Comment by p_ing

Stupid default Apps or an extra Windows Service or few isn't going to make any difference in how the OS performs (or the out of date AMD drivers they used on their Windows install).

The foreground application gets a priority boost, it's threads are going to take a larger slice than any background thread, and with the number of cores available to the OS, they will likely run just fine concurrently.

This as some evidence of bloat equaling poor performance isn't justified. It's Ars' using 6 month old display drivers.

I'm not claiming newer drivers will solve the performance problems entirely or at all, but for the purposes of accurate testing, they should have updated them rather than stick with what the ODM is providing, which are always out of date.