Does leaving your computer on cause a performance hit?

To make this easier for everyone, I will gather data over the course of a week or so, create a graph from the different tests, and then post the chart back here. Right now it's a bit confusing since we have numerous posts in between the data. So by this weekend i'll have data to create a short chart, and i'll post it here for you guys.

Just for the record, every test has the same environment (same programs running, similar temps, ect). I also wait at least 5 minutes in between tests so the temps have a chance to go down.
 
After running several tests for the past couple days, i'd have to say that there is no significant difference. Besides the difference in test 1 and 2 in PCMark04, the rest of the tests show approximatly the same results.

So no, leaving your computer on for a few days doesn't dramatically effect performance if your just doing day-to-day things.
 
Thank you Omega for the hard work! Being that I leave my computer on 24/7/365 days a year I was hoping for these results. Again thanks a BUNCH!
 
That's because of the improved memory management in XP. The only reason the performance suffered in 9x OSes was because of the crappy memory management.
 
The only thing I can see that would hinder performance would be if you installed multiple programs, updated drivers ect, without restarting.
 
Back
Top