The MindTeck, consulting company specializing in low-power systems, published as part of an article the result of comparing the power consumption of Windows XP with Windows 7. The results indicate that the latest version is more economical in all configurations tested, and the difference in consumption may reach 25%.

An important factor for the research was the drivers of the processor, which is at the most consumed within a PC. Therefore, when using the factory setting, Windows 7 has a huge advantage – their drivers are already more modern, because the system was released later. But even after all updates, Windows XP still consumes more energy.

Another recent (and controversial) study compared consumption between Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux 10.04 on a netbook and also reached the conclusion that Windows 7 uses less battery. And the same reason: the default driver used by Ubuntu was outdated compared to what was “factory” in Windows. This research led to protests because you can manually choose the best drivers for Ubuntu – but is not a simple operation and the user has to guess it how has to be done.

In the comparison between Windows XP and 7, the site Ars Technica also points to the curious result on older computers, where Windows 7 has even lower energy consumption. The equipment used, a Pentium 4, was in the market at the time of the launch of XP. Aside from this computer, several different configurations for computers and even a netbook also were tested, always aiming for energy savings in favor of the newer operating system.

Via: MindTech.