Which is faster? Windows XP or Vista?

There is an interesting benchmark published on the ZDNet Blog (track). It compares the performance of Windows XP and Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) and their Service Packs using the PassMark benchmark.

The results are quite surprising. I would like to know if a test with a 3D CAD application like Inventor will have the same winners and losers as the PassMark benchmark. Both operating systems (well, three, if you count Vista 64) were tested with and without their Service Packs. The performance differences are quite substantial.

And the winners are:

1. Vista 64-bit (without SP) is the fastest
2. Vista 64-bit with SP1 is the second
3. Vista 32-bit (without SP) is the third
4. WinXP (without SP) is the fourth (and the fastest XP version)

In contrast to prevailing opinion – Windows Vista proves to be faster than XP and Service Packs seem to make the operating system slower, not faster !