ZD Benchmark Test Results PC Magazine Labs ran a variety of standard benchmark tests on Windows 98 SE, Windows NT 4 Workstation, and Windows 2000 Professional using several memory sizes. The ZD Business Winstone 99 test results showed Windows 2000 Professional's performance running typical business applications equivalent to that of Windows NT 4 Workstation. We tested a single notebook and found that with ACPI support in Windows 2000, notebook battery life was no better than with Windows NT 4. Bold type denotes first place. The software did not complete this test.
High scores are best.
Bold type denotes first place. At the lower, 64MB memory settings, Windows 98 actually scored best. As expected, Business Winstone performance improved noticeably when we moved from 64MB to 128MB across all platforms. Under NTFS at 128MB, Windows NT 4 scored 3 percent higher than Windows 2000. We learned from Microsoft that Windows 2000 supports very few 3-D graphics boards properly, so most users will have to download upgraded drivers.