Neowin.net - Windows XP SP3 Yields Performance Gains Over Vista SP1 Well, SP3 (service pack 3) was just suppose to be a bug fix, but there was a performance gain in the process. Which obviously doesn't bode to well for Vista as it is about twice as slow. That said, there is a hint in the article about a "Windows 7" which i am guess is the next progression in the windows OS line-up.