• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Windows 8 xHCI Driver Performance Tested

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
47,243 (7.55/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
With Windows 8, Microsoft is integrating an eXtensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) driver, which serves as a common driver for USB 3.0 host controllers. Expreview put this driver to test with a Renesas USB 3.0 controller, and compared its performance to when the controller is backed by Renesas' own driver (ver. 2.1.28.0). The controller is a μD720200F1 found on ASUS P8P67 Deluxe motherboard. The reviewer used Orico UE3 16GB USB 3.0 flash drive that uses SLC NAND flash memory.

The flash was put through four synthetic tests on a constant hardware setup, differences in performance were attributed to the drivers. Tests included HDTune, ATTO, AS SSD, and CrystalDiskMark. The xHCI driver provided by Microsoft trailed a tiny/insignificant notch behind the third-party driver provided by Renesas. In HDTune, the performance graph was smoother (fewer variations) with the Microsoft xHCI driver. In sequential speed tests, variation between the two drivers seldom exceeded 2%. The xHCI driver will ship with Windows 8, letting you run USB 3.0 host controllers and compatible devices right out of installation. The drivers pass through Microsoft's WHQL, although the update cycle of drivers provided by Microsoft is traditionally known to be slower, in some cases they have found to be more stable. Screenshots with "MS" markings (below) show results for the xHCI driver.



More results follow.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator
Joined
Oct 6, 2004
Messages
58,413 (7.94/day)
Location
Oystralia
System Name Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory 2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s) Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage 2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s) Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) | Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) | Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s) Logitech G560 | Corsair Void pro RGB |Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
win 7 really needs this driver. makes me sad when half the USB ports on a system i just built dont work in DOS/pre OS.
 
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Messages
1,958 (0.27/day)
Location
The Kingdom of Norway
Processor Ryzen 5900X
Motherboard Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX 1.1
Cooling Noctua NB-U12A
Memory 2x 32GB Fury DDR4 3200mhz
Video Card(s) PowerColor Radeon 7800 XT Hellhound
Storage Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCIe 4.0
Display(s) 2x Dell U2412M
Case Phanteks P400A
Audio Device(s) Hifimediy Sabre 9018 USB DAC
Power Supply Corsair AX850 (from 2012)
Software Windows 10?
yesterday i installed windows 8 customer preview using a Transcend Jetflash 700 16GB USB 3.0 stick on a USB 3.0 enabled port on a AMD A75 Chipset

guess what it worked! :respect:
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
Messages
703 (0.14/day)
Location
Pensacola, FL, USA, Earth
Would love to see a installation speed test of Win8 using a USB 3.0 thumbdrive on both USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports.
 

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
13,171 (2.81/day)
Location
Concord, NH, USA
System Name Apollo
Processor Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory 64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage 1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s) Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s) AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply 96w Power Adapter
Mouse Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software MacOS 12.1
I'm willing to bet Microsoft will make a backport upgrade for Windows 7, like they did with the CPU scheduler.
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2011
Messages
6,725 (1.39/day)
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-13700K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX
Cooling Noctua NH-D15
Memory 32GB(2x16) DDR5@6600MHz G-Skill Trident Z5
Video Card(s) ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 AMP Holo
Storage 2TB SK Platinum P41 SSD + 4TB SanDisk Ultra SSD + 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Display(s) Acer Predator X34 3440x1440@100Hz G-Sync
Case NZXT PHANTOM410-BK
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi Titanium PCIe
Power Supply Corsair 850W
Mouse Logitech Hero G502 SE
Software Windows 11 Pro - 64bit
Benchmark Scores 30FPS in NFS:Rivals
I see...numbers.

No comparison, no anything...
 

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
13,171 (2.81/day)
Location
Concord, NH, USA
System Name Apollo
Processor Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory 64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage 1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s) Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s) AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply 96w Power Adapter
Mouse Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software MacOS 12.1
I see...numbers.

No comparison, no anything...

Do the math yourself, the images are side by side. They're not incredible improvements, but it shows you how software has a big impact on how hardware gets driven.
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
13,791 (1.87/day)
Sorry, but such small difference is within error mergin. I get such differences if OS decides to do some task right in the middle of the test under the hood and it will skew the results by this much.
I can get 2MB/s more by just tweaking stuff.
 

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
47,243 (7.55/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
Sorry, but such small difference is within error mergin. I get such differences if OS decides to do some task right in the middle of the test under the hood and it will skew the results by this much.
I can get 2MB/s more by just tweaking stuff.

That's kind of the point of this review (Microsoft's common xHCI drivers being as good as hardware vendors' drivers).
 

cadaveca

My name is Dave
Joined
Apr 10, 2006
Messages
17,232 (2.53/day)
What I'm interested in is the differences in installation time between DVD media, USB 2.0, and USB 3.0.
 

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
13,171 (2.81/day)
Location
Concord, NH, USA
System Name Apollo
Processor Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory 64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage 1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s) Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s) AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply 96w Power Adapter
Mouse Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software MacOS 12.1
What I'm interested in is the differences in installation time between DVD media, USB 2.0, and USB 3.0.

Me too. If performance can get squeezed out by using improved drivers it makes you wonder how much more performance you can squeeze of out USB 3.0. After all, USB 3.0 is still a rather new technology and doesn't have perfected drivers yet.
 

TerryChen

New Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
2 (0.00/day)
My easy test

Please refer to attachment~
The MS performance better than Renesas performance under my platform.
But I know maybe resulting varies with different the system environment.
 

Attachments

  • MS 6.2.8250.0 & Renesas 2.1.28.0_ Flash.jpg
    MS 6.2.8250.0 & Renesas 2.1.28.0_ Flash.jpg
    169.3 KB · Views: 301

TerryChen

New Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
2 (0.00/day)
Sorry, add my platform as below,

CPU : Intel Core i5 650
M/B : ASUS P7H55-M/USB3
Chipset : Intel H55
RAM : 4GB DDR3
Internal HDD : ST3500418AS 500G 3.5"
OS : Win8 Consumer Preview x64
 
Top