Windows 7 does extremely well on a 512MB machine
Ed Bott from ZDNet decided to do a comparison between the three most popular operating systems to see how well Windows 7 does in terms of memory footprint. The tests were done in a a virtual environment. Strangely he did his test wit a 32-bit version of Vista while XP and Windows 7 were both 64-bit. Nonetheless, he was able to prove that Windows 7 will do extremely well on low-spec computers; using just over 200MB of RAM. All computers were idle for one hour before RAM usage was recorded and had all recommended and critical updates installed with no third-party software. XP still uses less RAM but keeping in mind that Windows 7 is a newer operating system and beats Vista in terms of performance and disk-space usage, Windows 7 is on its way to becoming a great OS.
You can read about the entire experiment over at ZDNet.
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Tags: windows 7, windows 7 512MB RAM, windows 7 RAM usage
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12 Responses to “Windows 7 does extremely well on a 512MB machine”
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Uhmmm, it means that if i have a machine that works perfectly in WinXP, but slowly in WinVista, it posibly will works fine in Win7???
Not for sure but very likely. Windows 7 is known to run smoothly on netbooks but not Vista, so it wouldn’t hurt giving it a try
I try running windows 7 beta and it worked pretty good but i wouldn’t say it was smoothly it was alright some programs ran slower when opening up than windows xp.
From the point of view of a computer retailer, I will say that most of our clients do NOT want to have to spend hundreds of dollars on third party software, after just spending hundreds or thousands of dollars buying a new PC ans OS
So my queston is what can the OS do “Out of the Box”? It’s all well and good to say that XP uses less resources than Vista or W7
but as a clean install XP has almost no functionality what so ever, it requires third party software to do even the simplest of things, so lets see a test done on “Clean Installs” of all three OS’s (no drivers, no apps, no updates, just the OS disk)and then say “OK what can you do now?” IMO the so called “Bloat” and extra resources used in Vista and W7 provides you a lot more functionality and much wider hardware support (when plugged into a USB port for instance, you rarely find a device that Vista doesn’t recognise and able to make use with an appopriate program
Win 7 includes a lot of features that help even the biggest computer amateurs work their way around the OS.
A lot has been stripped such as windows mail, movie maker, etc.
New features include:
UAC fixes
Troubleshooter (Computer virtually can now diagnose, check, and find solutions to hundreds of possible computer programs from bad static IP settings to bad drivers)
Help find drivers and receive updates via Windows Update (Did not have to install a single driver)
As to third party software, you will have to download actually even more with the exception of maybe another media player because Win 7 include h.264, divx, and xvid codecs already. The reason for this is because of antitrust laws that MSoft needs to abide by.
Ability to mount VHD, edit partitions (was in Vista), burn ISOs (new)
If you think of it this way, it might mean a good thing for your computer store because you can now charge an extra fee to get all those 3rd party apps in.
But I would never do that if I owned a computer store
I have to agree on certain points ( I was a bit annoyed that I had to DOWNLOAD something as basic and necessary as an e-mail client for W7!)however I’m refering more to customers who have printers, digital camera’s, mobile phones, mp3 players and such, most of which will function AND interact with Vista and W7 on a “Clean” install (I’ve rarely found a device that Vista doesn’t at least recognize
As for RAM and Disk usage (getting back to topic) how many people let their computer sit idle for an hour before using it? Most people will want to start using their computer as soon as the desktop appears (that’s why they turned it on after all)The RAM and disk usage can be somewhat explained in Vista and W7 by the improvements/changes made to the Prefetch system, windows automaticaly assigns memory and disk space for common applications / tasks, and reserves the memory itself so that the OS not the application decides where to assign resources. I’v been using Vista since RC1 and have yet had the need to reboot my PC because an application, once closed, refused to release the memory it was using, which is a common problem i had with XP, I’ve been using W7 now for several weeks, and i find (as do many other forum/blog posters) that W7 seems much “Zippier” and smoother than XP because it does “Hog” all of the resources and keeps them (kinda like a dog holding a stick, with an expectant look on it’s face) waiting for you to do something else.
It’s all well and good for one guy to brag about how much the V8 engine in his 2 seater sports car is faster than the same engine in his neighbors van, but the van is much more usefull when you just want to take the wife, the 3 kids, and the 2 dogs down to the park for a picnic, which is a lot more ordinary and common (and the van still gets along pretty good when he’s on his own in it)
As to your other point regarding third party software, with the exception of some of our business clients, who require a specific app for accounting or CAD, most people simply want to “Surf the Net” or send e-mails, chat on MSN or edit and print the photo’s from their camera type a letter to a friend and other such basic tasks, which Vista and W7 handle very well by themselves
Oh yes, Win 7 will surely be an improvement driver-wise than Vista was. Device Stage will also enhance their experience with their hardware.
I like Win 7 very much. The most useful feature for me so far has been the Aero Snap features because my activities require split screening browsers a lot. PSR will be a big help too I guess.
I never shut down my computer now. Although hibernate still doesn’t work properly in beta, back in Vista I would hibernate all the time. Then maybe once every 2 weeks or a month, I would restart when things start getting laggy.
Btw, the link to your site doesn’t work without a www.
[...] Windows 7 does extremely well on a 512MB machine Ed Bott from ZDNet decided to do a comparison between… [...]
win7的许多兼容功能似乎不行啊！风行网络电影在win7的兼容xpsp2模式下居然也死了机。
无言。
[...] Windows 7 does extremely well on a 512MB machine Ed Bott from ZDNet decided to do a comparison between the three most popular operating… [...]
I’m actually running Win7 right now on a PC with 8GB HDD, 1.2Ghz AMD Duron and 384MB RAM. A little sticky sometimes, but otherwise it’s fine for a 5 (or so) year old POS PC. Hahaha..