I have high hopes for performance improvements each time MSFT releases an new version or service pack. This time the claim with Office 2007 service pack 2 that had me curious was:
“Improves the charting mechanism in Excel 2007. This includes better parity with Office 2003, improved robustness, and targeted performance improvement”
Benchmark.xls is a file I created to keep track of Excel’s performance in various O/S and versions. Benchmark.xls makes heavy use of Excel’s charting capabilities and manipulates data in a way typical for handling live market data/trading.
With SP2, Excel still took roughly two and a half hours to complete what takes Office 2003 five minutes.
Office 2003 : Backtest results: 00:04:56
Office 2007 SP1: Backtest results: 02:29:48
Office 2007 SP2: Backtest results: 02:35:38
See Benchmark.xls for more detailed results or to download benchmark.xls.
That’s really disappointing. Any idea what it is with Office 2007 that makes charting so kludgy?