Early Windows 8 vs Windows 7 Performance Tests
 

You often hear in the software industry that performance optimization is one of the last steps in the software development process. That bodes well for Windows 8, considering at the early stage of Developer Preview—even before we've seen an actual beta—the nascent operating system is getting widespread praise for its performance, particularly in startup times.

Anecdotal evidence is always encouraging, but I decided to run some very early tests on the OS to see if the reports were wishful thinking or if there was a real, measurable boost in speed. Along with startup and shutdown times, I used several standard industry benchmarks to compare Windows 8 performance with that of Windows 7 running on the same machine. Long story short: unless the code takes a turn for the worse in the next year or so, we can look forward to some speedier computing once Windows 8 is released.

Startup time (min:sec)
Windows 7 -> 1:32
Windows 8 -> 0:32

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817...id=PP7vAAx1Bop