Microsoft published several performance claims that it says demonstrate how much better its Windows 11 operating system is in this regard when compared to its predecessor Windows 10.
Here are the claims that Microsoft is making:
- Windows 11 PCs have 2.7 more hours of battery life than Windows 10 PCs.
- Windows 11 PCs are up to 2.3 times faster than Windows 10 PCs.
- Windows 11 PCs offer up to 3.2 times faster web browsing than Windows 10 PCs.
- Windows 11 PCs offer up to 2 times faster Microsoft Office productivity than Windows 10 PCs.
Impressive stats. If you dig deeper, you may notice that Microsoft skewed the results significantly by using Windows 10 PCs with older hardware.
While it is fair to say that Windows 10 PCs are, on average, equipped with older processors, memory, hard drives and graphics adapters, it feels a bit like comparing apples to oranges. Yes, you can do that, but it does not really make a whole lot of sense other than to get some impressive sounding performance stats for marketing.
If you have used electronic devices for some time, you know that new device generations are often faster than previous generations. This is true for Windows PCs, mobile devices, streaming boxes, gaming consoles, and most devices that you can buy. If you compare the performance of a Google Pixel 9 with a Pixel 6, you will likely come to the conclusion that the newer device offers better performance. Same is true for PlayStation 5 vs 4, Apple iPhone 16 vs 15, and most devices that you can compare in that regard.
It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that a Windows 11 PC with an Intel 12th or 13th core processor runs better in benchmarks than a Windows 10 PC with an Intel 6th, 8th, or 10th core processor. That is the exact test setup that Microsoft used to conclude that Windows 11 PCs offer up to 2.3 times the performance of Windows 10 PCs.
To convince users, Microsoft should have used the exact same hardware setup for objective comparison. This way, it could have demonstrated that Windows 11 has the performance edge on the same hardware, if that is the case.
Microsoft’s claims boil down to Windows 11 running better on PCs with hardware that is one, two or more generations ahead of the hardware of the Windows 10 PC. The stats would very likely be not nearly as impressive if the same hardware would have been used.
I want to comment but you’ve pretty much covered it, just more fluff from M$.
“Windows 11 PCs are up to 2.3 times faster than Windows 10 PCs. ”
Complete lie. When I updated Windows 10 to Windows 11 on the previous computer, I did not see any significant improvements. But when I got a new Windows 11 computer with SSD drive and 4 generations update in processor, the change was remarkable. So, like you said, they are comparing apples to oranges.
I’ve been updating everyone at work recently to Windows 11 and I keep hearing that Windows 11 is slower. This all on the same hardware.
Their own file manager takes 2-3 seconds to load, vs instantaneous loading on Windows 10.
It makes for a bad user experience.
Hard to say. Installed Windows 11 LTSC on an older ASUS laptop with 4GB that would hardly move with Windows 10. Now it’s running like a lizard in the desert. Could be the lack of bloat?
I’d say if users find Windows 11 slower than Windows 10, then it’s time for some optimizing of Services and apps? Even the generic upgrade of Windows 11 runs like a charm [after some tweaking and optimizing]. Boot time is unbelievably fast–thinking back to XP days when we would do everything in the book to get a decent 20 second boot time.
The MS report is most likely close to “real” time performance.
Did you install Windows 10 from scratch on that laptop as well? Windows tends to get slower from use.
Good point! The ASUS ran well with Windows 8.1 on it; when I upgraded to Windows 10 [long internal dialogue before doing so], the laptop ran slow, slow–so slow that I installed an SSD drive. That helped somewhat, but, subjectively, I felt 8.1 provided better performance. On a whim, I wanted to see what would happen with Windows 11 LTSC version. Upgraded using .iso and in-place method. Now, the laptop is running better than ever [it’s actually a usable tool without any lag], but I shy away from giving full credit to Windows 11–maybe because I didn’t perform any type of “authentic” assessment, maybe I did something differently. It’s one of those, “and I noticed”–menus were popping open, programs were immediately opening when the icon was clicked, Internet lag disappeared, etc. {I haven’t performed a “clean” install for so long . . . close to embarrassing!
They can sugar-coat it all they want. Windows 11 is a complete and utter failure.