Software
  Home arrow Software arrow Win98SE vs WinXP
Dev Hardware Forums 
Computer Cases  
Computer Processors  
Computer Systems  
Digital Cameras  
Flat Panels  
Gaming  
Hardware Guides  
Hardware News  
Input Devices  
Memory  
Mobile Devices  
Motherboards  
Networking Hardware  
Opinions  
PC Cooling  
PC Speakers  
Peripherals  
Power Supply Units  
Software  
Sound Cards  
Storage Devices  
Tech Interviews  
User Experiences  
Video Cards  
Mobile Linux 
APP Generation ROI 
IBM® developerWorks 
Weekly Newsletter
 
Developer Updates  
Free Website Content 
 RSS  Articles
 RSS  Forums
 RSS  All Feeds
Write For Us Get Paid 
Request Media Kit
Contact Us 
Site Map 
Privacy Policy 
Support 
 USERNAME
 
 PASSWORD
 
 
  >>> SIGN UP!  
  Lost Password? 
SOFTWARE

Win98SE vs WinXP
By: SPeeD
  • Search For More Articles!
  • Disclaimer
  • Author Terms
  • Rating: 4 stars4 stars4 stars4 stars4 stars / 41
    2003-10-01

    Table of Contents:

    Rate this Article: Poor Best 
      ADD THIS ARTICLE TO:
      Del.ici.ous Digg
      Blink Simpy
      Google Spurl
      Y! MyWeb Furl
    Email Me Similar Content When Posted
    Add Developer Shed Article Feed To Your Site
    Email Article To Friend
    Print Version Of Article
    PDF Version Of Article
     
     
    ADVERTISEMENT


    Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows XP has been on the market now long enough for most people to decide whether or not they want to install and use it on their systems. It's easily the smoothest, prettiest and most stable OS yet from Microsoft. But is it fast? Everyone is saying it is....but we are going to show you a quick comparison today to let you know just how much faster, if any, than XP is over Windows 98 Second Edition, from a Gamer/Overclocker's perspective. Not a long article indeed, yet a view of several different benchmarking programs that will compare the two operating systems head to head.

    Microsoft Windows 98SE vs WinXP

     

    Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows XP has been on the market now long enough for most people to decide whether or not they want to install and use it on their systems. It's easily the smoothest, prettiest and most stable OS yet from Microsoft. But is it fast? Everyone is saying it is....but we are going to show you a quick comparison today to let you know just how much faster, if any, than XP is over Windows 98 Second Edition, from a Gamer/Overclocker's perspective. Not a long article indeed, yet a view of several different benchmarking programs that will compare the two operating systems head to head.

    Test System:

    Windows 98 SE and Windows XP Professional, running on the following system:

    • AMD 1.4GHz Tbird CPU @1500MHz

    • MSI K7T266 Pro2-RU Motherboard

    • 256megs of Kingmax PC2400 DDR

    • Maxtor 40G 7200rpm HD

    • Visiontek GF3 Video Card

    Both versions of Windows freshly installed on Identically matched hard drives. nVidia Detonator 21.83 Drivers used for both systems, with default settings (no tweaks). Via 4.35 4in1's used for both. Both 98SE and XP were fully updated using Microsoft's Windows Update function. 98SE was installed using FAT32 and XP was installed using naitive NTFS.


     

    Benchmarks: Lets get right down to it and start of with some SiSoft Sandra Benchmarks. Theoretically, CPU, Multi-Media and Memory benchmarks should be the same. Lets take a look.

     

     

     

    Just as we suspected. Each OS running @1500MHz is pretty much neck and neck. Neither score negligibly above the other in both marks. Lets see what Multi-Media scores show us.


     

    Here we see Win98 winning in the raw Integer score, and XP wins Floating Point, which is to be expected as XP has more enhancements for newer chip technology such as MMX, 3DNow...etc. Memory scores below.


     

    Windows XP is pulling slightly ahead in both FPU and INT MMX scores, but not by much. Certainly not enough to get excited about, and as we suspected before, Win98 and XP are competitive given identical hardware. One thing I would like to mention though is that XP appears to handle memory leaks MUCH better than Win98. Upon consecutive runs of the SiSoft Memory Test, Win98SE scores drop lower and lower and lower with each additional test. While XP scores stay relatively the same no matter how many times they are run. In interesting note to say the least.

    Lets move on to 3DMark2000 and 2001 to see what type of differences we'll see with gaming and video benchmarks.

     

     

    Here we are seeing Windows 98SE as the clear winner. Even though nVidia drivers have been optimized for XP, 98 takes the crown in this category for both iterations of 3DMark. Lets see some Quake3 action next.


     

     

    Windows 98SE wins this competition as well. Showing more FPS in resolutions below 1600x1200. Our video card is the bottle neck at that resolution so CPU and/or OS will not affect that score, but again, Win98SE is more efficient in the 640x480 and 1024x768 resolutions.


    The next benchmark we have is AMD's very own N-Bench. This is the first time we are using this benchmarking program at OCA and will most likely incorporate it into our future reviews for benchmarking purposes. Lets see how the numbers stack up.

     

     

    Keeping with the trend, it looks as if Win98SE dominates slightly in N-Bench scores. Showing a higher total score as well as higher average frames per second. Ok, lets finish this off with Dronezmark.


     

     

    Quite a different benchmark than most. DronezMark shows you the minimum, maximum, and average frames per second which is really quite informative, as opposed to a simple score. Dronez utilizes nVidia's nFiniteFX engine and is also highly tuned for Intel's P4 processor. With this, we see Windows XP's performance above that of 98SE in Maximum fps as well as average. 98 ends up higher in minimum fps.


    Conclusion: It looks as if we'll have to give the SPeeD crown to Windows 98SE. While XP is Microsoft's greatest effort in the OS arena to date, 98 comes out on top for raw performance. XP will give you bells and whistles, a smooth interface, and stability, but if your looking for every bit of performance you can squeeze out of your system, chances are good you'll want to keep a separate partition on your hard drive with 98SE installed.

    One thing we need to keep in mind as well. Neither operating systems were tweaked in this review. There are several XP tweaks out there that will surely boost performance and bring any of these individual benchmarks up quite a bit. So it all boils down to what is convenient for you, and does an extra 5 frames per second in your favorite game matter when it comes down to the wire. Be sure to checkout our review of Windows XP if you are thinking about upgrading and want a quick glance at what you can expect with XP.

     

     


    DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware.

    More Software Articles
    More By SPeeD

     

    IBM® developerWorks developerWorks - FREE Tools!


    Build Forge Express demo: Enabling software delivery excellence for small and midsized businesses

    This demonstration gives you an overview of IBM® Rational® Build Forge Express Edition, a global offering that provides a framework to automate and execute software processes. Rational Build Forge provides a software assembly line that can support all of your tools, technologies, and platforms so you can achieve a repeatable, reliable, and traceable build and release process.
    FREE! Go There Now!


    NEW! Calling all CC Power Users – and those that would like to be!

    Join this Rational Talks to You teleconference, featuring Paul Boustany and Mark Krasovich, to speak to the experts about becoming a Rational ClearCase power user. Get a chance to ask your questions and learn tips and tricks for using Rational ClearCase in Agile development
    FREE! Go There Now!


    NEW! Develop Systems Software Assets with IBM Rational Asset Manager

    Join us for this on demand webcast to learn about developing complex systems more quickly and efficiently. We'll cover market drivers for developing, governing and reusing systems software assets and how you can develop system software assets with Rational Asset Manager.
    FREE! Go There Now!


    NEW! IBM Rational Systems Development e-Kit

    As systems increase in complexity, communication between systems and software teams becomes more and more difficult. Now, there’s a way to improve product quality and communication.<br />Read the “Model Driven Systems Development” white paper to see how. Also included in this kit are more educational white papers, customer examples, tutorials, informative Webcasts, and best practices for designing, building and managing systems.<br />
    FREE! Go There Now!


    NEW! Improve your build process with IBM Rational Build Forge, Part 2: Automate builds for a real-world Tomcat project

    Learn how Rational Build Forge can extend a simple compile and package build process by adding customization and deployment capability. Go from a manual method to automating: checking for code changes; getting the latest source; compiling and packaging; customizing; copying to and restarting a deployment server; and sending e-mail notification that a new version is available.
    FREE! Go There Now!


    NEW! Project and Portfolio Management Executive Resource Kit

    Portfolio Management is about effectively managing portfolio value by aligning portfolio investments with business goals. This complimentary e-kit provides a collection of materials that can help you understand how IBM Rational enables and automates best practices for improved governance and clear visibility into portfolio and project performance across the entire IT project lifecycle.
    FREE! Go There Now!


    NEW! Rational 'Talks to You' Teleconference Series

    This Fall, IBM Rational talks to you directly through a special teleconference series giving you access to the best minds in IBM Rational - product experts and market thought leaders who will answer your questions during these pre-scheduled telephone conference calls. Register today!
    FREE! Go There Now!


    NEW! The role of integrated requirements management in software delivery

    This paper is about the critical role that a discipline called integrated require­ments management can play in helping to ensure that your business goals and IT investments are continuously aligned—whether you are sourcing, integrat­ing, building or maintaining software. It also looks at ways that automated IBM Rational® products can work together to help you use requirements in the very best way.
    FREE! Go There Now!


    NEW! Using IBM Rational Developer for System z and IBM Rational ClearCase together to manage application development

    Whether you are creating new applications or modifying existing ones, managing integration of new components with traditional z/OS elements is a critical part of building and deploying modern applications. Listen to this webcast to see how IBM can help you optimize your development process using an IDE like Rational Developer for System z that integrates with management tools, such as ClearCase to manage your application development on mainframes.
    FREE! Go There Now!


    NEW! Webcast: Calling All Testers! Find Application Vulnerabilities Early in the Development Process Where they are Easier to Fix and Less Risky to your Business

    In this webcast, IBM Rational will discuss the importance of Web application security and will share techniques and best practices to introduce application security testing into current QA processes including: understanding common security vulnerabilities and techniques to integrate security testing with defect tracking and remediation systems in an effort to safeguard sensitive online information.
    FREE! Go There Now!



    All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!

    SOFTWARE ARTICLES

    - Bookmarking Application TidyFavorites Pro
    - Broadcast Live Video From Your Cell Phone Us...
    - Top Ten Productivity Apps for the iPhone and...
    - The GIMP 2.6 vs. Photoshop Smackdown
    - All About Emulators: Re-Visiting the Ghost o...
    - Mass Internet Faxing Services
    - Dropbox: No-Nonsense Online Storage
    - Top 6 Web-Based Email Applications
    - Bundled Software: Reward or Burden?
    - Applications from Hard Drive to Internet
    - Video Editing Software for 08
    - The World of Freeware
    - The World Browsing Championship, Round 2
    - The Ultimate Troubleshooter v3.62
    - Apple Boot Camp






    © 2003-2009 by Developer Shed. All rights reserved. DS Cluster 5 hosted by Hostway
    Stay green...Green IT