This article provides information about the real measured speeds of the CPC's hardware using different software. The abbreviaton "n.f." means "not feasible", since some software is not capable of performing a particular task. Numbers in bold indicate the smallest needed time. All experiments have been repeated 10 times, the statistic means is given.
On CPC emulators the times can vary, for this tests only real CPCs has been used. For this tests the Dobbertin HD20 hard disc has been used.
Disc management
Various measurements of the floppy disc speed (3" internal or 3.5" external) or hard disc speed (Dobbertin HD20) have been taken.
Format a disc: 40 tracks (Data) or 80 tracks (Vortex or 720K Dos)
| Format | FutureOS | XD-DOS | Disc'o'Magic | CP/M 2.2 | CP/M 3.1 | Utopia | Windows 2000 |
| Data | 16 | 17 | 18 | 33 | 33 | 43 | n.f. |
| Vortex | 64 | 65 | n.f. | 65 | n.f. | n.f. | 104 |
Copy a disc: 40 / 80 tracks, one or two drives
| Tracks & Drives | FutureOS | XD-DOS | Disc'o'Magic | CP/M 2.2 | CP/M 3.1 | Utopia | Windows 2000 |
| 40 tracks, 1 drive | 20 | n.f. | 42 | 66 | 63 | 71 | n.f. |
| 40 tracks, 2 drives | 20 | n.f. | 42 | 69 | 69 | 69 | n.f. |
| 80 tracks, 1 drive | 77 | n.f. | n.f. | 257 | n.f. | n.f. | n.f. |
| 80 tracks, 2 drives | 76 | n.f. | n.f. | 207 | n.f. | n.f. | n.f. |
Copy a file of 40 KB, 176 KB or 400 KB with two drives or partitions (HD20 hard disc)
| Size & Device | FutureOS | XD-DOS | Disc'o'Magic | CP/M 2.2 | CP/M 3.1 | Utopia |
| 40 KB, floppy | 6 | 19 | 10 | 33 | 18 | n.f. |
| 40 KB, hard-disc | 2,5 | 13 | n.f. | 12 | 4 | n.f. |
| 176 KB, floppy | 25 | 74 | 34 | 132 | 70 | n.f. |
| 176 KB, hard-disc | 9 | 42 | n.f. | 38 | 18 | n.f. |
| 400 KB, floppy | 55 | n.f. | n.f. | 147 | 107 | n.f. |
| 400 KB, hard-disc | 20 | 94 | n.f. | 80 | 42 | n.f. |
Read a file of 40 KB, 176 KB or 400 KB from floppy-disc or hard-disc (HD20)
| Size & Device | FutureOS | XD-DOS | Disc'o'Magic | AMSDOS |
| 40 KB, floppy | 2,5 | 9 | 5 | 9 |
| 40 KB, hard-disc | 1 | 4 | n.f. | n.f. |
| 176 KB, floppy | 9 | n.f. | 17 | n.f. |
| 176 KB, hard-disc | 2,5 | n.f. | n.f. | n.f. |
| 400 KB, floppy | 21 | n.f. | n.f. | n.f. |
| 400 KB, hard-disc | 6 | n.f. | n.f. | n.f. |
Write a file of 40 KB, 176 KB or 400 KB to floppy-disc or hard-disc (HD20)
| Size & Device | FutureOS | XD-DOS | Disc'o'Magic | AMSDOS |
| 40 KB, floppy | 2,5 | 12 | 5 | 12 |
| 40 KB, hard-disc | 1 | 4 | n.f. | n.f. |
| 176 KB, floppy | 9 | n.f. | 17 | n.f. |
| 176 KB, hard-disc | 3 | n.f. | n.f. | n.f. |
| 400 KB, floppy | 22 | n.f. | n.f. | n.f. |
| 400 KB, hard-disc | 6 | n.f. | n.f. | n.f. |
Read a full directory, sort it and display it on screen
| Format | FutureOS | XD-DOS | Disc'o'Magic | CP/M 2.2 | CP/M 3.1 | AMSDOS | Windows 2000 |
| Data | 1 | 3 | 2,5 | 3,5 | 12 | 5 | 1,2 |
| Vortex | 1,5 | 6 | n.f. | 6,3 | 23 | n.f. | n.f. |
| HD20 | 12 | 20 | n.f. | 18,9 | 85 | n.f. | 1 |
In this examples XD-DOS was speeded up using the !FAST RSX command. CP/M 2.2 did not sort the directory.
Erase 64 (Data format), 128 (Vortex format) or 512 files (HD20 hard-disc) at once
| Entries | FutureOS | XD-DOS | Disc'o'Magic | CP/M 2.2 | CP/M 3.1 | AMSDOS | Windows 2000 |
| 64 entries | 1,0 | 27 | 1,5 | 26 | 15 | 27 | 33 |
| 128 entries | 1,0 | 52 | n.f. | 51 | 29 | n.f. | n.f. |
| 512 entries | 2,0 | 43 | n.f. | 25 | 11 | n.f. | 6 |
The CPC clearly beats Windows 2000.
Display / Print characters on Screen / Printer
Load and type a file of 40 KB, 176 KB or 400 KB on the screen
| Size & Device | FutureOS | XD-DOS | AMSDOS | CP/M 2.2 | CP/M 3.1 |
| 40 KB, floppy | 8 | 80 | 139 | 139 | 220 |
| 40 KB, hard-disc | 7 | 76 | n.f. | 126 | 124,5 |
| 176 KB, floppy | 36 | 349 | 618 | 618 | 969 |
| 176 KB, hard-disc | 30 | 328 | n.f. | 556 | 548 |
| 400 KB, floppy | 80 | 768 | n.f. | 1402 | 2203 |
| 400 KB, hard-disc | 68 | 746 | n.f. | 1259 | 1246 |
Load and print a file of 40 KB on the printer
| Device | FutureOS | XD-DOS | AMSDOS | CP/M 2.2 | CP/M 3.1 |
| Floppy | 7 | 65 | 63 | 88 | 78 |
| Hard-disc | 4,5 | 61 | n.f. | 74,5 | 62 |