)

i never did any tests like that. also the title seems to be clear enough


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## blkhogan (Feb 23, 2011)

Havent loaded it on any of my desktop rigs. I did however load it on my netbook. Everything loaded fine. Took forever... but that was due to my low power netbook. Seems to have added a little more quickness to the overall operation. Things seem to open and load up a bit quicker. Boot up seems to be a bit snappier, shut down has slowed way down. Not a big deal though.


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## mtosev (Feb 23, 2011)

No performance gains. Was somehow expecting this. Will install SP1 at a later date. BTW how much space do I need?


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## qubit (Feb 23, 2011)

mtosev said:


> No performance gains. Was somehow expecting this. Will install SP1 at a later date. *BTW how much space do I need?*



It's all here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/learn-how-to-install-windows-7-service-pack-1-sp1


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## boogerlad (Feb 24, 2011)

no sp = no updates?


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## Mr McC (Feb 24, 2011)

boogerlad said:


> no sp = no updates?



No this is not the case, if you have been updating Windows regularly you probably already have the lion's share of the components included in the SP; however, it seems the SP also includes certain features that were not provided via the usual update channels.


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## boogerlad (Feb 24, 2011)

I mean in this review. Does no sp = no updates too?


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## qubit (Feb 24, 2011)

I'm wondering if SP1 has the latest DirectX patch? As it doesn't come via the normal Update process, I suspect that it might not.


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## theubersmurf (Feb 24, 2011)

Thanks to the Wizzard for doing this for us...glad I don't have to do it myself.


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## erixx (Feb 26, 2011)

here i see no improvement, but rather a little braking in the speed department.


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## TiN (Feb 28, 2011)

Thanks, perfectly done.


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## Dogshitjoint (Mar 4, 2011)

Thx for the review W1zz

I saw the review now (albeit late) & read parts of it (I will read it in full later on) & l figured hmm why not give it a Digg so the 1st Digg I´ve ever given goes to you/TPU.

OT: So you guys didn´t get any performance gains @ all? cuz I got 0.1 higher rating in WEI on graphics & aero right after the SP1 install, whats up with that?

Going by my own standards I have to say that WIN7*are superstable even without any SP (unlike all the other previous MS WIN OS I have used, excluding "ancients" like Commodore VIC 20 w. Basic & a maximum of 28 pixels on your screen if I remember it correctly (I can be a bit "slow" now & then, but thats fully off-topic)

So I say GJ to Microsoft, both with the job on WIN7 & SP1 for not degrading any performance for others [as of yet noticed/unheard of] + the upgrading performance for me.

* Well I use x64 Enterprise Edition so i cant say anything about all the other editions of WIN7

WIN7+SP1 FTW! (leaving other OS unmentioned, as I have no exp. of them, well almost none anyways)

Enough said...

//Dog


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