The modern computer system is generally doing a lot more than just running a single isolated application. Heavy computer users can be running dozens of applications and background processes at once, and managing resources and workload balancing is where a smart operating system comes into play.

To test these scenarios PCSTATS uses benchmarks like SYSmark and Futuremark PCMark Vantage, which run multiple applications concurrently and gauge an averaged performance index. It's a better indicator for usage scenarios where a user may be transcoding an episode of Dexter to an iPod while listening to internet radio, gaming and using a voice chat program simultaneously. Let's begin.

BAPco SYSmark 2007 1.06	Source: Bapco

SYSmark 2007 is an application-based benchmark that reflects usage patterns of business users in the areas of Video creation, E-learning, 3D Modeling and Office Productivity. This new release includes a robust and refreshed set of applications. The new release also incorporates numerous new features and enhancements such as an improved GUI allowing streamlined start-up and run along with a heads-up-display (HUD) and automated error reporting. Higher results are better.

SYSMark 2007 Preview 1.06 - Overall Results Overall: Points Ranking Intel Core i7 920 - Win 7 180 Intel Core i7 920 - Win Vista 167 Intel Core i5 750 - Win 7 180 Intel Core i5 750 - Win Vista 163 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Win 7 169 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Win Vista 146 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) - Win 7 181 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) - Win Vista 166 AMD Athlon II X4 620 - Win 7 135 AMD Athlon II X4 620 - Win Vista 122 AMD Athlon II X3 435 - Win 7 135 AMD Athlon II X3 435 - Win Vista 145 AMD Athlon II X2 240e - Win 7 131 AMD Athlon II X2 240e - Win Vista 113

Windows 7 shows excellent performance scaling in SYSMark's overall test, with an average 5-7% gain over Windows Vista. The lone exception is the triple-core Athlon II X3 435, which seems to do better in Windows Vista.

Let's break these results down into their individual scores:

SYSMark 2007 Preview 1.06 - E-Learning App. Results E-Learning: Points Ranking Intel Core i7 920 - Win 7 163 Intel Core i7 920 - Win Vista 167 Intel Core i5 750 - Win 7 163 Intel Core i5 750 - Win Vista 168 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Win 7 170 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Win Vista 175 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) - Win 7 168 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) - Win Vista 162 AMD Athlon II X4 620 - Win 7 115 AMD Athlon II X4 620 - Win Vista 109 AMD Athlon II X3 435 - Win 7 122 AMD Athlon II X3 435 - Win Vista 124 AMD Athlon II X2 240e - Win 7 127 AMD Athlon II X2 240e - Win Vista 129

SYSMark's E-learning performance actually tends to be slightly faster in Windows Vista, by about a single percentage point for most of the test processors.

SYSMark 2007 Preview 1.06 - Video Creation App. Results Videocreation: Points Ranking Intel Core i7 920 - Win 7 218 Intel Core i7 920 - Win Vista 166 Intel Core i5 750 - Win 7 218 Intel Core i5 750 - Win Vista 161 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Win 7 174 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Win Vista 117 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) - Win 7 240 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) - Win Vista 177 AMD Athlon II X4 620 - Win 7 195 AMD Athlon II X4 620 - Win Vista 147 AMD Athlon II X3 435 - Win 7 176 AMD Athlon II X3 435 - Win Vista 104 AMD Athlon II X2 240e - Win 7 162 AMD Athlon II X2 240e - Win Vista 95

It's with Video Creation that Microsoft's multi-core optimizations really start to shine through in Windows 7. An average performance gain of 30% in these heavily multi-threaded applications can make a huge difference when it comes to encoding or editing media, especially with more content moving to high-definition 1080p formats. Dual core processors tend to get the most out of CPU scaling in this benchmark, but even HyperThreaded processors like the Core i7 920 are seeing some big improvements from the move to Windows 7.

SYSMark 2007 Preview 1.06 - Productivity Application Results Productivity: Points Ranking Intel Core i7 920 - Win 7 153 Intel Core i7 920 - Win Vista 148 Intel Core i5 750 - Win 7 153 Intel Core i5 750 - Win Vista 145 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Win 7 165 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Win Vista 135 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) - Win 7 134 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) - Win Vista 137 AMD Athlon II X4 620 - Win 7 99 AMD Athlon II X4 620 - Win Vista 93 AMD Athlon II X3 435 - Win 7 99 AMD Athlon II X3 435 - Win Vista 113 AMD Athlon II X2 240e - Win 7 100 AMD Athlon II X2 240e - Win Vista 97

Aside from the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, which has abnormally large gains in the Windows 7 productivity test, most processors show only a slight gain when switching from Windows Vista to Windows 7 in this benchmark. A few, like the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, are actually a little bit slower.

SYSMark 2007 Preview 1.06 - 3D/CAD Application Results 3D: Points Ranking Intel Core i7 920 - Win 7 192 Intel Core i7 920 - Win Vista 191 Intel Core i5 750 - Win 7 192 Intel Core i5 750 - Win Vista 182 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Win 7 167 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Win Vista 163 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) - Win 7 199 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) - Win Vista 195 AMD Athlon II X4 620 - Win 7 152 AMD Athlon II X4 620 - Win Vista 148 AMD Athlon II X3 435 - Win 7 158 AMD Athlon II X3 435 - Win Vista 157 AMD Athlon II X2 240e - Win 7 141 AMD Athlon II X2 240e - Win Vista 139

In 3D/CAD applications there are very slight increases in performance between Windows 7 and Windows Vista, but these primarily single-threaded application benchmarks benefit more from increases in cache and clock speed rather than operating environment.

SYSMark gives a pretty good indication of the multi-threaded, multi-application performance boost that Windows 7 is capable of. It's time to check out Futuremark's PCMark Vantage, another benchmark that uses real-world applications to index overall CPU performance.