What’s New on Windows Vista For Hardware Enthusiasts

[Hardware Secrets Team]

There has been a new article posted.

Title: What’s New on Windows Vista For Hardware Enthusiasts
URL: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/425

Here is a snippet:
"Windows Vista brings a lot of new features. Instead of describing all new features brought by this new operating system – like new programs that now come with the OS –, we will describe only those tha..."

Comments on this article are welcome.

Best regards,
Hardware Secrets Team
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com

[JeGX]

Hi,

just a little question: how does the 3D list (the Flip 3D) behave with windowed real time 3D apps (OpenGL or Direct3D) ?

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi,

I made some testing here and they won't load. Windows will either block Alt Tab and Windows Tab keys or when Flip 3D is possible it will show an icon instead of the actual game play.

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[JeGX]

I suspected this behavior. Thanks for the answer Gabriel !

[Skye]

I was doing a little research on flash drives and bumped into an interesting article. I found the below on a seller's page for the Apacer Handy Steno HT202. (Yes, the test is on the HT202 while the information is listen on the seller's page for the HT203, which is an upgrade). Here is what I found:

Via Windows ReadyBoost, Windows Vista can increase performances in correlation with a USB key. Vista will use the USB Drive to compensate for memory shortage or to simply boost speed, by creating a copy of the virtual memory on 230 MB free space on the flash drive.

Vista does not increase the system RAM on the machine, but through ReadyBoost, it stores information that is repeatedly accessed by the memory manager. In this context, the operating system accesses the data stored on the flash drive instead of randomly accessing the disk. Vista features like data indexing, the Aero graphical user interface and the desktop window manager tend to take up extra memory. ReadyBoost balances functionality and memory management.


HT203 ReadyBoost testing:
Test Criteria:
- Calculate system response time (seconds) with/without ReadyBoost enabled while first execute each program from the beginning to ready for working.
- The difference between the tests smaller or equal than 2 seconds were treated as reasonable, such values were neglected.
- The numbers in brackets are the performance improved rate.

Test Environment:
CPU: AMD Sempron 2500+, 1.4GHz
RAM: DDR400 256MB
HDD: Segate 20GB 7200rpm (Ultra ATA 100)
Graphic: nVidia GeForce 6100 (max. 64MB)
O/S: Windows Vista RC1 5600

Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . RAM only . . . . . . . . With HA202
Acrobat 6.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . .31.1 sec. . . . . 17.3 sec.(44.4% improved)
Office Word 2003 . . . . . . . . 5.6 sec. . . . . . 3.6 sec. (35.7% improved)
Office Excel 2003 . . . . . . . . 8.5 sec. . . . . . 6.4 sec. (24.7% improved)
Office PowerPoint 2003 . . . 4.1 sec. . . . . . 3 sec. (26.8% improved)
Office Outlook 2003 . . . . . . 13.4 sec. . . . . 11.6 sec. (13.4% improved)
Internet Explorer 7 . . . . . . . . 18.2 sec. . . . . 13.7 sec. (24.7% improved)
Photoshop CS 8 . . . . . . . . . 46.5 sec. . . . . .37.8 sec. (18.7% improved)

At this point, the Apacer Handy Steno used in the test is supposed to be the most effective ReadyBoost package for enhanced system performance.

Sorry about the curious formatting. If this should be posted on a different page in the forums as well, let me know.

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi,

Thanks for the heads-up! I plan to make a review about this myself! Hold on!

Cheers,
Gabriel

[Skye]

Gabriel, you make me laugh. Please never change.