Win7 vs Vista graphics driver performance comparison

Due to the similarity between the Windows 7 and Windows Vista infrastructure, NVIDIA or AMD currently put the graphics drivers for these two systems in the same installation package. So Tweaktown did an interesting test a few days ago, not to compare the specific scores, but to measure the performance improvement of the same driver under the Win7 system compared to the Vista system. Take a look at Windows 7, ForceWare and Catalyst who do it better.

Test Platform:

Intel i7 920 Overclocking 3.8GHz (190MHz x20)

GIGABYTE EX58-UD5 Motherboard

3x 2GB OCZ DDR3 PC-12800 8-8-8-24 Memory

Western Digital 300GB Velicorapter WD Drive

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit Final OEM, Windows Vista SP2 64-Bit

Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 285 2GB

Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 2GB Vapor-X

Driver: ForceWare 190.38

Catalyst 9.6
< From the perspective of the entire system, the only regret is that the test did not use the 9.7 version of the catalyst driver certified by Windows 7 RTM WHQL.

The following test scores represent the performance improvement/decrease (percentage) of Win7 compared to Vista.

3DMark Vantage

two driven lift is very subtle

Cinebench R10

catalyst for growth in the outbreak under Windows 7 More than 50%, the N card driver is unchanged.

"Conflict World"
Minimum Frame Rate
Average Frame Rate

There is little difference in low resolution, N card is more enhanced at 1920x1200 resolution, while A card is At 2560x1600 resolution, the average frame rate increased by 2.2%, and the minimum frame rate decreased by 8.6%.

"Crysis Warhead"
Minimum Frame Rate
Average Frame Rate

Most of the minimum frame rate has not changed, only Catalyst 9.6 at 1680x1050 resolution Win7 is faster than Vista 4.3%, ForceWare 190.38 Win7 is 4.1% lower than Vista at 1920x1200 resolution.

In terms of average frame rate, the ForceWare driver has improved at 1680x1050 resolution, while the Win7 performance of the two drivers at the highest resolution is significantly worse than Vista.

Far Cry 2
Minimum Frame Rate
Average Frame Rate

A card driver Win7 performance is generally higher than Vista in Far Cry, while N card driver Then there is a slight decline in Win7.

"STALKER Clear Sky"
Minimum Frame Rate
Average Frame Rate

The minimum frame rate performance of the two drivers, Win7 is better than Vista at high and low resolutions, and 1920x1200 Both are lower than Vista. From the average frame rate, the Win7 version of the catalyst is significantly better than the Vista version, and ForceWare's performance in both systems is basically the same.

High Quality AA/AF

"Far Cry 2"
Minimum Frame Rate
Average Frame Rate

Win7 Performance of A/N Cards Under 8xAA Basically not as good as the Vista system, only the average frame rate of the catalyst is slightly higher 0.3%

"Conflict World"
Minimum Frame Rate
Average Frame Rate

Win for this game 7, Vista performance is basically flat, only the average frame rate of Win7 under ForceWare driver is slightly reduced by 2%.

Summary
If Win7 performance is better than Vista's score of 1 in each test, and below Vista's score of -1, then ForceWare 190.38 scores -5 and Catalyst 9.6 scores + 12. Obviously, AMD's graphics driver is more suitable for Windows 7 system. If you use the updated catalysts 9.7 and 9.8, I believe the results will be better. Of course, the N-card driver is not a failure. Its performance degradation under Win7 is often less than 1%, and the overall gaming experience should be at the same level as the Vista system.