Windows Experience Index Guide
The Windows Experience Index is only found in Windows Vista.
The following picture is of the Windows Welcome Centre. This will normally pop up when you load windows unless you have turned it off. If you have it can be found by typing “welcome center” into the Search box in the start menu.
To find you score you will need to click on the Show More Details button on the right hand side.
Here you should see something like the following screen. The Windows Experience Index is located half way down the page. If you click on the link then you will see some more information regarding it.
This is the details screen. Here you will see a breakdown of your score.
It is worth mentioning here that the overall score is determined by the Lowest score that you receive in the five categories. It is not an average but the lowest. This is because in computers the least powerful item in your computer will be the bottleneck of your machine giving it its overall speed.
Here the system needs to be updated. This is shown but the large base score number being in grey. To update the score you need to click the Refresh now button.
The computer will perform the test required to give you your score. This shouldn’t take very long but it is important that you leave the computer alone to work out a true score.
Once down you should see a breakdown of the score and have a big blue number under the base score column.
That’s it. There is a lot more to the Windows Experience Index which can be found out through further reading.
Understanding The Windows Experience Index
The overall PC performance is represented by the base score. The base score is derived from 5 subscores for each of the following 5 attributes:
- Processor
- Calculations per second
- Memory
- Operations per second
- Graphics
- Desktop performance for Windows Aero graphics
- Gaming Graphics
- 3D graphics performance. Useful for gaming and 3D business applications
- Primary hard Disk
- The data transfer rate of the primary hard disk
A system’s performance is limited by its slowest component. The final system base score is the lowest value of the five subscores.
The following is a detailed description of each of the base score levels:
Up to 1.0
A base score of 1.0 is intended to reflect the minimum specification needed to run Windows Vista™. PCs that meet this level will run Windows Vista™ in a basic, but acceptable manner. This is a “catch all” level assigned to any machine that can realistically be upgraded to Windows Vista™ but won’t meet level 2 specifications.
Up to 2.0
A base score of 2.0 represents the mainstream Windows Vista upgrade target system. This level of PC may run Windows Aero but users may see noticeable performance issues from time to time, especially on PCs with base scores less than 2.5 and/or 64MB of graphics memory. Performance issues may also be noticeable when opening many application windows at the same time or when using very large monitors.
Up to 3.0
This is the lowest capability Windows Premium Logo PC that will ship with Windows Vista™ pre-installed. Windows Vista will generally enable Aero automatically on level 3 machines. Aero will perform quite well on level 3 machines with single monitors. With dual monitors (especially larger than 1280x1024), users may see noticeable performance issues from time to time, especially on PCs with base scores less than 3.5 and/or 128MB of graphics memory.
Up to 4.0
All Windows Vista features will run well with snappy performance. HD playback and recording of one HD stream will work well. 3D games and other high-end 3D applications will run acceptably on Level 4 machines. Multi-tasking will be quite good on these machines (when an application makes use of this capability). Many mid to high level 4 PCs will have dual core CPUs.
Up to 5.0
Level 5 PCs will dramatically exceed the Windows Premium logo requirements. They will easily run Aero-Glass on multi-monitor systems at high resolution. First person shooters, multiple HD streams, video creation, high end multimedia applications are all characteristic scenarios of people who will be using Level 5 systems. As Level 6 machines are not defined yet, it is possible that the highest performance and capable Level 5 machines may be re-leveled as level 6 in the future (i.e. that may happen if the new hardware is evaluated before the index is updated with the new capabilities).
6.0 and above
Base scores of 6.0 and higher are not defined yet. They will be defined when the time comes and new innovations in hardware allow new capabilities. From past experience, it is expected this will happen at a rate of once every 12-18 months
Getting Your Score
Each sub score in the index was created to measure the performance of a critical piece of hardware. The scores are calculated by measuring one or more relevant performance attributes, and then converting the values (normalizing) to a score between 1.0 and 5.9.
In this section you can read what is tested for each subscore.
The CPU Score
The CPU score was created to measure the processor performance when tasked with common Windows usage activities. The processor is assessed on the following items:
1. Compression and decompression using the LZW compression algorithm
2. Compression and decompression using the Windows Vista compression algorithm used for hibernation files, ReadyBoost and other features
3. Encryption and decryption assessment
4. Computing hashes
5. Encoding of video
The results are normalized and weight averaged in order to arrive at the final CPU sub score.
The Memory Score
The memory score measures the bandwidth of moving data into and out of memory in Mega Bytes per Second. The higher the bandwidth, the better the memory.
Not having enough memory is a limiting factor on performance. As a result, the amount of memory in the system constrains the score value. The amount of system memory is determined by the overall system memory minus any memory reserved for graphics (if any).
- Less than 256mb
- Highest possible score will be 1.0
- Less than 500mb
- Highest possible score will be 2.0
- 512mb or less
- Highest possible score will be 2.9
- Less than 704mb
- Highest possible score will be 3.5
- Less than 960mb
- Highest possible score will be 3.9
- Less than 1.5gb
- Highest possible score will be 4.5
The Graphics Score
This score is intended to reflect how a system will run Aero (desktop composition) and playback Windows Media Video. It measures video memory bandwidth (in mega bytes per second) and converts it to a score between 1.0 and 5.9.
If the graphics hardware does not support DirectX 9 (DX9) graphics, then the system receives a graphics score of 1.0 regardless of driver type. If the system supports DX9, but does not have a WDDM Driver (Windows Vista Display Driver Model) the system will then receive a graphics score of 1.9 at the most.
The Gaming Score
The gaming score measures the frames per second the graphics card can handle for various textures.
Additional notes:
• If the graphics card does not support D3D 9 then it receives a Gaming score of 1.0.
• If D3D 9 is supported, the card is DX9 capable and has a WDDM driver, it will score at least 2.0.
• If the score is greater than or equal to 5.0 and the graphics sub-system does not support Pixel Shader 3.0 then the score is limited to 4.9
The Disk Score
The disk score measures disk bandwidth (in Mega Bytes per Second). The conversion to an index number is set up in a way that all modern disks will score at least 2.0.
Is The Windows Experience Index Useful?
This is very subjective because the index could be useful IF companies use it but even then there are still a few ifs and buts.
Basically Microsoft have tried to boil down the raw components to a score that companies can then give their products to make it easier to know if the software will work on their system or not. If this is done correctly it would make things very easy for new people.
However things are also not always as clear as it seems. My computers score is a 4.7 because of the memory part. So looking at the chart you would think that by buying some quicker ram and better CPU (4.9) would up this score and give it a nice 5.x score overall. Now I know that my ram is capable of running at 250mhz but it is currently running at 150mhz. This is not because of the ram itself but because of the motherboard that it is sitting in. The motherboard limits my ram speed because of the design of the board due to the amount of ram that I have fitted (4Gb). Someone who didn’t know this of course would now be looking for quicker or more ram to put in to their computer, but once done wouldn’t see any improvement at all because it is actually the motherboards fault.
Another thing is that checking raw hardware speed isn’t enough as drivers for your GPU or motherboard can dramatically change the experience that you get on the computer.
Overall it is a good start by trying to help the inexperience but it can be a little misguided when trying to make things as simply as possible.