Trying To Understand Why i7-3770K 3.50GHz Lowered Windows Exp Score To 7.7

[muskyx1]

So I finally got myself a new gaming machine last weekend.

Intel Core i7-3770K Socket 1155, 3.50Ghz
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Overclock Edition
Adata SX900 256Gb 6Gb/s Solid State Drive
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16Gb (2x8G) DDR3 1600Mhz Dual Channel Kit
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Socket 1155 Intel Z77

After putting the system together and installing Windows 7, I decide to see what the Windows Experience Index was. It gave a score of 7.7 and indicated that the i7-3700K 3.50Ghz CPU and the16Gb of G.Skill Ram is what lowered the score.

This make sense to anyone ?

 

[dmoney1980]

what was it before? (you indicated it lowered)....the highest rating is 7.9, and I wouldn't judge my PC by the windows experience score

 

[muskyx1]

what was it before? (you indicated it lowered)....the highest rating is 7.9, and I wouldn't judge my PC by the windows experience score

Sorry, what I meant to say was the CPU and Ram both scored 7.7 which prevented me from getting the highest score of 7.9.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Sorry, what I meant to say was the CPU and Ram both scored 7.7 which prevented me from getting the highest score of 7.9.

To get the 7.9 on CPU, I think you have to have a hex-core.

 

[Ketchup]

Sure, those are good numbers, but the reason the number is lower than expected is Microsoft. The most logical reason I can think of would be that they did not design their tests around the performance increase of the Ivy Bridge processor, as it did not exist when their tests were designed. I think you would agree that seeing more than one test convinced you that Ivy Bridge was the processor to pick.

As for RAM, and someone could surely correct me if I am wrong, I think they just base that number on the current speed, as set in the BIOS.

 

[greenhawk]

seeing as how the whole idea behind the index numbering has failed, I would not be surprised if it is phased out going forwards.

 

[mfenn]

It becomes exponentially more difficult to get to the next 0.1 increment as you approach 7.9.

For example, my i7 870 gets a 7.5 versus your i7 3770's 7.7. If you just looked at that metric, it would appear that your CPU is only 2.67% faster that mine. In reality however, your CPU is closer to 50% faster than mine.

 

[AustinInDallas]

3930k don't get 7.9.
Why do you care about a meaningless benchmark?

 

[Maximilian]

Windows experience index is meaningless.

Have a dual processor 24 core tri-fire 64GB ram pc with a hard drive? Only get 5.9 overall experience score and be beaten by your grandmothers netbook with an SSD

WEI was never more than a bit of fun IMO, nothing to be taken seriously.

 

[muskyx1]

Thanks all, seems it does have a funny way of evaluating hardware. Overclocked i7-3770K, from 3.50Ghz to 4.7GHz. That bumped the ram from 7.7 to 7.9, but the CPU was only bumped from 7.7 to 7.8. So score is now 7.8.

Meaningless test, only did it cause my buddy was bragging his score was like 7.5 or something.

 

[vailr]

My 3570K CPU and 8 Gb DDR3 running Windows 8 at stock speeds (on a Z77 board) both get a W.E.I. rating of 7.8.

 

[notty22]

To get the 7.9 on CPU, I think you have to have a hex-core.

Agreed. When I follow threads like this, that's what I noticed. Intel has had a hex core for a while, and that's what gets the top cpu score.
I get a 7.5 :whiste:

 

[marosy]

The funny thing is when I upgraded from I7-2600K to I7-3770K in the same PC (mb: Asus P8Z68-V pro/gen3) the WEI score for the CPU dropped from 7.8 to 7.7. (no overclock)

 

[mfenn]

Other processes running during the test?

 

[Koon]

On my side too I get a 7.7 for the first 2 rates.

Over Clocking at 4.10 GHz I get a 7.8 with
Easy Tune 6, OC auto-tune, step 1 of 3(minimum)

i7-3770k
Giga ud5h
16G RAM
Giga GTX660ti = 7.9
SSD Now V+ 128G = 7.8

Overall
1. 7.8
2. 7.8
3. 7.9
4. 7.9
5. 7.8

 

[superbowman82]

With the 3770k, you really have to have high quality, low latency, high speed RAM to avoid bottlenecking the CPU. 1600mhz is NOT FAST ENOUGH to allow it to breathe. I'm sure there are some articles out there about it but I can tell you from personal experience, you will continue to increase CPU benchmark scores all the way up until you get 2000mhz memory or faster. You want to overclock your cpu more? Get better memory. You can take the memory you have now at 1600mhz, run a benchmark, then run it at 1800 or 1866mhz (with overclocking, if you can, without having to replace it first), and you WILL, 100% guaranteed see a difference. The 3770k has a lot more power than most people have ever had in their machines. 16gb is a crock and a waste of money, you will never run enough applications at once to use it all. Don't go with "more" RAM go with "good" RAM, spend the money on quality. I only run 8gb, but at 2400mhz and a latency of 9 I can assure you the processor is not limited anymore. I wanted anyone coming to this page to understand that the 3770k needs to be surrounded with other equipment of the same quality, and if you really are trying to overclock and squeeze everything out of your machine you will never ever ever do it with 1600mhz or anything that slow. But, having said all that, I can break 12,000 on the CPU score for 3dmark11, which is superb, but windows still won't give you the 7.9 . I think its reserved for intel 6 cores only, unless you can find a way to really cool the shit out of the 3770k and maybe get it up to 5gz or something crazy. But even if you could run it that fast, just remember, you've got to have the RAM speed to match to even have a chance.

 

[mfenn]

With the 3770k, you really have to have high quality, low latency, high speed RAM to avoid bottlenecking the CPU. 1600mhz is NOT FAST ENOUGH to allow it to breathe. I'm sure there are some articles out there about it but I can tell you from personal experience, you will continue to increase CPU benchmark scores all the way up until you get 2000mhz memory or faster. You want to overclock your cpu more? Get better memory. You can take the memory you have now at 1600mhz, run a benchmark, then run it at 1800 or 1866mhz (with overclocking, if you can, without having to replace it first), and you WILL, 100% guaranteed see a difference. The 3770k has a lot more power than most people have ever had in their machines. 16gb is a crock and a waste of money, you will never run enough applications at once to use it all. Don't go with "more" RAM go with "good" RAM, spend the money on quality. I only run 8gb, but at 2400mhz and a latency of 9 I can assure you the processor is not limited anymore. I wanted anyone coming to this page to understand that the 3770k needs to be surrounded with other equipment of the same quality, and if you really are trying to overclock and squeeze everything out of your machine you will never ever ever do it with 1600mhz or anything that slow. But, having said all that, I can break 12,000 on the CPU score for 3dmark11, which is superb, but windows still won't give you the 7.9 . I think its reserved for intel 6 cores only, unless you can find a way to really cool the shit out of the 3770k and maybe get it up to 5gz or something crazy. But even if you could run it that fast, just remember, you've got to have the RAM speed to match to even have a chance.

This post is an example of why synthetic benchmarks are bad. Yes, DDR3 2400 will get you higher scores in synthetics, but it doesn't really translate to appreciably more real world performance than DDR3 1600 the majority of the time. See here.

 

[mnewsham]

This post is an example of why synthetic benchmarks are bad. Yes, DDR3 2400 will get you higher scores in synthetics, but it doesn't really translate to appreciably more real world performance than DDR3 1600 the majority of the time. See here.

yup DDR3 1600Mhz is still the sweet spot for price vs. performance, anything greater than 1600Mhz will net you 1-2% performance for a lot more money!

 

[Saffron]

I increased the boost clock on my i5-3570k from the stock 3.8ghz to 4.4ghz and it rose my WEI from 7.6 to 7.7. Everything thing else is 7.9 across the board. Just to give further reference I suppose.