Performance Gain with XP SP2?

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Saw this at [H]:

SP2 = Performance?

Hardcoreware has a Windows XP SP2 performance review posted that shows performance gains after installing SP2. Sure, the performance gains are small, but it is nice to have an update from MS that doesn’t slow our computer down for a change.

What surprised me was how much gaming performance was increased by upgrading to SP2 and DirectX 9c! I was NOT expecting this, especially on the midrange x600 XT card we used for testing.

Direct link to article:

http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-237-1.htm

Even though it is widely known that SP2 offers a lot of cool new features and security enhancements, you might be reluctant to install it, because nobody knows what it will do for system performance.

Today we're looking at exactly what SP2 does for performance, compared directly to SP1. We used a full suite of benchmarks to test performance in office applications, content creation, web browsing, and gaming. You might be surprized at the results!

My own comments: I wonder if the improvements in the gaming benchmarks are a result of DirectX 9c which can be downloaded seperately from SP2.

Overall, most people I know (myself included) have been pretty happy with SP2 and haven't had major probs - pretty impressive considering all the changes it makes to XP. Glad MS delayed it so long and got this release done reasonably smoothly.

I can understand those of you who are being cautious holding off downloading it, but if you decide to, you may be pleasantly surprised ...