We loaded the Windows 7 Release Candidate on three systems (two desktops and a laptop) and ran our World Bench 6 tests on them. Then we compared those results with the ones we obtained from the same three systems running Windows Vista. Each PC was slightly faster when running Windows 7, but the overall improvement didn't exceed 5 percent, our threshold for gauging whether a performance change will be noticeable to a typical user.

The largest difference was just 4 points-102 for Vista versus 106 for Windows 7 on an HP Pavilion a6710t desktop. Our Maingear M4A79T Deluxe desktop improved by 1 point (from 138 with Vista to 139 with Windows 7), and our Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop improved by 2 points, from 97 with Vista to 99 with Windows 7.

The WoridBench 6 suite consists of a number of tests involving ten common applications, including Microsoft Office, Firefox, and Photoshop. On the individual tests, the benchmark results were generally within a few percentage points of each other. One notable exception, however, was Nero 7 Ultra Edition, where Windows 7 outran Vista significantly (between 12 percent and 26 percent faster, depending on the PC we used).