Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumer Preview managed to beat Windows 7 in a series of benchmarks run by PC World with the promise that the OS is "promising to be the leanest, most efficient incarnation of Windows to date."
The test version of Windows 8 beat Windows 7 in most performance tests including benchmarks such as PC World's own WorldBench 7 benchmark and web browsing performance. That said, the preview software failed to beat Windows 7 in office productivity benchmarks.
The Windows 8 Consumer Preview managed a score of 114 in Worldbench 7 versus a baseline 100 for the mature Windows 7 OS. PC World also pointed out that Windows 8 boots considerably faster, taking just 37 seconds from a cold start, versus Windows 7's 56 seconds, a speed up of 35 per cent.
It seems that Windows 8's web browser Internet Explorer 10 also runs faster on the new OS, delivering 29 frames per second in a benchmark that managed just 19 on Windows 7, a fact attributed to greater levels of hardware acceleration supported on the OS.
"Even in its early form, this is promising to be the leanest, most efficient incarnation of Windows to date," PC World concluded.
That said, they did repeatedly draw attention to the fact that the new Metro interface of Windows 8 was controversial and that it wasn't a "runaway hit" with their readership.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...chmarks/028131