The Windows Experience Index measures the capability of your computer's hardware and software configuration and expresses this measurement as a number called a base score. A higher base score generally means that your computer will perform better and faster than a computer with a lower base score, especially when performing more advanced and resource-intensive tasks.
Each hardware component receives an individual subscore. Your computer's base score is determined by the lowest subscore. For example, if the lowest subscore of an individual hardware component is 2.6, then the base score is 2.6. The base score is not an average of the combined subscores. However, the subscores can give you a view of how the components that are most important to you will perform, and can help you decide which components to upgrade.
You can use the base score to buy programs and other software that are matched to your computer's base score. For example, if your computer has a base score of 3.3, then you can buy any software designed for this version of Windows that requires a computer with a base score of 3 or lower.
The Windows 7 scores currently range from 1.0 to 7.9. The Windows Experience Index is designed to accommodate advances in computer technology. As hardware speed and performance improve, higher score ranges will be enabled. The standards for each level of the index generally stay the same. However, in some cases, new tests might be developed that can result in lower scores.
To view your computer's base score
1. Open Performance Information and Tools by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type Performance Information and Tools, and then, in the list of results, click Performance Information and Tools.
2. View the Windows Experience Index base score and subscores for your computer. If you recently upgraded your hardware and want to find out if your score has changed, click Re-run the assessment. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. If you don't see subscores and a base score, click Rate this computer. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
With Windows 7, the maximum score possible will be 7.9, a good couple of points up from Vista's 5.9. What will take for a computer to achieve the new WEI peak? Well, according to Microsoft, nothing short of the key technology improvements as they go mainstream, namely solid state disks, but also high-end graphics and multi-core processors, plus a consistent volume of RAM.
“For these new levels, we’re working to add guidelines for each level. As an example for gaming users, we expect systems with gaming graphics scores in the 6.0 to 6.9 range to support DX10 graphics and deliver good frames rates at typical screen resolutions (like 40-50 frames per second at 1280x1024). In the range of 7.0 to 7.9, we would expect higher frame rates at even higher screen resolutions. Obviously, the specifics of each game have much to do with this and the WEI scores are also meant to help game developers decide how best to scale their experience on a given system,” Fortin added, indicating that graphics remained an area with the largest amount of scores available.
The bottom line is that, in order to achieve a perfect 7.9 Windows 7 score, users will have to buy a computer powered by at least an 8 core processor. However, the processor is simply not enough. Customers will also have to feed their machine with RAM, somewhere in the vicinity of 8 GB. At the same time, Solid State Drives (SSDs) with very high random I/O rates and as low as possible latency issues will also contribute to getting close to 7.9. When it comes to graphics, users will need a card with at least DirectX 10 support and a WDDM 1.1 driver.
