"Windows Experience Index"

[AmberClad]

I just finished installing Vista x64 and I was playing a bit of Oblivion and messing around with the new Windows goodies. Well I found this tool called "Performance Information and Tools", and ran it. The scores look kind of low if they're out of 10 (I couldn't find anything about what scale it's judged on).

Processor: 5.3
Memory (RAM): 5.6
Graphics: 5.9
Gaming Graphics: 5.9
Primary Hard Disk: 5.2

Base Score: 5.2

I thought I had some relatively decent stuff, but 5-6 out of 10 is pretty unimpressive. Is this Vista's way of telling me my system sucks :frown:? Were they expecting dual Xeons, raided Raptors, SLIed Ultras, etc?

 

[Hurricane Andrew]

It's not out of 10. IIRC, originally the best you could score was a 6, but it's somewhat of a sliding scale.

 

[AmberClad]

Leave it to Microsoft to pick a completely random scaling, I suppose :roll:...

 

[Dahak]

iirc the scaling goes to a max of 5.9. The idea behind it is that instead of looking at game requirements on the box it would have the WEI(think WII) number and you compare it to what your system is.
also your WEI number is the same as the lowest score out of the 5 catagories

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
Leave it to Microsoft to pick a completely random scaling, I suppose :roll:...

It's not random, if you had clicked the "what do these numbers mean?" link under your score, you'd learn that the scale was designed so that in the future as components get faster, they can increase the top end, so your score will remain the same in perpetuity and you can still compare it to future systems.

 

[AmberClad]

So they may have made the current max 5.9 instead of 10 to leave room for future games and hardware. I guess it's not so random after all.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
So they may have made the current max 5.9 instead of 10 to leave room for future games and hardware. I guess it's not so random after all.

Bingo