Datasheet

Technique 1: Experiencing the Windows Experience Index
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Analyzing the WEI
When you look behind the Windows Experience
Index component scores, several idiosyncrasies
stand out. In particular:
 For people who use Vista as a multimedia repos-
itory or as a host for games, the Processor
Component score makes sense. But for those of us
who rely on our PCs to get actual work done, the
choice of benchmark programs leaves much to be
desired. In particular, if you use your PC in some
computer-intensive pursuit, the WEI processor
score may not reflect your experiences in the
slightest. On the other hand, if you while away
most of your hours online, working with e-mail or
Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, or
garden-variety spreadsheets, you don’t put much
of a strain on your processor anyway, and the WEI
processor benchmark number is largely irrelevant.
Spending the money to raise your processor
score may not save you much time at all.
 Adding more memory to a Vista PC makes sense,
up to a point — say, 1GB if you use only a couple
programs concurrently, or 2GB if you run
Microsoft Outlook all day and a couple of addi-
tional big programs. The Memory Component
score is entirely dependent on bus speed, with
caps for lesser amounts of memory — and the
caps aren’t dependent on the memory’s speed at
all. Ultimately the score’s an apples-and-oranges
kind of mish-mash. How else to explain the fact
that you can upgrade from 1.5GB to 4.0GB of
memory on any computer and not nudge your
score one iota?
 On the other hand, the Graphics Component
score means a great deal to almost everyone
who uses Vista day in and day out, precisely
because it’s closely linked to WDM, the program
that draws on the screen.
 D3D component scores make a big difference for
gamers, three-dimensional modelers, certain
sophisticated graphic designers, some scientists
and engineers — and almost nobody else.
WinSAT proceeds in a very simplistic way.
It measures sequential read performance —
which is to say, WinSAT jumps around your
hard drive and reads the data on the drive,
here and there, keeping track of the amount of
data coming in and the time it takes to read.
That’s it. No random reads or writes. Heck, it doesn’t
write at all.
WinSAT averages the ratings and converts the num-
bers into a score between 2.0 and 5.9. Yes, 2.0 is the
slowest disk reading you’re ever likely to see.
Assembling a base score
With five component scores under its belt, Vista
picks the lowest score and presents that as your
system’s performance rating. The rating appears in
the Performance Information and Tools dialog box
(as in Figure 1-1), where it’s identified as your
Windows Experience Index base score. The same
rating appears in the View Basic Information about
Your Computer dialog box, which you can see by
choosing Start, right-clicking Computer, and then
choosing Properties (see Figure 1-3). In the View
Basic Information dialog box, it’s called the Rating.
• Figure 1-3: The Vista System Rating is the same as the
Windows Experience Index base score.
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