Windows XP SP3 Adds 10% Performance Boost, Tests Show

Information Week ^ | May 12, 2008 | Paul McDougall

[Zakeet]

Researchers said Windows XP Service Pack 3 delivers a measurable performance boost when compared to Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

Windows XP runs some applications up to 10% faster with the latest service pack installed, a research firm has found.

"We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (v.3244) delivers a measurable performance boost to this aging desktop OS," wrote staff at exo.performance.network, in a blog post.

The researchers found that a PC loaded with Microsoft's XP SP3 completed the OfficeBench test suite in less than 50 seconds. A similarly configured system running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 took more than 50 seconds to complete the test suite -- which measures how quickly a computer can perform common tasks in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

"Since SP3 was supposed to be mostly a bug-fix/patch consolidation release ... the unexpected speed boost comes as a nice bonus," the researchers wrote.

They added that XP SP3's slick performance may lead some computer users to forego Windows Vista. Exo.performance.network found that, with the new service pack, XP is now two times faster than the newer Microsoft OS.

The tests were conducted late last year, on a pre-release build of XP SP3. So it's possible the final version is even faster.

It's not all four-star reviews for the service pack, however.

Within hours of its general release last week, Windows XP SP3 began drawing hundreds of complaints from users who claim the update is wreaking havoc on their PCs.

The problems with XP SP3, according to posters on Microsoft's Windows XP message board, range from spontaneous reboots to outright system crashes.

[Obadiah]

The problems with XP SP3, according to posters on Microsoft's Windows XP message board, range from spontaneous reboots to outright system crashes.

Ahhh...some things never change.

[ExTexasRedhead]

This thread didn’t mention that SP3 for XP is crashing a lot of computers and causing heartache. The automatic update on SP3 isn’t due until June. I’ve been advised to not download it until the “bugs” have been cleaned up.

[stratboy]

Meanwhile, Vista is still a bug ridden, no driver available OS. After the Vista debacle, I switched to OS X and never looked back.

[El Gran Salseron]

“The problems with XP SP3, according to posters on Microsoft’s Windows XP message board, range from spontaneous reboots to outright system crashes.”

Just a guess. The systems with these issues already had problems and/or the users are inexperienced and/or chronic complainers.

They would complain if they were hung with a brand new rope.

I have seen marked improvement with SP3 and that is especially true for IE.

[DeLaVerdad]

Past experience with the chaos of their SPs dictates that I wait for a few more successful UATs before proceeding.

[Abathar]

Took my brothers computer down for the count, had to eventually just format and re-install. I will wait for a while before I install it.

[RachelFaith]

Gee...

Non of my Mac updates have caused me to crash...

= )

[CedarDave]

Tech PING!!

[ShadowAce]

[aft_lizard]

Hey unfair, swordmaker should be posting this, he after all was more than happy enough to post negative articles about sp3 he should be posting positive articles about it too, in all fairness of course.

[Clock King]

Worked fine on my system, and I did notice a slight speed boost. But I have newer HW.

[aft_lizard]

Don’t be scared, its a small percentage of computers that contain a CPU errata that cause the crash.

[aft_lizard]

Really? I have found every driver possible for my components and havent had an issue yet. In fact yet to crash. Now OS X on the hand I hear has all kinds of problems like it makes people smell their own farts because they suddenly found they love their own smell.

[JoeSixPack1]

Installed fine, runs great on my desktop and laptop for over a week now.

No problems at all.

[aft_lizard]

I wish you macheads would stop crashing these threads, it really is quite disturbing how religious you are over a computer.

[CarrotAndStick]

None of my Mac updates have caused me to crash...

The official, self-updating XP service pack isn't out until early July.

Oh, and by the way:

 

Mac Update Brings Trouble for Some Users

The large bundle of security updates issued by Apple last week is causing headaches for some users who have had trouble powering up their systems after installing the patches.

According to numerous posts on the Mac OS X support forums, the latest Apple patch batch -- which fixed at least 43 security holes, including a dozen in Apple's QuickTime media player -- may also have introduced some problems. In many cases, it appears the problems were the result of some sort of clash with Adobe's Version Cue software.

No word from Apple or Adobe what may be going on here, but if you experienced troubles with the update and are running this program, booting into "safe mode" and removing Version Cue from the startup items folder seemed to work for some users.

 

The update also appeared to cause boot problems for people who don't use the Adobe software. The folks over at MacFixIt have more information on this problem, and even have a helpful tutorial on what to do when a Mac fails to boot after a security update.

If all else fails, you can't get the help you need from Apple's security forum, and if your system is still under warranty, you could just give Apple's support line a ring at 800-275-2273.

 

May 16, 2006

[Cicero]

After my desktop crashed, with a bad hard drive, I bought a new laptop, and decided to try Vista. It’s working very well. I also upgraded the memory chips on my older laptop, to as much as it would take with its older mother board—from 1 gig to 2 gigs. That helped. But the Vista computer is actually faster, since the chips are faster. In particular, IE7 loads much faster and works better.

Something similar to this problem happened with the recent release of Vista SP1. There were reboot problems on some computers, but if you waited until they finally posted it on the Update site in April, it works just fine. So I’ll wait a little longer for the XP SP3 update.

[WVKayaker]

You are a sad case. Is that the most you can muster? SM is the Mac guy, and posts items putting Macs into a positive light. That usually means that PC's and Windoze will be talked down.

Come into the light, and learn something!

[JoeSixPack1]

The official, self-updating XP service pack isn't out until early July.

Its nice to think that, but i went to MS update site for 2nd laptop yesterday and it smoothly dl'd and installed SP3.

So much for waiting for July.